The informal part is traditionally subdivided into literary colloquial (cultivated speech), familiar colloquial, low colloquial (illiterate speech). Literary colloquial is used by educated people in classical literature in the course of ordinary conversation or when writing letters to intimate friends. Familiar colloquial is more emotional and much more free and careless than literary colloquial. It is also characterised by a great number of jocular words, ironical expressions and nonce-words.
Low colloquial is illiterate popular speech. It includes:
1. slang-words that are regarded as violation of the norms of Standard
English, e.g.: dirt (money), dotty (mad), the cat's pyjamas (the correct thing),
bread-basket (stomach), governor (father), sleeper (a course of lectures), faky
(suspicious). Slang is easily understood by the English-speaking people and is
only regarded as something not quite regular;
2. jargonisms (argot) - words marked by their use within a particular so
cial group and having a secret character. Jargonisms are usually old words
with entirely new meaning imposed on them, e.g.: to асе (универс.) - полу
чить высшую оценку на экзамене, six (студ.) - уборная, sneak (шк.) - ябе
да, Charley - лопух; heavy cream - толстушка; horse - героин; bread -
деньги; acid - наркотик; bin - сумасшедший дом; out-of-sight - классный,
потрясный, клёвый; cold turkey - голая правда;
3. professionalisms - words used in a definite trade, profession. They
commonly designate some working process, tools, instruments: tin-fish - sub
marine; outer - a knockout blow; egg - bomb;
4. dialectical words are those which in the process of integration of the
English national language remained beyond its literary boundaries, and their
use is generally confined to a definite locality, e.g.: kirk - церковь; firth -
устье реки; naething; eneugh; maister;
5. vulgarisms - coarse words that are not generally used in public. There
are different degrees of vulgar words. Some of them should not even be fixed
in common dictionaries. They are euphemistically called «four-letter» words.
A lesser degree of vulgarisms is presented by words like damn, bloody, son of
a bitch, to hell and others: rabbit!- черт подери!; rat (you)! - пропади ты
пропадом!
6. spontaneous colloquial coinages. Only some of them are fixed in dictionaries; most of them disappear from the language leaving no trace, e.g.: newspaperdom; allrighmik - соглашатель; touch-me-not-edness. The meaning of literary coinages can easily be grasped by the reader because of the use of the productive means of word-building, and also from the context.