Lore vs. Law: a homophonic challenge in a homophobic society?

Law and Order vs. Lore and Orders? (Part #5)

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Simultaneously with preoccupation with bloody conflict in Syria, extensive world-wide media coverage has been given to incidents relating to the legal and moral issues of marriage between homosexuals (gay marriage, same-sex marriage), and to multiple international confrontations with the forces of law and order by topless feminists of the femen movement. Eliciting less violence have been the issues relating to marriage of members of the Christian clergy and to concerns relating to the appropriateness of the ordination of women and their appointment as bishops.

As a strange complement to these mediatised manifestations of "homophobia", it is curious to note the recognition of a "homophonic" phenomenon -- famed as the "lore-and-order" pronunciation of "law-and-order". As remarked, for example, by Janet Holmes (An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, 2001): On radio and TV, Lore and Order is replacing Law and Order in the speech of all announcers (p. 342). Related homophonic arguments have been raised regarding potential confusion of "terrorists" with "terrarists" (War against Terra, 2002; Tom Engelhardt, Terracide and the Terrarists: destroying the planet for record profits, Transcend Media Service, 27 May 2013).

As yet to be recognized are the cognitive implications of such conflation for many, especially those with questionable relations with "the law" and a questionable understanding of it.

Especially curious in this respect is the use of "lore" in relation to "order" in some official publications in Australia. For example, the Australian Crime Commission (Building lore and order for the national crimefighter). and the Australian Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, which notably set up an interactive website to test understanding of the behaviour of citizens (Challenges: Lore and Order, The Sydney Morning Herald, 7 April 2007). It is unclear to what extent this terminology is particularly influenced by concerns with Aboriginal lore and its relationship to Australian social order.

In exploring the contrast between "law" and "lore", it is appropriate to note concern at how "lore"may be confused with "folklore" (Elliott Oring, Folk or Lore? The Stake in Dichotomies, Journal of Folklore Research, 2006). As distinguished in English Language and Usage (Difference between "lore" and "folklore"):

• Lore is an Old English word that means something like body of knowledge or the knowledge that is taught, which means it has been in the English lexicon for nigh on a thousand years.
• Folklore, on the other hand, is much more recent... coined in 1846 by... a writer who was particularly interested in antiquities, including myths, fairy tales, and other sorts of oral traditions.
• Folklore is related to lore, as... the lore of the folk... the body of knowledge that constitutes the myths, old wives' tales, legends, and other cultural foundations of a group of people.
• Folklore can be contrasted with herb lore, for instance, which is the body of knowledge concerning the means of cultivating and using plants for medicinal purposes.

The missing dimension in such distinctions is evident in the tendency to use "folklore" to frame and deprecate "lore", as a body of quaint cultural curiosities (however interesting they may be from an academic perspective or for the appreciation of tourists). This framing obscures the manner in which "lore" may be especially used to denote a profoundly meaningful experiential reality for the people engaging with it or embodying it. This is notably the case with the manner in which lore is carried by a language -- with all that is then implied by endangered languages (Save native knowledge stored in tribal lore, The New Indian Express, 11 May 2013).

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