Journalism of Courage
The CO informed the HQ about the death of soldiers in a friendly fire”.
“Collateral damage was caused due to smart bombs”.
“During dog watches, a Naval Commander ticked off seamen on the first dog or the last dog”.
“Surgical strikes were carried out in the area”.
The vocabulary of the men in uniform is just as unique and niche as the profession of arms. While civilians might find the sentences bizarre, the ones meant to derive meaning out of these words will comprehend them just appropriately and in case it is the `tiger’s’ order, they will comply with or rather ‘wilco’.
Taking clue from the language he literally lived with for nearly 30 years of his career at the National Defence Academy (NDA), professor Kishori Lal has come up with a lexicon (a subject specific dictionary) meant specifically for the Armed Forces of the country. It is the first ever effort to formally compile the vocabulary of the Forces. The lexicon, in two volumes, is an all-in-one language guide for cadets, young officers and seniors, Lal claims.
“In a way I take pride in saying that I have been working on this compilation for nearly 30 years. During my stint at the NDA, visits to IMA, OTA, NAVAC, DSSC and NDC, and the written communications I came across at various formations, I noticed the languages men-in-uniform used. War books, historic accounts and newspaper reports added to the vocabulary.
In the past 10 years, the heap of information became so big, that I soon realised that gathering information was much easier than putting it to appropriate use,” Lal said in his rather militarised language involving several acronyms.
What is unique about the volumes, that run into 19 chapters, is the sections that have been made to suit the linguistic requirements of the forces. Individual chapters assist the reader systematically, and more importantly, alphabetically in topics such as English for specific purpose, war words and service-specific banks.
While the volumes have been made reader-friendly by synonyms, a section of the book most crucial to military professionals is the one that has acronyms. SWAC for South Western Air Command, FOCEF for Flag Officer Commanding Western Fleet, KIA for killed in action and SALT for strategic arms limitation talks are some of the acronyms that officers use effortlessly to make sentences sound like a code language.
And, just like the technological advancements that remain a gift from the defence forces to society, the lexicon introduces readers to military terms that have become a part of civilian life, for instance SCUBA of Scuba diving that stands for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus, and even more specific regimental words used by NATO or UN – the lexicon has everything military.
Having spent a year on editing the voluminous information he gathered over decades, Lal, who retired from the NDA as an associate professor in English, hopes his work will be helpful to officers at all levels. “Roger” he hopes to hear in response to the books – this time the word meaning “message conveyed”.
