October 15: When Words Mean More
When Words Mean More Than They Say
This week, as we have explored The Things That Make Us, Us, we have been looking at culture through the meaning people create around everyday experiences. Today, we are turning to something we use constantly and rarely stop to consider: the way we speak to one another, and how a few familiar words can sometimes tell us that we are among people who understand more than the literal meaning of what has just been said.
Language is obviously how we communicate, but communication is rarely only about vocabulary. The way we speak changes depending on who we are with because relationships create their own kind of shorthand. Meaning can sit within tone and context, while humour often depends upon an understanding that has developed between people rather than anything that could easily be explained in a dictionary. When that understanding is shared across a wider community, language can begin to act as a subtle form of recognition.
There is a particular feeling that comes from hearing an expression that immediately makes sense to you in a place where you did not expect to hear it. Nothing significant may have happened from the perspective of anyone else in the room, but for the people who recognise it, there can be an instant connection. The words have communicated something beyond their literal meaning because they carry an understanding of where the speaker is coming from.
The language we change without thinking
Most of us adapt the way we communicate throughout the day without consciously deciding to do it. The version of ourselves that appears in a formal meeting may sound different from the person who speaks with people they have known for years, and that difference does not necessarily mean either version is less authentic. Language is responsive because communication is relational, and we naturally adjust it according to the environment we are in and the people we are speaking with.
Within communities, particular ways of speaking can develop because people share enough context for language to become more flexible. Words can acquire meanings that are specific to the group, while humour can rely on references that need no explanation. Sometimes the connection is regional and sometimes it develops through a shared cultural experience, but what makes it meaningful is the understanding sitting underneath it.
This is one reason language can create such an immediate sense of familiarity. We do not always need somebody to explain that they understand a particular part of our experience because the way they communicate has already told us.
The pressure to sound 'right'
There is, however, another side to the way language changes between environments, particularly when certain ways of speaking are treated as more professional, educated or acceptable than others.
People can become very aware of how they sound when they enter spaces in which their natural way of communicating is perceived differently. Adjusting speech can then become less about the normal flexibility we all use and more about managing how other people might interpret us.
For some Black people in Britain, this can form part of the experience of moving between cultural and professional environments. A person may consciously alter aspects of the way they speak because they have learned that particular forms of expression are received differently depending on the setting. This is sometimes discussed as code-switching, although individual experiences of it vary considerably and the reasons people adapt their communication are not always the same.
The important point is not that changing how we speak is inherently negative, because all of us communicate differently in different contexts. The distinction lies in whether that adjustment feels like a natural response to the situation or whether somebody feels they need to distance themselves from part of their identity in order to be taken seriously.
That difference can tell us something important about inclusion.
Understanding doesn't always require translation
When people are unfamiliar with the way another community communicates, there can be a temptation to treat difference as something that needs correcting or translating into a more familiar form. Yet language has always evolved through communities, and many of the expressions that eventually become part of mainstream speech begin within particular groups before travelling far beyond them.
Black British culture has had a significant influence on the way language is used across Britain, particularly through popular culture and younger generations. Expressions can move rapidly beyond the communities in which they developed, sometimes becoming so widely used that people have little awareness of where they originated or the cultural context that originally gave them meaning.
That movement is an interesting example of how culture travels. Language rarely stays neatly within the boundaries of one community because people interact and influence one another, but as words move, their meaning can shift too. Something that carries a particular significance within one context may become something quite different once it is widely adopted.
Understanding that does not mean we need to trace the history of every phrase before using it. It simply reminds us that language, like culture itself, has a story, and sometimes becoming curious about that story reveals connections we had not previously noticed.
Listening beyond the words
At Powered by Diversity, lived experience is central to the conversations we create because understanding another person often requires more than simply hearing the information they are giving us. The context around their experience matters too.
Language can be part of that context. When we expect everyone to communicate in exactly the same way, we can inadvertently place greater value on familiarity than meaning, paying more attention to how something is being expressed than to what somebody is actually trying to tell us.
Creating inclusive environments therefore involves becoming more comfortable with difference in communication. It means recognising that professionalism does not have to sound identical in every person and that intelligence is not demonstrated by proximity to one particular accent or style of speech.
When people do not have to spend as much energy monitoring how they sound, there is more space for the conversation itself.
When words mean more than they say
As we continue Honouring Our Communities, language gives us a fascinating glimpse into the relationships that exist within them. The words people use can carry humour and understanding that have developed through shared experience, creating small moments of recognition that are almost invisible to anyone outside them.
They can also reveal where people still feel pressure to adapt themselves in order to fit the expectations of a particular environment, which makes the way we respond to different voices an important part of how welcoming that environment actually feels.
Sometimes belonging does not need to be announced or explained. It can exist in the moment somebody says something in exactly the way you recognise, and without needing to say anything more, you understand a little of one another already.
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