Some people say that soccer is an international language. Well now it literally is thanks to the invention of Socceranto, a tongue devised to aid communication between lovers of "the beautiful game" worldwide.
A typical Socceranto sentence mixes English with smatterings of languages spoken in other soccer-playing countries. English is given prominence because it is the international language of commerce and politics, and also the language of the country that invented the game. But Socceranto's vocabulary also features contributions from the languages spoken in all seven World Cup winning nations to date (Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, English and German). It is further enriched by the addition of existing soccer slang and jargon, and also adopts the names of famous players who have left their mark on the game. Like all languages it is constantly evolving.
Socceranto: Birth of a Language is available in both e-book and paperback versions. It's recent publication on Web site Lulu (www.lulu.com) means that it can be constantly updated, to which end it's editors, English father and son team Peter and Ted Freedman, and Argentine Ignacio van Gelderen, are calling on fans across the world to help develop the language by contributing their own ideas to an online forum (www.lulu.com/soccerantodev).
PHOTO: EPA
The team is reviewing submissions and will publish new, updated editions of the book during the current World Cup tournament.
"We hope that Socceranto will develop over time into a richer, more international, more distinct and fully fledged language," van Gelderen says. "We hope this World Cup will help."
"We would love to have more words from Asian languages, especially given the fact that Japan and South Korea in particular are rising forces in the game," Peter Freedman said.
"Currently, Socceranto is far too Eurocentric. Ideally, words derived from Asian languages should draw on or reflect aspects of the game that Asia is good at or known for," he said.
Already a number of new words have been suggested as candidates for addition to the Socceranto lexicon since the beginning of the current World Cup tournament.
"`Michaels' has been suggested for testicles," Freedman says. "This was prompted by a British TV commentator's reaction to Trinidad's Dwight Yorke being felled after the ball hit him in the groin. The commentator said, `He's just been hit in the Michael Ballacks.'"
"Perhaps `Sven' could be the word for a demoralizing half-time talk," Freedman says. "And `Owen' would be easier to remember than `ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.'"
Just because your favorite team or players didn't make it to the tournament doesn't mean they are excluded from the Socceranto lexicon.
"A Canadian journalist suggested `Canada' for a team with scant chance of qualifying," Freedman said.
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