Why do teenagers talk so strangely?
Why do teenagers talk so strangely?
It is often difficult to understand adolescents' speecheven those who communicate with them all the time. One of the most popular attributes of autonomy, through which adolescents try to defend their independence, is youth slang, in which the usual words change to abbreviated or simplified versions.
By slang, as a rule, we mean a certainlexical set of new words, as well as giving old words new meanings. Their slang words and expressions are in many groups and communities organized on the basis of race, professional, geographical or age characteristics. In some cases, slang is used to emphasize belonging to a group, in others it is a tribute to fashion, and sometimes even used as a secret language (for example, criminal slang).
The penetration of slang words and expressions innormative speech is an inevitable, although not very fast, process. Nevertheless, many literary words in Russian used to refer to slang, for example, the word "cheat sheet". Naturally, the less closed a particular group, the more likely that its jargon will fall into a normal speech. The main source of new words is traditionally considered youth or teenage slang.
In Russia there were three main periods whenteenage slang changed a lot. After the revolution, the speech was "enriched" with criminal jargon, in the middle of the last century, dildos climbed the pedestal, and at the end of the century - "computer scientists".
Teenage slang is a product of the eternalThe desire of teenagers to protest against "adult" norms and rules. The teenager tries to oppose himself to the older generation, and, in particular, this desire is expressed in not using those words that adults use. The basic basis of youth slang is not only the native language, but also numerous borrowings from foreign speech, this or that terminology.
Another important feature of teenage slang is hisconstant variability due to the fact that generations of adolescents are rapidly changing. In addition to the protest function, youth slang performs also the role of an indicator that allows a teenager to rank himself as a group. Since at this age the opinion of peers is decisive, it is extremely important for a teenager to be a member of the community.
Do not confuse teenage slang and gaming. If the first words mostly appear by simplifying the native speech, the game jargon is almost entirely based on Anglicisms.
Like any other version of slang, teenagelexicon refers only to those concepts and phenomena that are relevant to the most significant. Trying to defend their independence, teenagers come up with new designations for the most important thing in their lives: themselves, other people, relationships, money, entertainment, computer terms, emotions. Some of these words become so popular that they begin to be used by people who have recently grown up, while others, on the contrary, are forgotten, as soon as their inventors grow up.
