Youth Language - how young people are changing the way the world talks
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- Опубликовано: 7 июн 2024
- Youth language is constantly changing, creating the languages of the future. As a passionate polyglot, I look at how young people in London, Paris, Berlin and Stockholm are creating new words, grammar and pronunciation which reflect life in their vibrant multicultural cities. Teen slang comes from a wide variety of different languages, and in London the accent has changed completely in the course of one generation.
I also explore how mediaeval youth language affected the history of English and how people have complained about thew youth of the day ruining the language for thousands of years.
0:00 Intro
0:15 Lang Belta
1:29 Future languages
1:48 Creating a language from nothing - Nicaraguan Sign Language
3:26 Young people as the chrysalis of language change
4:09 Viking slang in old English
4:39 Slang
5:04 French slang
5:34 The purpose of slang
6:18 New slang from other languages
6:40 Verlan - French backwards slang
7:17 Fast language change - Multicultural London English
8:22 Comparison of RP, Cockney and MLE pronunciation
8:45 MLE pronouns - the use of 'man'
9:03 Innit
9:15 'was' vs 'were'
9:47 Please like and subscribe!
9:56 Quotatives - reporting what people say
10:09 Other multiethnolects
10:19 Kiezdeutsch - multicultural Berlin German
10:35 Kiezdeutsch grammar - deleting articles and prepositions
11:18 Rinkebysvenska - multiethnic youth Swedish
12:11 Common features across youth speech in different languages
12:28 Quotatives in Multicultural Parisian French
12:40 Extenders and that
13:29 Hedging and like how to sound less sure and direct
13:54 Conservative reactions to youth language
14:27 A 14th century monk complains
15:16 A dictionary maker from 1780 predicts the downfall of English
15:48 Why the doomsayers are wrong
16:17 The effect of youth speech on job prospects
17:11 Implications for education
18:06 Suggested videos
Its so funny to hear an older gentleman speak MLE flawlessly 😂
Innit bruv
literally what I was thinking 🤣
Yehgetmeh
He's safe enit bro
Ha, yeah!
I remember hearing early MLE or as we called it Jafaican back in the 80s. Little did I realise that 30 years later I would have 5 kids all chattin laak dis n dat. They've all grown up in SE London. My mother in law speaks Bangla, Urdu, Hindi and English. I learnt Bangla up to a reasonable level (hence the handle) but am originally a yod-dropping old putner from Naaaridge. My wife who is 2nd generation Bangladeshi speaks English with a beautiful Welsh accent as well as fluent Bangla as she grew up in Tiger Bay. My kids can manage MLE and SSB at a push. Funny old world.
What a fantastic cocktail. Family get-togethers must be a linguistic spectacular. Thanks so much for sharing.
Finding your videos absolutely fascinating and trying very hard to realise that I should maybe stop getting so irritated at some people's peach patterns... many people I meet seem to "turn round" to each other during many conversations that are relayed! One thing though, do you have any idea why "ask" seems to have changed to "aks" in many young people's speech?
Sorry if you have already covered this, I am still working through your videos! 😁👍
Oh, I so get this--if from different language groups.
@@lynettesherburne I have to admit I find the turning around thing funny.
"Well I turned around and told him where to shove it!"
"What did he say?"
"He turned around and said he never wanted the cat anyway."
I just imagine people having arguments while spinning in circles.
What is MLE and SSB
Big man ting, man's makin bare leng content, dun know.
This whole video reminds me of a stint at uni when I (a west country lad) came into contact with londoners and became aware that "peak", a word I've used to mean "really good" for years, now meant the complete opposite in the capital. I love this stuff.
I love your videos man! I am originally from Ethiopia, but I lived abroad for quite sometime and when I returned home after 6 years so many new words that I've never heard were added to the Amharic my siblings and friends were speaking. It took me a while to decipher some of their conversations specially when it comes to matters where they just want to keep it to themselves. For instance, yesterday a friend of mine was saying, he wanted to buy some khat (a kind of drug common in east africa), but he pronounced the word backwards to confuse other listeners. I kinda feel left out now :D
Thanks so much Mohammed! I love your story about Amharic. I'm sure things like this are happening in languages all over the world, but sadly when I was making the video I could only find information about Europe.
