Social Dialect Features of Military Speech: A Sociolinguistic Study of Fargo Veterans

Abstract

This mixed-methods study examines the potential existence of a military dialect separate from regional or social dialects experienced by civilians. In particular, how similar is the military-related storytelling lexicon of veterans in the Fargo-Moorhead area to the lexicon set forth in training bases and training manuals used by the U.S. military? The lexicon used by veterans in storytelling can sometimes seem opaque to an audience. It is typically dense with meaning borne by a few coded words. These words carry a contextual burden that can be better understood by an appeal to the dialect from which they were borne. In order to disentangle the veteran way of speaking from other overlapping and intersecting social and regional dialects that make up a subject’s typical speech, guided conversation and word-matching exercises were used to isolate lexicon that was typical to the military experience. The resulting interview transcripts were analyzed in comparison to military training manuals to arrive at a percentage of military-specific terms used in the guided conversation and a percentage of general knowledge military terms retained in the word-matching measure. The resulting 1.85% of military-specific terms and phrases used by participants in guided conversations and 61% retention of military-specific term knowledge was used to show that the military dialect not only exists but persists in the repertoire of veteran participants. As the majority of those who work with veterans are not veterans themselves, these percentages represent a significant barrier to understanding veteran storytelling. This barrier hinders the successful reintegration and mental health of veterans who return to their communities without knowing how to meaningfully express their stories in their existing support networks.