Don't panic: we're just talking Teenspeak
The English Language is careering wildly on the rollercoaster commonly known as the 21st century. Whirling down at unparalleled speed, it is mutating into a cocktail of Americanisms, acronyms and short forms; first in some of its shadier corners, then all the way into the mainstream of the average young person’s conversation. Older generations are alienated from it, and bemoan the developments of language as lazy and an affront to the beautiful, complex syntax of the past. Nevertheless, the mutations of language continue on, and the end isn’t even in sight. But “teenspeak” shouldn't be criticised and mocked - it should be valued and appreciated for what it is - a glimpse of the future.
Teenagers have ever been at the forefront of language development. It is an undeniable fact that throughout history and cultures, from Ancient Rome to present day England and beyond, teenagers have always wanted to disassociate themselves from their parents and rebel against their authority. As language is a way of expressing identity in society, teen sociolect naturally becomes different to the one of their elders. While this has remained a fact throughout history, recent developments such as the rise of the internet and social media have been unique to our times. Young people, who are inevitably growing up with these new devices, are beginning to put new twists on the neologisms and slang that inevitably arises with the development of a new social group. Now people are writing the same way as they speak (for instance using non-standard English in writing to display regional dialects) using words associated with activities performed only on the internet (a new use of the word “hashtag”, “memes” and “google”, which have wormed their way into the standard English dialect) and using acronyms previously used online in speech (“lol”, wtf”) for the first time ever. This cannot be ignored. The rapid changes in language we are experiencing, and it is rapid, means the battle lines have to be redrawn.
Reactions we’re seeing from the older generation towards young people’s language are fairly conventional. The same old ideas of the language of the youth being immature and not knowing how to talk properly. The press are particularly curious curators of these criticisms. For instance, the constant claim that young people are struggling to get jobs because their language is so obscure, despite there being no linguistic statistics to support their claims, coupled with a pseudo-caring attitude towards young people (as if they care about our job prospects). To truly see how poor their arguments are, scour newspapers for any quotes from actual linguists; nine times out of ten the only professionals asked will say that young people developing a new sociolect is fascinating and nothing to worry about.
Furthermore, the elders who criticise the language of the youth surely don’t think we’re going to speak differently because they tell us to; the whole reason young people speak “gangsta” or "grime" is because we want to disassociate ourselves from them!
We now live in a world led by the internet and huge companies who control digital media. For these companies to profit, the best method is to split communities who traverse the internet into groups, which can have specifics advertisements sold to them. And these groups are free to criticise language of different groups as they please, and more fervently too; the internet has put them in an echo chamber with people who think the same as them. Teenagers are now criticising the language of teenagers from different classes more intensely then before. Teenagers are now criticising language of younger teenagers (often with nostalgia; as if the time they were nostalgic from wasn’t just five years ago) and teenagers are now criticising the language of their elders, who cannot conform to the internet quickly enough and therefore shall be mocked.
Maybe what this ultimately shows us is that criticising another group’s language has nothing to do with the quality of the language of the other group, but is simply a way of individuals competing for acceptance within their societies by criticising what they do not understand.
Language change is unavoidable. The slang of yesterday is the standard vocabulary of today. This theme is consistent throughout the English language, and all language, and unless the government wants to perform some radical movement to curtail freedom of speech, English will keep developing in fascinating new ways. It is also one of the most inconsistent languages in the world in terms of spelling, pronunciations and definitions. You may be literally fuming at “literally” now having literally two meanings (one literally “literally” and the other as an exaggeration, both used in this sentence) but just take a second to ponder how many ways to pronounce the letters “ough” in English in words like cough, though, thorough (about nine; more could appear any second).
Language is a reflection of the individual, its surroundings and its society, and the internet users (young and old) now have a society of immediate consumption. When everything can appear on your screen or imageboard in an instant, people demand the most up-to-date, contemporary information about our world; why wait around for it? Language is now following the same pattern. We will experience, in the coming decades, language changes of almost unprecedented speed, with more and more unique lexicons appearing because of the internet. It will create more and more individual groups with their own unique dialects and sociolects they identify with, which, if language change continues at this rate, will create more subliminal divisions in our society then there are now (believe it or not). What must get around is the message that we seem to be only teaching linguists at the moment; language change is unavoidable and should be embraced.
We won’t go downhill as a society because young people use language differently, as the critics think. We will go downhill if people continue to hold prejudices based on how people use language purely because they want to be seen as respected within their social groups.
