youth

AUTUMNAL UPDATES

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The Autumn Equinox, and time for the latest perspectives on slang and youth language in the Anglosphere…

I‘m very grateful indeed for the latest data on the most popular slang terms – according to online searches – among younger people in the USA, provided once again by Randoh Sallihall of Unscramblerer.com…

Most searched for slang words in America:

1.      6-7 (141 000 searches) – There is no literal meaning to six seven. Its absurdity is the point, making it a prime example of “brainrot” internet humor where the randomness itself becomes funny. It originates from the song “Doot Doot (6 7)” by Skrilla. LaMelo Ball a basketball player created a trending video about being 6 feet 7 inches tall using the song. Kids and teens scream and chant it often paired with exaggerated hand gestures. *See also below

2.      Bop (115 000 searches) – A person with many sexual partners (bops around from person to person). Someone who presents oneself online in a way that is thought of as immodest. A derogatory word often used in cyberbullying.

3.      Mogging (79 000 searches) – outclassing someone else by appearing more attractive, skillful or successful. Looksmaxxing (16 000 searches)  has a similar meaning that is also a trending slang word this year.

4.      Huzz (61 000 searches) – refers to attractive girl or a group of girls. A replacement for ‘boo’ and ‘pookie’. Somebody you want to impress. This slang had a more derogatory meaning ‘h–s’, but that has changed.

5.      Chopped (59 000 searches) – this term has become a synonym for something that is ugly, undesirable or unattractive.

6.      Big back (57 000 searches) – refers to someone with a large physique. Someone who is seen as gluttonous or out of shape. It’s less about literal size and more about poking fun at behavior, like hogging food or being sluggish.

7.      Glazing (49 000 searches) – means to praise someone excessively and insincerely. A way to call out behavior where excessive flattery is used.

8.      Zesty (44 000 searches) – someone who is lively, exciting or energetic.

9.      Fanum tax (36 000 searches) – playfully taking a portion of a friend’s food. The streamer Fanum began this trend.

10.   Green FN (34 000 searches) – refers to a guaranteed win. Describes something amazing and highly desirable. Often said after an exceptional shot or throw in basketball. The term originates from the NBA 2K video game series, where a perfectly timed shot is marked by the color green.

11.   Delulu (32 000 searches) – short for delusional. It describes someone with unrealistic expectations, especially about crushes, relationships, or fantasies (thinking a celebrity will date them).

12.   Clanker (29 000 searches) – is a derogatory term for robots and AI technology. An example would be “having to talk to a clanker” would mean talking with a chat bot.

13.   Ohio (24 000 searches) – refers to anything that is strange or absurd.

14.   Slop (21 000 searches) – describes low effort AI generated content.

15.   Aura farming (18 000 searches) -refers to a behavior (often referencing anime characters) where a person does something for the sake of looking cool.

A spokesperson for Unscramblerer.com commented on the findings: “Popular slang in 2025 continues to be heavily influenced by TikTok, Instagram, gaming, streaming, Gen Z and Alpha online communities. Trends from social media spread rapidly via memes and viral challenges. Fueled by technology our language adapts to new slang trends more rapidly than ever. Slang is a fascinating and fun mirror of our culture.”

Research was conducted by word finding experts at Unscramblerer.com.

We analyzed 01.01.2025 -19.09.2025 search data from Google Trends for terms related to slang words.

Methodology: We used Google Trends to discover the top trending slang terms and Ahrefs to find the number of searches. Americas most popular slang terms can be discovered in Google Trends through the keyword ‘meaning’. People will hear or read slang terms and search for the meaning of the term (example ‘mogging meaning’). Ahrefs shows many variations of meaning searches like ‘slang’ or ‘trend’ (example ‘mogging slang’) and similar keyword combinations (example ‘ what does demure mean’). We added up 150 search variations of top slang terms.

The words recorded in the US can be compared with this list of slang collected in UK schools by Teacher Tapp in August…

https://teachertapp.com/uk/articles/down-with-the-kids-slang-in-british-classrooms-2025/

Earlier this month I spoke to Avantika Bhuyan, Editor at India’s Mint Lounge magazine, about the youngest online cohort, Gen Alpha. She asked me how their interactions with technology and language differed from their predecessors…

Gen Alpha are of course the first generational cohort to have grown up wholly surrounded by digital technology, digital media and the online culture that accompanies them. They are adept at using the hardware – mobile phones, tablets, gaming gadgets – but also unlikely to be dazzled by these already dated mechanical devices. They have sometimes returned to old fashioned film cameras and Polaroids, wind-up watches, puzzles and pinballs as interesting relics (something which in older users is described by theorists as ‘haptic nostalgia’. For them AI isn’t a terrifying threat but just part of the digital landscape they navigate daily.

Gen Alpha are active on YouTube (short-form video by preference), Instagram and – especially – TikTok where they can participate and emulate, or react to influencers and content-creators and individual TikTok celebrities, This media reinforces accelerated performances, exaggerated poses and a pervading sense of self-consciousness, self-mockery, irony and absurdist humour, prompted partly by their collective anxiety at being on display, surveilled and judged 24/7.