Ah, I can relate to you. I visited Korea about a year ago after living overseas for about four years and could not understand large parts of what my friends were saying because they were just saying the names of letters.
Basically, a lot of slang used on the internet are the first letters of each syllable in a word. So, 안녕 -> ㅇㄴ
But people have started using this slang in casual speech and will just say the names of the letters rather than the full word. I think a lot of my friends were using the slang so much because they wanted to keep their parents from understanding them ㅠㅠ
Great work on this. Nice to see someone of your age not only accepting language evolution but also being happy to Learn it and Share it
Awesome, thank you! I positively delight in language innovation and love how these language forms reflect the rich diversity of our world.
I am an avid linguist and language learner and I've just recently discovered your channel, thank you so much! You bring so much knowledge and insight to the table, I will certainly be hanging around here for a long time to come
I'm so glad to hear that. Thank you so much for letting me know.
The story of the Nicaraguan kids is fascinating to me because it answers a question that i thought we'd never get the chance to experimentally answer: will children with no language spontaneously develop language when allowed to interact and communicate amongst themselves? Turns out the answer is yes! Language isn't just a tool we've invented, it's an instinct that we all have and a fundamental feature of human social behavior!
Yes, that’s a wonderful story isn’t it. As you say, it teaches us something fundamental about language.
Loving all your videos, this one is particularly charming. Working with youth has definitely coloured my language & they are happy to educate me! One fact that caught my attention is that monolinguals are in the minority: that would have been difficult to believe when I was a child in the US. The "majority" looked down on bilingualism and/or multilingualism as if somehow indicative of a deficiency. I am so glad that my parents invested so much energy in retaining our bilingualism (French mother; English-speaking, Swiss-German-American father)and encouraged us to learn other languages. And, I love metaphors in all languages--so much fun! "Shorties," meaning an emerging generation in Chicago gang slang; and, not necessarily youth language: the Italian "suocera-nuora" for a glass oil and vinegar decanter with two opposing throats; "l'heure de la ville" et "l'heure de Dieu," for daylight savings time and standard time in my great-grandmother's village, etc. Again, thank you for your videos. (PS: Your French nasal sounds and "eu" are very good!)
How aam I only just discovering this channel! What a goldmine of information your videos are David! Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us :)
My pleasure!
I'd never realised language has been evolving in my lifetime. That's really good to hear, I always thought it was more static. I like that the youth are changing and creating new language. Another influence I think is language from virtual contexts. People say lol instead of laughing. Great video
Thanks Joanne. Glad you enjoyed it. Language is constantly changing, often in subtle ways that no one notices.
I think most people accents evolve over time. I think a good example of this David Attenbrough. Listen to him from Zoo Quest in the 1950's to Life on Earth 1979 and a documentary made in the last few years. His RP accent has changed quite a lot over that time.
I know this is a 2 year late reply. But the Algorithm has only just suggested Dave's excellent channel.
There are also the code-switchers among us from mixed families or communities, where the accent, gestural vocabulary, and social code instinctively kick in relation to the person with the more entrenched patterning. My francophone students remarked that I hardly seemed the same person when speaking English or French. Upon reflection, I do not even feel like the same person.
Just discovered your channel today, and I'm binge watching! Fascinatnig stuff. You're incredibly knowledgable and a great presenter. And you seem to be able to nail every accent, innit? ;)
i LOVED the reference to the expanse, it was excellently done as well
Thanks Lisa. I'm glad you liked it.
So glad to see you again. Your content is so good, I watch your videos several times. Looking forward to more of your insight and humor.
Hi Benjamin. Thank you! Yes, definitely more to come.
