Just a Thought: Teenage Slang Terms and the Future of English

Groups of teenagers run amok using slang terms popularized by their favorite celebrities. For the sake of my discussion, I am going to use the terms 'YOLO' and 'Swag'.

I've recently thought about how these words are used. 'Swag' seems to have replaced words that describe something's coolness or fashion appeal. YOLO is a term used to say, "I am going to take a risk and have fun doing it." Sometimes, however, these words are used mindlessly.

But what does this have to do with anything regarding proper English? Everything, actually. Eventually, these teenagers are going to grow up and have children. Those children will have children. Perhaps these slang terms will take root and begin to replace certain words in our vocabulary.

Let's go back to the term 'Swag'. It is used in place of 'cool' sometimes. Many words also have done the same throughout our history, such as groovy, neat, far out, radical, you name it. However, cool was also used in the same context for just as long as these words were used. In the '10 era, not many words have survived and served the same purpose as cool. Perhaps 'swag' will be another word used in junction with cool.

When you take a moment to stop and think about our youth using new terms, you may think that they're being ridiculous and odd, but they are actually creating new words for our language and recycling old ones, whether or not they know it.

Algeo's Origins and Development of the English Language - Reflection - Part Five

The most important aspect of this chapter was the differences of the English language depending on culture and environment. I found it extremely interesting that English words differ in different environments. British people did not have a name for certain geographical landmarks that didn't appear in their everyday lives. Americans, however, became less cultured in British geography terms as they lived in America. People in America didn't need the word moor, for example, since they did not encounter it in their new homeland. As generations passed, no Americans used the word anymore. Different words that change depending on culture, however, work almost the same way. It's how slang terms evolve and become rooted in the language's vocabulary. Lift and elevator mean the same thing, but the names evolved differently depending on what each speaker of the language used to describe the machine that lifts or elevates a group of people.

The Brightness of the Future: Analyzing a TED Talk on the State of Education

In the TED Talk we analyzed in class the other day, it is apparent that this class is much like the vision that the speaker had for the future's education. It is much more valuable for a skill or ability to be taught in a non-structured environment, since the student is able to learn at their own pace. More importantly, however, the student is able to learn what they want, rather than possibly outdated material at the pace of the classroom. This class is similar to the speaker's vision because every student is able to learn exactly what they want by picking their own topic and blogging about it. The freedom of mind and creativity that delivers the same grade as structured classes may help people become more creative thinkers adequately prepared for the outside world.

Algeo's Origins and Development of the English Language - Research - Part Five

Today, there are at least one billion people on Earth that can speak English fluently. Of these people, most can be divided into two groups: British and American English. There are several differences within these groups. First, the R sound was temporarily lost in British speakers, and this loss transferred over into the New Englander's accent. Americans use the word 'got' in several technically out-of-context ways, such as 'She has got to help us'. Gotten is supposed to be a past participle of get, such as it is used in 'ill-gotten gains'. 'Got' in the American vocabulary has transformed into a different way of saying 'to be obligated to'. Some words that differ between British and American, besides the obvious ones, are waistcoat and vest, and fortnight and two weeks. British also has words that the American vocabulary has no need for: copse, dell, fen, heath, moor, spinney, and wold. American English also mirrors this by having several geographical words that British English has no room for, such as underbrush, creek, (which is a sea inlet in British, and a small stream in American), backwoods, canyon, mesa, and prairie. When English explorers discovered new species of animals in the Americas, they used Indian words to name the unfamiliar ones, such as raccoon and woodchuck. Animals that looked similar to British animals shared their British name, whether or not they were of the same species. For example, British and American robins are not related at all. This included plant names, such as catalpa, (literally meaning 'a type of tree') and catawba, (literally meaning a variety of grape.) Sometimes they relied specifically on their imagination of they ran out of ideas, and the etymologies of these specific words are unclear for this specific reason.

Algeo's Origins and Development of the English Language - Reflection - Part Four

It intrigues me that the change from Middle to Modern English was so sudden. Unlike Old to Middle, which was a long period over many years after Latin, French, and German influences changed the language; Middle to Modern was very sudden after many political changes, the prominent reason being a shift in power. The power went from being in possession of the Church and into the hands of the King. However, Queen Elizabeth also helped the language change because of her innovative ruling period.

The big change from Middle to Modern, besides new Shakespearean words becoming popularized at the end of the Middle English period, was new sounds and new usage for letters that were introduced. The language of the first period of Modern English greatly reflects our own language, but does not fit it to a T. Some of the characteristics we understand from Middle English history changed to reflect our modern dialect today, such as the Y in the becoming a TH. Also, the consonant/vowel shift of I/J and U/V changed the language to be more similar today's dialect.

Overall, the period of change that was the first period of Modern English is very fascinating. Also, the second half of Modern English that I still have yet to explore intrigues me as well. What other changes separated Modern I from Modern II?

Algeo's Origins and Development of the English Language - Research - Part Four

Revolutionary development in English-speaking countries paved the way for English to become a world language in the Early Modern English period of the language. For example, civil authority in the Act of Supremacy was put above church authority, and Queen Elizabeth's reign had a productive 45 year period on England. Several factors brought about the change from Middle to Modern. The English vocabulary was expanded from Latin and Greek words influencing the language. Innovation of pronunciation and conservation of spelling also had effects, as pronunciation of several letters and groups of letters changed and the spelling of the words. For example, TH replaced Y in some cases, changing ye and yee to the and thee, I became a vowel and J became a consonant, U became a vowel and V became a consonant, and H gained a sound.

Family Interactions: A Follow-Up Post

I have inquired within my family about my project, since the project is about them, after all, and I have several changes that will be effective immediately upon my project.

1. I cannot use an audio-video recorder to capture a conversation. They view this as an invasion of privacy and will not allow me to do it. However, I can listen to a conversation and remember sections of it to use on my work.
2. I will also be analyzing the length of the words each family member uses. For example, my father might use short, curt words and my mother may use long, eloquent words. This will fall under the Word Analysis section, which brings me to my second point:

Categories. I will have several categories that I will be analyzing, and to help better organize my work.

1. Word Analysis: Etymology, word length, family members' words
2. Tone Analysis: How do my family members talk?
3. Conversation Analysis: How do conversations pan out? This will contain specifics from both Tone and Word Analyses, and how each of these categories work together to produce conversation.

More specifics will follow, and I plan to start working on the main brunt of the project very soon, possibly next week.

Family Interactions: A Preemptive Post

I have devised a small list of what my plans are for my Family Interactions project.

1. Listen to several natural conversations within my family. These conversations will not be acted out. I will then write down several words used by each family member and search etymologies to find a specific connection between family member and word.
2. Record several conversations and post them on my blog. The procedure will be the same, but I will analyze the entire conversation, such as who is the prominent speaker and any other specifics that may be interesting to analyze.

Where I will go after the second step, I do not know. But I have plenty of time to devise my plan until I get to that point. Expect another update soon.