Gen Alpha slang, like GenZ’s differs from that of older generations in that it’s not just language that arises ‘naturally’, escaping from the streets or disseminated by movies, TV and the music industry. The language they use has often been generated deliberately by techbros, influencers and microcelebrities who are not just trying to communicate but to gain prestige, kudos. The slang they use also differs from older versions in ways which are interesting to linguists like me: the ‘words’ are not just words but operate virally like memes and, like memes, they are ‘multimodal’, made up not just of writing or sounds like traditional words but accompanied by images, sound effects, references to other messages, in-jokes, puns, etc.

Older generations often find Gen Alpha’s vocabulary baffling, ridiculous or annoying – unsurprisingly since the language is used in part to project behaviour and values that are alien to parents, teachers. Key words – such as ‘skibidi’ – may actually be meaningless, more comic gestures than information-bearers and the passing visual fads and fashions that Gen Alpha (and Gen Z) indulge in – microtrends and looks and what they call ‘aesthetics’ or ‘vibes’- are not designed to last.

There may be serious effects to these innovations and new behaviours. Dating is much more fraught, more competitive when its potentially being exposed globally, and partners’ motives may be even more conflicted, contradictory and mutable when the rituals of romance are playing out in an environment already disrupted by older generations’ repertoire of ‘ghosting’,  ‘gaslighting’, ‘benching’ and ‘breadcrumbing’.

Above all we older people mustn’t underestimate Gen Alpha. They may sometimes be victims of the toxic aspects of digital culture, but they are also adept at coming to terms with it, manipulating it to their own advantage – or knowing when to reject it.

Avantika’s long feature on Gen Alpha is here…

Another way in which mainly younger creators and communicators are changing language is by way of Algospeak, the online code used to disguise messages and evade surveillance…

https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/68773/1/algospeak-and-performing-for-the-algorithmic-imaginary?utm_source=The%20Drop%20%28new%20master%2C%20engaged%20audience%29&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Drop%2030.09.25%20%2801K6DE7T778G8CA8V3MJVG9RD2%29&_kx=VqOlbvI-XfM1UZnIHgww3HUoHkUNg3Z5eyYSN8HS5iw.YsDqRL

*In October I spoke to BBC Radio London about the phrase ‘six seven‘ (number one lookup in the US, above) which had now come to the attention of British media, having crossed over from TikTok performances and online posting to real-life irritation of UK teachers and parents. The meaningless phrase, unrelated to the very old expression ‘at sixes and sevens’ (in a state of confusion or disorder) which was used by Chaucer and Shakespeare, was being chanted with accompanying gestures (outstretched arms, palms upward) to tease, baffle and mock adults. Its young users were possibly unaware of its origins in the lyrics of a rap track by US artist Skrilla and its subsequent adoption by basketball stars and their followers.

Nobody as far as I know has yet mentioned – as my friend Nicky Hill reminded me – that the same numbers were already in use in South London in a more sinister context…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/67_(group)

And, also on Twitter, from Celandine an intriguing tangential suggestion…

‘I saw something suggesting that parents take the opportunity to cite Deuteronomy 6:7! “You shall teach them (the Commandments) diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”’

On the eve of All Hallows Eve the Guardian continued the narrative…

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/30/six-seven-meaning-slang

And for those who remember…

In November I was interviewed by Laura Cannon for BBC Bitesize, again about viral slang and trending youth language and its implications. Laura’s article is here…

6-7 and the ‘secret’ language of kids – BBC Bitesize

In December Dazed magazine featured its recommendations for Christmas gifts alongside a list of the year’s archetypes – the new identities which have replaced or reinforced the aesthetics, vibes and microtrends of 2024…

The 2025 Christmas archetype gift guide | Dazed

THE SLANG AND NEW LANGUAGE ARCHIVE

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A research portal for scholars, the press and the public

The Slang and New Language Archive was created in 1994 while I was Director of the Language Centre at King’s College London. The archive, consisting of a small library of books and periodicals and a number of databases and sub-directories, was designed as a repository for the collection, storage and dissemination of new language, in particular examples of nonstandard varieties of English such as slang, jargon and buzzwords. The archive was later expanded to take in examples of media language, political language, linguistic curiosities and etymologies. It remains a resource, unique in the UK and not-for-profit, assisting researchers, students, teachers and journalists, as well as non-specialists, in accessing information about aspects of contemporary language that are under-represented in traditional dictionaries and reference works.

This link will take you to the Archive webpage at King’s College, where there are further links to relevant articles and published sources…

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/slang-and-new-language

Glossaries from the archive may be accessed on this site by entering keywords, such as slang, jargon, MLE (Multiethnic London English), familect (highly colloquial language used in the home), coronaspeak (language related to the COVID-19 pandemic) and weaponised words (the contentious language of Brexit, populism and biased reporting) and slurs (racist and misogynist terms) in the search box. Once you have accessed a post of interest, check the tags and categories at the foot of the page for other articles or glossaries on the same topic.