I've noticed MLE influencing Canada's speech a lot (or perhaps just similar influences effecting the dialects in Canadian cities). Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver all in a way have their own MLEs (Or I guess MTE, MME, MVE, etc.). I live in Calgary where I think we're seeing the MCE form right before my very own eyes. Kids four or five years younger than me already have their own slang that I can't understand (and I am 19). Some features that I share with them include:
- Using "done" as a perfective auxiliary verb like in "I done gone home"
- Using "Bruh" as a third person pronoun: "Bruh's watching TV"
- Friwfriw (for real for real)
- "I do not" shortening into "ion" (the diphthong /au/ but nasalized)
- Negating adjectives with -n't such as "goodn't", this was an ironic joke about four years ago but now I hear people do it in just normal casual conversation
- Saying "Shuh-shuh" instead of thank you, this one comes from Mandarin
- Saying "inshallah" and "mashallah" like in Arabic, even if the person is not middle eastern
"I done gone home" sounds quite Southern US, also West Country England. However I suspect it come from "Mi dun gwan 'ome" which is Jamaican Patios. "Mi gwan 'ome" For "I'm going home" where as "dun gwan" is perfective auxiliary gone. Patios has Irish, Scots, and English dialect as well as African, Spanish / Portuguese influences.
"''ome fi me a gwan"
Canada is one of the Jamaican diaspora community, especially urban.
it's interesting you say that, because i met someone from vancouver once and from his accent i thought he was speaking some form of london english i hadn't heard before. turns out he was living in canada and had picked up the accent and slang there!
I have absolutely no known reason to say it, but I always say "Inshallah and the levee don't break" because I think it sounds beautiful and a bit odd, but mostly just to see if anyone gets my meaning. So far, no takers, but maybe I need to get out more ... ? F/60/British-born Calgarian. =]
glad you’re back 😁 your videos are super informative and interesting 👍🏽
Thanks Emmanuel!
Another excellent video from Dave making language much easier to understand
Thank Julie!
I had a great English Langauge teacher at A Level, and he shared much of your approach to language. Thank you for the great videos. It's nice to see somebody knowledgeable on language be positive about youth speech.
Thank you! Good to hear the story about your English teacher.
Great video. I was told the Australian accent and slang was initially used by first generation children of convicts, and I couldn’t understand the speed of uptake, but you have explained how this could have occurred so quickly to a group of unsupervised children. Thank you.
Yes, apparently the initial colony in Australia had accents from all over the British Isles from posh governors families, workers, farmers etc. to the convicts, many of whom spoke Irish.
Great content as ever. I learned a lot from this one.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Excellent, very thorough and informative but also humorous. I learned so much!
Love it! That's my entire goal in one sentence.
I always remind older conservative folk that their parents said exactly the same thing about them, and so on and so on.
Really kills the argument dead.
So interesting the delivery and content are fantastic.
Glad you think so!
I love language and linguistics it’s so fascinating
Brilliant! Thanks Dave!
My pleasure!
I just can't believe this channel exists! Thank you.
Glad you enjoy it!
"In the groove,… Man" Made me chuckle. David sure is one cool cat!
Truly fascinating
Glad you enjoyed it Luke.
Very nice video, as usual! I always thought that quotatives (including Swedish "ja' ba' ) ..." came from American youth language - "I was like ..." and spread across the world by means of TV, but maybe this has emerged in parallel in many different languages? A few comments about Rinkebysvenska: first, "guzz" actually means "girl", not "attractive person"; second, "keff" has become quite common in informal Swedish, at least in Stockholm. Even I (middle aged white guy) use it sometimes.
Genre, mec, ton céfran est trop top!
Thanks for the video - I always love yours. What I don't like about changing language is the Americanisation/standardisation of language - I see it in my sister whos only 8 years younger than me yet her accent is a lot less strong than mine and she frequently uses American terms for things because she's grown up with RUclips. I don't like that we're losing regional accents.
Your sister might get a stronger local identity as she gets older. You are right that it would be sad to lose the diversity in our language.
I just discovered your videos today. I don't have a particular interest in language or linguistics, but have found the videos that I have watched very interesting and will be watching more of them! Funnily enough my own voice modulates between a mixture of South London (which is where I grew up and still live) council estate cockney / MLE (what I call my 'natural' voice) and a 'posher' version of it (less glottal stops and no use of slang at all) when in formal work situations (I have to make formal presentations frequently, and attend a lot of meetings). My written English errs on the formal side (depending on context of course).
Safe bruv! 😂
That’s great to hear. Thanks for letting me know.
