Americans find shorthand for national disaster

Americans have always had a shorthand for disasters: Pearl Harbor, Oklahoma City and most recently, 9-11.

We've reduced the terrorist attacks of a year ago to two numbers. "9-11 is very catchy. It just seemed to fit the times,' said Carol Scates, a socio-linguistic professor at Southeast Missouri State University.

Americans, she said, have a habit of shortening words.

"9-11 has a rhythm. It's memorable and, in this case, horrific," Scates said.

The shorthand was sparked partly by the Internet culture, she said. "I think it is driving a lot of the language use," Scates said.

The shorthand for the disaster also fittingly reminds us of "911," the universal emergency number in our nation, Scates said.

The American Dialect Society declared 9-11 its word of the year for 2001.

Language experts say the latest disaster shorthand offers a clue on how the country is coping with the terrorist attacks that killed thousands and destroyed New York's World Trade Center towers.

Calling it simply 9-11 is one way of putting the tragedy in perspective and moving on, Stanford University linguist Geoffrey Nunberg says.

Scates agrees. "Once a label is there, it is over," she said. "We always have to label something to organize the experience."

The disaster also has given new meaning to "ground zero." Originally a term tied to the widespread destruction associated with nuclear explosions, it's become the shorthand for the site of the collapse of the Trade Center's twin towers.

"What else are you going to call it?" Scates asked. "Ground zero gives the public an object or thing to identify with in terms of sadness, horror and anger," she said.

The meaning of the word, "freedom," has changed too since the terrorist attacks, Scates said.

Today, she said, it stands for red, white and blue patriotism. During the Clinton presidency and as far back as the Vietnam War, freedom stood for freedom of expression, Scates said.

Even the word "terrorist" has taken on a new meaning. Today, Americans from President Bush on down define terrorists as members of al-Qaida and related Islamic fundamentalist groups, Scates said.

The tragedy made people sit up and take notice of terrorism, something that other nations have suffered with for a long time, she said. "We never cared when it happened to somebody else."

The emotional impact of 9-11 will lessen as the years go by, Scates said. But the words associated with the terrorist attacks will remain forever a part of our language, she said.

"9-11 is in the language. It is there. It is like D-Day," Scates said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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