Two of the larger archive datafiles are hosted on Aston University’s Institute of Forensic Linguistics Databank site. These are a glossary of current youth slang…

https://fold.aston.ac.uk/handle/123456789/4

And a glossary of UK street slang, rap music and gang terminology…

https://fold.aston.ac.uk/handle/123456789/5

Please note that the King’s archive focuses principally on contemporary language, that is terms used from the twentieth century to the present day. If you are interested in historical slang, I strongly recommend the monumental work by my associate, the British lexicographer Jonathon Green. His dictionary, now generously freely available online, lists current and historical slang terms with timelines and citations illustrating their usage and development…

https://greensdictofslang.com/

For more information, for queries, or to donate examples of language, contact me via this website or via the King’s College webpage. I’m on Twitter as @tonythorne007 too.

In terms of new slang and nonstandard language there are few reliable resources online. In February 2025, however, US publisher Merriam-Webster launched their own slang dictionary. You can find it here…

https://www.merriam-webster.com/slang

Among the many more informal glossaries and wordlists of slang posted on the internet in 2025, this review of slang in English schools is unusually comprehensive and accurate…

https://teachertapp.com/uk/articles/down-with-the-kids-slang-in-british-classrooms-2025/

GOING VIRAL, GOING GLOBAL

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youth slang crosses world englishes

Last week I was interviewed by two young journalists about the pervasive slang generated by Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Interestingly both journalists are operating outside the US/UK matrix from which much of this language variety emanates. Interestingly too, both journalists asked similar questions about the latest linguistic novelties and how we might respond to them. Kanika Saxena‘s piece appeared in the Economic Times of India, and my contribution is here…

1. How do new slang words take root in a generation? Do they slowly build momentum, or does one viral moment suddenly put them everywhere?

In the past it could take some time for slang to escape from the local social group (‘in-group’ or ‘peer group’: a group of friends, a gang, fellow workers, etc.) where it originates into the outside world, then to spread by word of mouth into other parts of society, finally perhaps being picked up by the entertainment or print media. Nowadays this process has been massively speeded up by messaging and the internet, so that a novel term can go viral and reach beyond its original community almost instantaneously. New expressions can spread via social media and platforms like TikTok, Youtube, InstaGram right across the ‘anglosphere’ and go global.

2. Some words stick around for decades, while others vanish overnight. What makes certain slang words stand the test of time?

Linguists have tried to analyse why some terms become briefly fashionable and then disappear while others endure. There don’t seem to be any rules that govern why this happens. Some experts think that words which convey important social or technological innovations or that reflect current ‘moods’ or preoccupations are likely to have a longer appeal, but there’s no real proof of this. It could also be because a word relates to important social behaviour or relationships: insults, terms of endearment, ‘dating’ language, complaining, identity labels, for example, have to be reinvented for each successive generation, then persist until their users mature or grow older.

3. With social media throwing new words at us daily, are we actually creating more slang than before, or does it just feel that way because everything is amplified online?

It’s hard to say if the total ‘volume’ of slang has increased because, in the past at least, it was impossible to quantify it. What is definitely true is that slang has for some time become more accepted by mainstream media whereas it used to be censored or ignored. We also have the very new phenomenon whereby influencers, TikTok stars and content creators are using online resources to consciously, deliberately create, promote and spread new terms, so slang is no longer just coming ‘up from the streets’ (or spread via music, TV and movies) but is a commodity exchanged and pushed to gain prestige or sell oneself.

4. Older generations always seem skeptical of new slang—until, of course, they start using it too. What’s the secret to a word crossing generational lines?

Parents, teachers and ‘authority figures’ generally start by decrying younger people’s language and avoiding or ignoring it or trying to ban it. (This isn’t really justified by the way: slang may be seen as socially marginal but is not technically deficient or defective language and uses the same techniques as poetry or literature) But if a term is adopted by the media (‘woke’ is an example) they may in a few cases start to use it themselves. Technological terms (‘spam’, ‘troll’ etc.) and lifestyle jargon may be invented or used by older speakers. I always warn parents, though, not to try and imitate their kids by borrowing their slang. In the kids’ own language this is extremely ‘cringe’.

My second interview was with Austėja Zokaitė who is based in Lithuania and it appears in the online magazine Bored Panda, an arresting and anarchic daily roundup of the latest viral images, memes and commentary on internet culture. The whole report is here, with my comments interspersed with the succession of visual elements…

This IG Page Shares “Hard” Images, And Here’s 30 Of The Most Unhinged

Two weeks later I took part in a podcast on the subject of Slang, hosted by US students Sophie Xie and Andrea Lee. Our discussion is here…

Dang, What’s That Slang? by Andrea Lee

THE SEARCH FOR SLANG

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Researching and tracking the latest slang can now draw upon statistical analysis of online data.