As someone from abroad Cockney is hard to understand. The londoners can't speak a well English. The "correct" english of textbooks is light years away from really spoken English. What's happening if you come to England is that you nearly nothing understand.
Ethnolect is my search word of the week, fanx man!
I can think of a second slang column (or fourth column altogether) for those French words actually 😀 Love your videos 👍🏾
Thanks! 😃 That would be interesting to see.
Love this!
I love the video and the channel. Concerning rinkebysvenska, though: I was surprised by the statement that "guzz" comes from Turkish "göz" (eye). I think it's more probable that it comes from "kız" (girl, or daughter). It's pronounced very similarly to kız (although as it becomes mote widespread, the spelling influences the pronunciation).
To me, the MLE "ən:æ" is equivalent to "and that", or as we say in Manchester, "ən ðæʔ"
I thought it was interesting when you mentioned terms used to imply a shared knowledge between speakers, because there's a phrase in Manchester that stumps me sometimes. People start a sentence with "it's one of them, where...", and then structure their sentence in a way that implies this happens to everyone, using "you" to talk about what happened to them. So now I have to pretend I know exactly what they mean because they're talking like I've experienced this too!!
Thanks!
Thank you!
Your videos are great ❤️❤️
Thank you! I’m so glad you like them.
I didn't expect this video to start with belter talk
Amazing
It all kinda feels like subconscious efficiency. We create more words to eliminate the usual obligatory collective of words to express something. Being a Yorkshire kid (mixed race Irish/Jamaican), this new young person language sounds super natural to me. Its all about genuinely being able to say something with 100% conviction. Its kinda hard to call the police "Jakes" as a middle aged Englishman. Its a super young persons piece of lingo. Unless you're familiar with Jamaican. Adopted words are huge nowadays. These "new" words are very much established in places like Jamaica. I'm in no place to really comment on stuff like this, but being the age I am, I've seen the transition. New lingo and language happens everyday nowadays. It only takes a celeb to endorse it and bang... Its in the dictionary. And rightly so. Its always been the same. Its just easier spread nowadays - It's creative as an artist.
Yes, I love the creativity of it.
Great video! Any suggestions of courses I could take on London Multicultural English?
Dave Huxtable is here to save us! Great stuff, it hits different. lol. you're all that and a bag of chips, D-bb
Boom!
Thanks
Wow. Thank you!
in the 1790s, less than a decade after the First Fleet, visitors to Sydney Cove were commenting on the strange accent that the children of the new colony had developed. Kids always want to sound like other kids, not their parents and certainly not their teachers. And so Strine (or Strayan) was born.
(As has been commented on by many others on this thread before me, I see!)
Oye! Inna lowda que? So good to hear the Expanse Belter patois. Was not expecting that.
Fascinating! And so respectful of the way youth create new language! I remember back in school in the US, the teachers would always be scolding kids for using "improper grammar" or slang, with with acknowledgement for the fact that this is literally how languages evolve! They aren't static things!
That’s not how it works, that’s not how any of this works. They are standardised things for a reasons it’s how we understand each other and continue to understand history you can add vocabulary, but you can never lose the rules of the language. It always irks me that people want to use this strawman argument to excuse bad education and poor grammar. It’s no wonder people are not only becoming less well spoken, but it’s just harder to connect sentences together it’s harder to express ourselves!
@@mattybrunolucaszeneresalas9072 ah! a prescriptivist!
@@jeongbun2386 Why thank you for the compliment darlin 😘bless yo li’l o’ heart!
@@mattybrunolucaszeneresalas9072 Why aren't you using proper grammar and spelling?
@@jeongbun2386 ??
Groovy, right on!
I found the example of kiffer very interesting. Where I grew up in Switzerland we use kiffen (chiffä) to mean smoking weed, as opposed to rauchen (rauchä) which means smoking cigarettes. Until now I thought it was a swiss german word, but it probably originated from Morocco (possibly via France)
Thank you for the delightful videos. I'm very curious as to why young podcasters and audio journalists (not so much the video media ones) in the US have begun to adopt a very strange and pronounced sound for the letter "a." It sounds increasingly almost like a short a sound but that is prolonged and with a lot of nasal added. What's happening?