I will say this however; one group of people who deserve sympathy are the foreign learners of English. I’m sure all languages contain their own quirky inconsistencies, but the millions of students worldwide learning English will have to put up with even more ever changing inconsistencies on top of the present ones! Ay Caramba!
Ross Twinn, Y12
Teenagers have ever been at the forefront of language development. It is an undeniable fact that throughout history and cultures, from Ancient Rome to present day England and beyond, teenagers have always wanted to disassociate themselves from their parents and rebel against their authority. As language is a way of expressing identity in society, teen sociolect naturally becomes different to the one of their elders. While this has remained a fact throughout history, recent developments such as the rise of the internet and social media have been unique to our times. Young people, who are inevitably growing up with these new devices, are beginning to put new twists on the neologisms and slang that inevitably arises with the development of a new social group. Now people are writing the same way as they speak (for instance using non-standard English in writing to display regional dialects) using words associated with activities performed only on the internet (a new use of the word “hashtag”, “memes” and “google”, which have wormed their way into the standard English dialect) and using acronyms previously used online in speech (“lol”, wtf”) for the first time ever. This cannot be ignored. The rapid changes in language we are experiencing, and it is rapid, means the battle lines have to be redrawn.
Reactions we’re seeing from the older generation towards young people’s language are fairly conventional. The same old ideas of the language of the youth being immature and not knowing how to talk properly. The press are particularly curious curators of these criticisms. For instance, the constant claim that young people are struggling to get jobs because their language is so obscure, despite there being no linguistic statistics to support their claims, coupled with a pseudo-caring attitude towards young people (as if they care about our job prospects). To truly see how poor their arguments are, scour newspapers for any quotes from actual linguists; nine times out of ten the only professionals asked will say that young people developing a new sociolect is fascinating and nothing to worry about.
Furthermore, the elders who criticise the language of the youth surely don’t think we’re going to speak differently because they tell us to; the whole reason young people speak “gangsta” or "grime" is because we want to disassociate ourselves from them!
We now live in a world led by the internet and huge companies who control digital media. For these companies to profit, the best method is to split communities who traverse the internet into groups, which can have specifics advertisements sold to them. And these groups are free to criticise language of different groups as they please, and more fervently too; the internet has put them in an echo chamber with people who think the same as them. Teenagers are now criticising the language of teenagers from different classes more intensely then before. Teenagers are now criticising language of younger teenagers (often with nostalgia; as if the time they were nostalgic from wasn’t just five years ago) and teenagers are now criticising the language of their elders, who cannot conform to the internet quickly enough and therefore shall be mocked.
Maybe what this ultimately shows us is that criticising another group’s language has nothing to do with the quality of the language of the other group, but is simply a way of individuals competing for acceptance within their societies by criticising what they do not understand.
Language change is unavoidable. The slang of yesterday is the standard vocabulary of today. This theme is consistent throughout the English language, and all language, and unless the government wants to perform some radical movement to curtail freedom of speech, English will keep developing in fascinating new ways. It is also one of the most inconsistent languages in the world in terms of spelling, pronunciations and definitions. You may be literally fuming at “literally” now having literally two meanings (one literally “literally” and the other as an exaggeration, both used in this sentence) but just take a second to ponder how many ways to pronounce the letters “ough” in English in words like cough, though, thorough (about nine; more could appear any second).
Language is a reflection of the individual, its surroundings and its society, and the internet users (young and old) now have a society of immediate consumption. When everything can appear on your screen or imageboard in an instant, people demand the most up-to-date, contemporary information about our world; why wait around for it? Language is now following the same pattern. We will experience, in the coming decades, language changes of almost unprecedented speed, with more and more unique lexicons appearing because of the internet. It will create more and more individual groups with their own unique dialects and sociolects they identify with, which, if language change continues at this rate, will create more subliminal divisions in our society then there are now (believe it or not). What must get around is the message that we seem to be only teaching linguists at the moment; language change is unavoidable and should be embraced.
We won’t go downhill as a society because young people use language differently, as the critics think. We will go downhill if people continue to hold prejudices based on how people use language purely because they want to be seen as respected within their social groups.
I will say this however; one group of people who deserve sympathy are the foreign learners of English. I’m sure all languages contain their own quirky inconsistencies, but the millions of students worldwide learning English will have to put up with even more ever changing inconsistencies on top of the present ones! Ay Caramba!
Ross Twinn, Y12