As 2024 draws to its end and talk among lexicographers, culture journalists and language buffs turns to ‘words of the year’, I’m immensely grateful to Randoh Sallihall of Unscramblerer for providing me with his datasets showing lookups (Google searches) for the most popular recent slang expressions…

Most searched for slang words in United Kingdom:

1.      Gaslighting (170 000 searches) – a type of manipulation that makes you doubt your memories and feelings. The person doing it may lie and deny things.

2.      Skibidi (125 000 searches) – refers to a viral internet trend featuring surreal, animated videos of singing toilets and dancing heads, popularized on platforms like TikTok for its bizarre humor.

3.      Pookie (47 000 searches) – to show endearment and affection. Used for a close friend, partner or family member. A playful way to say someone is special.

4.      Hawk tuah (40 000 searches) – imitative of a spitting sound. The catchphrase originates from a viral street interview conducted in June 2024 with Haliey Welch, who stated that her signature move for making a man ‘go crazy’ in bed was to ‘give him that hawk tuah and spit on that thang’.

5.      Sigma (37 000 searches) – refers to an independent, self-reliant person who operates outside traditional social hierarchies, often described as a ‘lone wolf.’

6.      SMH (31 000 searches) – internet slang for ‘shaking my head’. Used to express disapproval or disappointment.

7.      Demure (26 000 searches) – reserved, modest or shy in manner or appearance. The TikTok user Jools Lebron made a series of viral videos using the phrase “very demure”. This trend gave the word a playful slang meaning. She uses it to assess appropriate makeup and fashion choices in various settings.

8.      Rizz (25 000 searches) – style, charm or attractiveness. The ability to attract a romantic partner and make others like you.

9.      Dei (17 000 searches) – diversity, equity, inclusion. A family friendly way of saying woke.

10.   Aura (13 000 searches) – the vibe someone gives off. When used by tweens and teens it is likely a reference to how badass someone is. Aura points make you cooler. So you definitely want to earn more aura points instead of losing them.

We can compare this list with Randoh’s equivalent for the USA, used in the Newsweek article posted previously to which I contributed, and reproduced here with his explanatory comments…

Analysis of Google search data for 2024 reveals the most searched for slang words in America:

1.      Demure (260 000 searches) – reserved, modest or shy in manner or appearance. The TikTok user Jools Lebron made a series of viral videos using the phrase “very demure”. This trend gave the word a playful slang meaning. She uses it to assess appropriate makeup and fashion choices in various settings.

2.      Sigma (220 000 searches) – refers to an independent, self-reliant person who operates outside traditional social hierarchies, often described as a ‘lone wolf.’

3.      Skibidi (205 000 searches) – refers to a viral internet trend featuring surreal, animated videos of singing toilets and dancing heads, popularized on platforms like TikTok for its bizarre humor.

4.      Hawk tuah (180 000 searches) – imitative of a spitting sound. The catchphrase originates from a viral street interview conducted in June 2024 with Haliey Welch, who stated that her signature move for making a man ‘go crazy’ in bed was to ‘give him that hawk tuah and spit on that thang’.

5.      Sobriquet (105 000 searches) – a nickname or descriptive name given to a person or thing. Borrowed from French sobriquet (nickname).

6.      Schmaltz (65 000 searches) – refers to excessive sentimentality or melodrama. Often used for art, movies, music or storytelling if there is too much sappiness.

7.      Sen (50 000 searches) – slang for self.

8.      Katz (34 000 searches) – a term for anything enjoyable, fun or pleasing. It can also mean ‘yes’.

9.      Oeuvre (25 000 searches) – refers to the complete works produced by an artist, writer or composer. A word used by literature professors to express superiority.

10.   Preen (20 000 searches) – slang for a child who tries to act like a teenager(wears teen clothes or makeup).

A spokesperson for Unscramblerer.com commented on the findings: “The English language is ever changing. Every year new slang words are created. Many slang words are born through trending topics and viral videos on social media. However only few manage to stick around long enough to be added to the dictionary and remain in daily use. Slang words are a normal and fun evolution of language. We encourage everyone to learn some new words and surprise their children by using them.”

Research was conducted by word-finding experts at Unscramblerer.com.

We analyzed 01.01.2024 -25.10.2024 search data from Google Trends for terms related to slang words.

Methodology: We used Google Trends to discover the top trending slang terms and Ahrefs to find the number of searches. Americas most popular slang terms can be discovered in Google Trends through the keyword ‘meaning’. People will hear or read slang terms and search for the meaning of the term (example ‘demure meaning’). Ahrefs shows many variations of meaning searches like ‘slang’ or ‘trend’ (example ‘demure slang’) and similar keyword combinations (example ‘what does demure mean’). We added up 150 search variations of top slang terms.