Are you talking about the bag -> beg type shift?
Amazing. Didn't expect Belta to be part of this video 😂
I like to surprise
I was in conversation with a young man of about 20 years old. Im 62 for reference. This was in a builders merchants in North Herts, this man (white) was local born and bred. I could understand him, but i felt as if hed been teleported from the West Indies, London or some other place. He didnt need to sound hip to me, so i concluded that his speech pattern wasnt a passing affectation. If RP is 'posh' this accent was the polar opposite. I wont pre judge as i dont know his background. None of the other young yardsmen sounded even slightly similar
Really informative and concise. I think the bug bear for parents is that their child can loose their authentic voice and just copy the' cool kids' like a clone which is disheartening.
I think the use of "man" in MLE is really interesting. It reminds you of the royal "one" as in "One is not amused". In German the equivalent term is also "man" and is still commonly used. "Man kann nichts sehen".
Yes, it’s interesting how there’s no standard English equivalent of that in common use by non-royals.
0:04 "I'm determined to make them regularly from now on"
Yeah, right!
Pretty much guarantees he'll never trouble us again.
I have published 25 videos since then 😊
Oh and by the way, I love your videos, just found then.
Yay! Thank you!
Can the increasing use of AAVE outside of its native culture be seen in this context, or would that be considered exclusively as misappropriation, and so something to avoid (and police)? I try to be conscious of not disrespecting other people but in cases like this I find it hard to reconcile these sensitivities with a macro view of history and how cultures and languages develop.
Based video, I find it amazing that people could watch this and still spout the same "mle is a corruption of the english tongue" rhetoric, like in one ear and right out the other
brilliant 🤓
Thanks.
This video on paper is boring but you made it so interesting through delivery
MLE has spread beyond London aswell, as some who went to a very diverse school, basically all the boys and half the girls speak MLE to some extent.
That’s interesting. Where was your school?
Please come to Uganda we need some knowledge about linguistics in makerere university Kampala.
I would love to visit Uganda.
@@DaveHuxtableLanguages you are highly welcome sir
The IKEA catalog is a veritable smorgasbord of authentic Scandinavian street slang or (Gata Vardaglig)
Another really interesting vid. Im starting to binge. I moved to Cardiff from Derby just in time for secondary school. I quite liked kids teasing my Eyoops to the extent that i tried to preserve them but unsuccessfully This is because i was a fat lad and without my accent they might have picked on that instead.
This was in 1976 by the way. I still use those words that may not even exist any longer. My fave one being roggy=haircut which, to my delight, my son in law has adopted too. Was that an all Derbys word? Just Somercotes? Just our school? Transient or permanent?
Heres another thought for you:
Imagine a desert island where the written word vanished over time til one day and outsider introduced us to the Roman Alphabet and invitd us 2 mak up ar one riting sistum i bet it woodent luk at orl lik riting duz now woodit
Interesting point about the writing system. It's ironic the English pronunciation changed so radically just after people started standardisation the spelling.
Loving it Dave. I like people to have their own dialects of English. I find the evolution of English fascinating. Though people need to be able to speak a Standard English, that is taught in school. As it is in the UK. As well as their own dialect. So that everyone can communicate clearly in different situations for example, in business. It is important in getting jobs. Obviously other English speaking countries will have their own Standard English.
Thanks Jack. The German-speaking world is interesting. People tend to use their own varieties at home and informally, but everyone learns standard German at school and uses it in formal situations. This is especially the case in Switzerland.
@@DaveHuxtableLanguages I only speak a little German, but a German friend, who speaks fluent English, told me she was suprised that there were differences in the way people of different class background spoke in the UK. I had told her you can usually tell if a person has come from an upper class background by the way the pronounce words. I then gave her some examples. She said this does not exist in Germany, only regional differences. I know I now digress from the original subject. Perhaps a subject for another video?
Living my adult life as an Englishman in the Netherlands, I note that the Anglo-phonic expat community adopt certain Dutch words into their everyday English vernacular, sometimes modifying (Anglo-fying) the syllable stress placement and verb conjugation to the point where the case can be made that a slight creole is being created.