A few days after Randoh’s findings were published, I was asked by Robert Milazzo* to take part in the masterclass on new slang and youth language that he convened at Virginia Commonwealth University. The whole lively one-hour event was recorded and can be accessed here…

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yYlV7LkKdEf5AqFF-bJQAfIE5s5PUpGi/view?usp=sharing

Robert’s class was particularly illuminating, allowing as it did for contributions from young slang users themselves and from puzzled old-timers too. Bear in mind that the samples handled by data analysts are taken solely from online usage and not from authentic speech. Nearly all the slang used on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, etc. originates in the USA whereas the slang terms used by British youth in their IRL conversations will differ considerably from their North American counterparts, showing much greater influence from African Caribbean rather than African American sources.

*https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-milazzo-3a8860116/

SLANGS IN CONTENTION

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Chronocentric confusion as youth cohorts clash

It’s my responsibility, despite my very advanced age and despite the linguistic distractions from war crimes abroad and political meltdown at home, to try to keep track of the latest slang. For some time Gen Z, the population group born between 1997 and 2010, has been torchbearer for the zeitgeist, via TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, promoting such novelties as influencer-talk and its accelerated succession of fads and looks known as aesthetics or vibes (search this site with those keywords for more on all of these).

Now, in early May, help arrives in the form of a diatribe by 21 year-old LA-based singer-songwriter Allegra Miles, calling out aging millennials for their use of dated terminology and urging them to update themselves with Gen Z’s newest catchphrases and slogans. Allegra’s translations attracted the attention of the mainstream media in Australia and the UK and you can read them here…

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/real-life/article-13386193/Gen-Z-woman-tells-millennials-stop-saying-old-phrases-slang-vibe-game-slay-YOLO.html

But Allegra’s generation are no longer the youngest on the block, and I’m curious as to how Gen Alpha – those born between 2010 and 2024 – will modify existing language and generate their own novelties. Tiktok influencer Nicole Pellegrino comments here…

@nicolepellegrin0

Why did noone tell me slay is out #genalpha #genalphatok #genalphaslang

♬ original sound – Nicole Pellegrino

Unfortunately, attempts by parents and teachers to get to grips with their students’ new ways of expressing themselves are embarrassingly inept, if well-meaning. Witness this glossary of terms, one of several ‘guides’ published this year, that is actually a ragbag of well-worn language items favoured by younger millennials and Gen Z…

https://www.classpoint.io/blog/gen-alpha-slang-for-teachers

I’ll continue, from my distant vantage point, to investigate, but my post is, then, an appeal, to any members of Gen Alpha (or their siblings, classmates, neighbours) who bother with online blogs or antique social media platforms, to send me samples of their favourite expressions. I’ll add these to my databases and write about them in due course.

In fairness, I should also list one of several similar articles published recently, again by the Daily Mail in this case, but whose source (the Curry’s electronic retail group) is perhaps not exactly representative of the age-group it describes…

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-13341497/slang-makes-old.html

*For help in understanding the language and online mannerisms of TikTok and GenZ and Gen Alpha, I’m especially grateful to my daughter, Daisy Thorne Mrak*

After language?

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The latest multimodalities examined

During October I relished the chance to talk to the editors of DazedDigital, Serena Smith and Gunseli Yalcinkaya, and they told me about the most recent developments in online and digital communication and the new language varieties trending on social media. I have tried to make sense of a much younger generation’s performances and interactions and the notes I made follow here…

 Language and the way we use it is now for the first time truly globalised. This means for example that new accents and intonations and vocal affectations take place across several cultures almost simultaneously. This gives us pronunciation and intonation novelties like Youtuber or Influencer accent, TikTok voice, etc. These are fluid, evolving and can blend more than one traditional source (UK and US linguistic styles and usages for example). The phenomenon is not new – the mid-Atlantic accent dates back many decades and both Valley Girls and users of Multiethnic London English – MLE – have played with new ways of pronouncing, but the platforms and apps of the 2020s – TikTok in particular – highlight these…

Obviously the way we consume and exploit media has changed radically with the internet and mobile technology and determines the kinds of messages we exchange and the words, sounds and visuals we actually use. Short attention-spans mean that messages need to be accelerated, brief and telling: the constraints of apps and platforms make for compressed and dense information packages.  At the same time the imperative for innovation​ (something that has always been part of language evolution, but used to happen very gradually) – novelty, neologisms, new and more liberated attitudes to formality and informality and style in general – is integral to changing fashions, aesthetics, vibes. Even such basics as whether messages have to make sense have been destabilised by Gen Z‘s playful surrealism and absurdism and TikTok’s creative conventions.

One major change is the way that the distinction between written and spoken language has broken down since people began to type conversations and exchange rapid interactions electronically. Also Pre-existing words and expressions are hijacked, reversed, toxified, appropriated and modified as never before. And we all​ now have the power to do this via electronic media – we don’t need permission to publish and exchange our ideas and indulge our playful, mischievous or creative new usages.

Gunceli asked, There are so many memes joking about how we’ve ‘progressed past the need for language’. Obviously worth taking with a pinch of salt, but do you think there’s any truth to this? 

We won’t evolve ‘beyond language’ since language is simply a label for human interaction and communicative practices, but the specifics of that language will continue to adapt and mutate along with our social needs and our technologies. Linguists do talk increasingly in terms of multimodality whereby both online and offline communication involves much more than speech or writing – ‘language’ as we have known it. The buzzword multimodality can refer to how IRL we blend all sorts of semiotics often simultaneously: stance and posture, facial expression, gesture, writing, speaking and using a communication device, but also refers to how online and app messages employ abbreviations, acronyms, audio, video, symbols, memes as well as or instead of words (…soon probably touch and smell as well!)

The NPC streamers phenomenon highlighted by Dazed is another example of what I described as GenZ and TikTokers’ minimalist, surrealist or absurdist treatment of language. NPC stands for ‘non-playable character(s)’, the digital background entities with a limited repertoire of utterances and repetitive actions encountered in video games, and the streaming is an online activity, primarily on the TikTok platform, whereby creators imitate these characters by livestreaming themselves, and viewers reward them with in-app gifts for doing it.

The new primacy of image (and audio) over simply text and conversation has resulted in a human imitation of cartoon sounds and seemingly meaningless bits of language that only followers and enthusiasts will recognise and be positively triggered by. Playing with identities by way of words, slogans, soundbites and catchphrases is as much influenced by the poses of cosplayers or Furries and the behaviour of video-gamers as it is by ‘traditional’ ways of using verbal and visual language.

How do you think the mainstreaming of emerging tech like AI is changing the way we communicate verbally with one another?

Algorithms being used for automated reasoning and the generating of persuasive messaging or content are already operating at sophisticated levels, but the linguistic aspect is just as much prey to error and detectable failures as, for example, deepfake images and impersonations of artistic productions. If we are digitally literate and managing to keep up, we can often see through the deception, and this is probably reassuring. AI has some interesting potential: for example, to allow us to communicate with people whose language we don’t share. But I think the limitations of AI(-its difficulties in interpreting or reproducing human nuance, implication, indirectness, etc) will lead to – is already leading to – new forms of incoherence and misunderstanding. I suspect we will soon be able to recognise a particular ‘AI style’ so that artificially generated messages can be recognised as such in some cases – at least I hope so! Translators and teachers are already grappling with potential of AI to assist, supplement or replace their work – and its limitations in doing so. More alarmingly AI is already inventing and using languages that we humans can’t understand: https://www.fastcompany.com/90132632/ai-is-inventing-its-own-perfect-languages-should-we-let-it

Gunceli’s fascinating review of all these themes and more is here…

https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/61151/1/blessed-and-emoji-pilled-why-language-online-is-so-absurd?utm_term=blessed-and-emoji-pilled-why-language-online-is-so-absurd&utm_content=buffer26db7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=dazedtw

Serena Smith spoke to me about the latest version of familect, the intimate, informal, often comical language invented in private domestic spaces, about which I’ve written before on this site. Her excellent account of TikTok’s #MarriageLanguage is here…

https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/61152/1/marriage-language-why-do-couples-talk-like-that-familect-tiktok?utm_term=marriage-language-why-couples-develop-their-own-dialects&utm_content=bufferb39d1&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=dazedtw

LANGUAGE, ‘AESTHETICS’ AND INNOVATION IN 2022 – THE ROLE OF GEN Z

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Fads, Fashions, Lifestyles and Vibes – thirty years on

During 2022 I wrote several times about the new terminology that has been generated by younger generations’ (younger Millennials and so-called Gen Z or Zoomers) online celebration of an accelerated series of Fads, Fashions and Cults (the title of my book on the same topic published back in 1993). I was bemused, but not surprised that my articles and posts received little attention. Those over 40, even if active online or otherwise in touch with the wider culture, seem to pay no attention to what their children and grandchildren are saying, or perhaps just view their activities on social media as trivial, frivolous and ephemeral*. It’s slightly absurd that someone of my advanced age should be trying to record and comment on youth-based popular culture, but, just as back in the nineties, only a few fashionistas and influencers and a handful of style journalists manage to achieve any sort of critical perspective on the high-speed succession of poses, performances and pastiches that plays out on 21st century cyberspaces (and incidentally in teenagers’ bedrooms and college dorms too).

At the end of the year, however, I was asked to contribute to a major press review of these same phenomena, and discussed them with the MailOnline’s science reporter, Fiona Jackson. Fiona had picked up on recent mutations in slang and online jargon, in the novel use of emoji and punctuation, and changes, too, in the accents and intonations used on platforms such as TikTok – in particular the voice affectation known as ‘vocal fry.’

It’s interesting that Gen Z is seen as having a particularly exotic or impenetrable vocabulary, baffling and irritating parents, teachers, journalists and anyone too old to keep up. Inventing new words and changing the meanings of old ones, though, is something that each generation does (see UK millennials with their MLE – Multiethnic London English) and is a natural part of language. Accent is another essential component in curating and projecting one’s identity. ‘Vocal fry’ or ‘creaky voice’ first got noticed and was fiercely debated in the USA in 2015. The low, raspy growling voice tone favoured by female US celebrities has since been imitated by some younger people in the UK, and by British ‘influencers’ online, but not to the same extent. What I have noticed is not specifically vocal fry but something newer and more complex: a UK accent favoured by fashionable younger females which mixes a sort of high-pitched, lisping breathless ‘girly’ delivery with a lower-pitched drawl that can slide in and out of American intonations. Something like this is now prevalent, particularly on TikTok which is where Gen Z goes to influence and be influenced.

In the US now 63% of people aged 13 to 17 use TikTok weekly, a rate that now tops both Snapchat and Instagram. TikTok is also the go-to environment for the celebration of youth fads, fashions and lifestyle trends, not to mention the parodies, mash-ups, spoofs and in-jokes which are central to its video performances. Older people trying to keep up or simply to comprehend what is happening on TikTok or understand what Gen Z is saying and messaging should however beware: I have a suspicion, shared by a few other commentators, that many of the fads, fashions and trends they celebrate (they call them ‘vibes’ or ‘aesthetics’) are not really taken seriously at all by most of them, are passing fancies or simply spoofs perhaps designed to mock the tedious concerns of outdated millennials. Fashionable new ‘looks’ like so-called ‘goblin-mode’ which has, unusually, been noticed and publicised in the mainstream, have been appearing and disappearing on Gen Z platforms with a bewildering speed (see ‘cottagecore’, ‘blokecore’, ‘hag chic’, ‘frazzled English woman’, etc.).

The MailOnline article is here…

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11541685/How-Generation-Z-changed-communicate.html

…and my articles from 2022 are here…

Tick Tock, TikTok

DO TRY TO KEEP UP

Gen Z, as they come of age and begin to access power and influence in mainstream society, will inevitably affect the way we collectively behave and of course communicate. But there is an interesting phenomenon that those like me who try to track slang and new language have to face up to. That is that it’s quite impossible to predict exactly how language is going change. No so-called linguistic authorities have ever been able to guess how technology and society is going to mutate, or how fast, or which aspects of human behaviour will come to predominate in the future – even in the near-future. Gen Z may settle down into family life and work and become distracted by adult responsibilities, just as we once-radical Boomers, muted, tortured Gen X and much misunderstood millennials have done before them. Or perhaps they will not, and will manage to realise the boomers’ dream of staying radical, innovative and young forever? How their destiny plays out will dictate what they say and how they say it (and they will have to find ways to negotiate their obsessions and describe their changing environments), but I, for one, don’t dare to hazard any more than that.

*She’s much younger than 40, but journalist Marie le Conte struck a contrarian note in the New Statesman, suggesting that we shouldn’t be interested in Gen Z’s predilections…

Its finger still on the pulse of the zeitgeist, the Mail followed up with a warning to older generations that Gen Z disapprove not only of their language and their emoji use, but of their gesturing too (unsurprisingly the hand-signals castigated are all part of my own sad repertoire)…

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11627655/Generation-Z-reveal-hand-gestures-cool.html

Last summer the Daily Mash had issued another (spoof) warning to the middle-aged, this time of Gen Z‘s behaviour in the workplace…

https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/work/the-middle-aged-guide-to-fitting-in-with-gen-z-work-colleagues-20220704222915

At the end of January I talked to Karyn Hay of Radio New Zealand about Generation Zed (the preferred term in Wellington and Auckland), their language and online activities…

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/nights/audio/2018875098/tony-thorne-gen-z-communication

In February 2023 King’s College London Faculty of Arts and Humanities, host to my Slang and New Language Archive, featured my activities in their Net Gains series…

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/is-tiktok-a-breeding-ground-for-a-mutation-of-culture

*For help in understanding the language and online mannerisms of TikTok and GenZ, I’m grateful to my daughter, Daisy Thorne Mrak*

The Word(s) on the Street(s)

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GANG CULTURE, RAP MUSIC, STREET SLANG AND POLICING

I have written elsewhere on this site about my own unusual forays into forensic linguistics, whereby I have helped legal defence teams, police forces and other interested parties in decoding, interpreting and assessing the slang used by gang members, an authentic urban language variety which is shared with rap music genres, particularly Drill music.

The citing of rap lyrics in the context of criminal trials and attempts to ban Drill lyrics is very controversial and some academic linguists, musicologists and criminologists argue that they should never in any circumstances be admitted in evidence – a stance I sympathise with, but feel is mistaken.*

One London Met Police officer with whom I have worked has written about his own recent activities at the intersection of music, youth culture and youth violence. The article offers a very rare professional insider’s perspective on the issues in contention, and with Michael Railton‘s permission I have linked to it here…

https://www.college.police.uk/article/analysing-gang-related-music-linked-serious-violence

*journalist Will Pritchard and I have debated the value of such evidence in court. Here he puts the case against in The Face…

https://theface.com/music/rap-lyrics-used-in-court-young-thug-gunna-racist-stereotypes-rap-music

In June 2023 another piece by Will Pritchard ran in the Guardian…

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jun/21/behind-bars-how-rap-lyrics-are-being-used-to-convict-black-british-men

FAMILECT AGAIN

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DOMESTIC DIALECT FEATURES FAMILY FIXATIONS

Families and Older Generations Stock Vector - Illustration of grandparents, seniors: 114207016

In 2016 I wrote about so-called familect, the ‘microdialect’ originating in the home*. Also known as ‘family slang’ and ‘kitchen table lingo’, this is one of those underappreciated, under-researched varieties of ‘in-group’ language which, like slang and jargon, make use of the same techniques (metaphor, irony, analogy – alliteration, rhyme, assonance, reduplication) as poetry and literature and at the same time offer a window into the private worlds of ordinary people: their preoccupations, pleasures and ways of bonding. Familect can also be a sharing ritual within the household whereby humour and creativity and inventiveness are enjoyed across generations. Kids are adept in creating new words from an early age and at playing with existing language to create new and colourful expressions, while older family members have their own ways of coining expressions and recycling or reworking the language of their youth, so the home is also a laboratory in which to cultivate new literacies.

Just recently the cApStAn Translation Team reviewed the topic and provided a useful link-fest and bibliography…

New words and phrases generated via a collective experience can either unite or sow divisions: the case of “Familects”

Today another article, by my friend Connie Chang, featuring interviews with specialists in the field, was published in the National Geographic…

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/family/article/why-your-familys-secret-language-is-good-for-kids?loggedin=true

Familect can provide a useful subject for research and field work as part of exploring word creation and language innovation for school or college projects. Its users can be encouraged to look more carefully at the words and phrases they have invented themselves or shared or just heard, and asked to consider…

  1. Why was the expression invented? (usually because the object, idea or feeling described is precious or important or super-familiar. Sometimes because there isn’t an existing word or a memorable word to describe it in standard English)  
  2. What is it that makes these words funny, understandable, memorable? Is it that they sound like something else, remind you of something already familiar? Or is it the spelling and sound of them itself that makes them amusing?

In fact the school itself may be a source of similar novelties, as Tabitha McIntosh wrote in the TES this summer…

https://www.tes.com/news/schools-teachers-does-your-classroom-have-its-own-unique-language

Grandparents with Kids are Walker Stock Vector - Illustration of happiness, cute: 153811703

One year on, in August 2022, the Guardian featured the phenomenon in an article by Arwa Mahdawi…

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/09/i-am-beshwiggled-and-incatacipated-why-theres-nothing-better-than-family-slang?CMP=share_btn_tw

*https://language-and-innovation.com/2016/07/23/family-language/

SLANG NOW – the Language of UK Youth in 2021

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At the very end of September this year came another example of a UK school seeking to police its students’ language and to ban the use of slang and colloquialisms. I have been writing about youth slang since 1990 (there are numerous articles on this site, accessible by entering slang, youth or MLE in the search box) and about such interventions for more than a decade: this time I spoke to the Guardian‘s Social Affairs Correspondent Rob Booth and his article is here…*

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/sep/30/oh-my-days-linguists-lament-slang-ban-in-london-school

September 2021 also saw the fruition, or culmination (portentous words) of a long-term project of mine dealing with the same topic: the rich, creative, controversial use of highly informal language by younger speakers. I have collected the multicultural slang, traded among younger people and used especially in urban centres across the UK. I have listed authentic examples of this language variety gathered from conversations, messaging, fieldwork interviews and donations and stored these in the Archive of Slang and New Language which I have curated at King’s College London.

Looking for a way to make this data available to the widest possible readership – whether students, teachers, researchers, fellow lexicographers or simply individuals fascinated by language change and novelty – I decided against traditional publishing in hardcopy in favour of putting the material online and so was gratified when, a year ago, the University of Aston’s Institute for Forensic Linguistics agreed to host an extract from the Archive, an up-to-date Glossary of UK Youth Slang, in its Forensic Linguistics Databank. This lexicon, very modest in its format but unique in the UK and I think in the wider Anglosphere, has just been made accessible. I hope it will be helpful for interested parties and I urge anyone consulting it to comment, criticise and, above all, send me additions for inclusion in future versions (rights to the content are restricted, so please don’t circulate it or republish it without full acknowledgement). I am constantly updating and expanding this and other datasets of nonstandard and socially significant language as well as teaching and broadcasting about them.

The Youth Slang Glossary in question is here…

http://fold.aston.ac.uk/handle/123456789/4

I am very grateful indeed to all the collaborators, colleagues, students, parents, youth workers and many others who have helped me to record and analyse this exciting, inventive, sophisticated and technically innovative language – and to celebrate it rather than decry and stigmatise it in doing so.

* Rob Booth’s Guardian article was rewritten very slightly and republished by the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail. I think the last word on my contribution to the subject, and indeed my career, should go to the anonymous poster of a comment following the Mail‘s piece…

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