Of course, English is far too entrenched and resilient, and the Brit expats are far from socially isolated from their Dutch neighbours (all of whom speak English), therefore such proto-creole appropriations can never hope to develop into a third, separate language, but we only need to listen to Afrikaans to hear what that might have sounded like, given a couple of centuries to do its own thing..
Could you give some examples of Dutch words that are being adopted?
@@TOBAPNW_ Okay. Lekker is a word that all Brit expats in NL commonly use and understand. The pronunciation is slightly different (Anglicised), insomuch that the final 'r' is silent (lekka).
It is not at all remarkable to hear two Brits speaking English and simply inserting 'Lekker' in to the conversation with no further explanation.
British parents in NL (of which I am one) will frequently substitute words pertaining to their children. For example, my wife (who didn't speak Dutch) would always use ''overblijf'', rather than ''sandwiches'' or ''packed lunch''.
eg. ''Do you want to come home for lunch or are you stopping overblijf?'' was a common
question in our house, and many other Brit expat family homes. Sometimes you might even hear ''Are you 'overblijfing' tomorrow, or do you want to come home for lunch?'', which is a clear case of applying English verb conjugation to a Dutch noun.
''Strippenkaart'' was universal to all Brits in NL until they were no longer used. A monthly or yearly Public transport pass (for train, tram and bus) was known as an ''abonament', pronounced with an Anglicised syllable stress scheme (ie aBONament, rather than AbonaMENT.
Rolling tobacco becomes known as ''shag'' to Brit smokers in NL, even though the word has a very different meaning in the UK (the act of sex)
Health insurance is ''sick-a-fonts''.
Back in the day, if were at home sick, and absent from work, we would live in fear of a visit from ''the GAK man''.
''I can't leave the house right now, in case the GAK man shows up.''
These are just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are many more, but as I speak fluent Dutch I probably don't even notice when I use them. What does make it clear is when I'll casually use a Dutch word without thinking, in a sentence while speaking to a Brit in the UK, and they say ''what?''.
Some Dutch words have become so ingrained in my day to day vernacular, that I have trouble remembering the English word. These are the early stages of a creole being created, although, as I said, mutual cultural contact will prevent the isolation needed to complete the task
@@emdiar6588 Dank u wel meneer! Dat is zo interessant
@@TOBAPNW_ Geen dank, hoor. Graag gedaan.
I appreciate this comment section so much
Please explain Western Sydney accent. It's unique in Australia
conservative reactionary attitude towards youth language are really just transparently about fear about kids talking about stuff in a way they can't understand, always about control them folks. Being in my 30s has been such a trip as I've lost my grip on the present innovations in youth language, but I'm not mad about it 😅 change is beautiful. Also 'innit' is such a beautiful gift to the world, I use it all the time innit
Disgust for the younger generation will always happen sadly. Hopefully we stop being so aggressive to iy
I’d you’ve made it into your thirties without becoming and old git you’re probable safe. I think you’re right that all kinds of conservatism are about fear. And linguistic prejudices can come from the trauma of being told that perfectly normal bits of language are lazy.
Dave Huxtable is clearly smart and knows what he is talking about; I was incidentally surprised at the ease and accuracy with which he pronounces foreign words and phrases. The video gets better and better until, near the end, where it makes an appeal for “permissiveness.”
There it fails to note the two great advantages of “formal” over informal language: one, the former’s ability to convey more and finer distinctions of meaning with fewer words, and two, owing to its relative stability over time, the relative richness of the range of allusion which it has at its disposal.
All language develops to suit the needs of its users. The language of the slums gets better and better at expressing what the dwellers of the slums need to communicate. It can express ideas beyond that-let us say “academic” ideas-only by tortured and extensive periphrasis.
It would be interesting to hear Mr Huxtable lecture on one of the more abstruse aspects of linguistics in Kidspeak.
Languages adapt to the uses they are put to. After the Norman conquest, English became the language of the illiterate peasantry. When upper classes spoke Norman French and most learned writing was done in Latin. People found the idea of writing great literature in English ludicrous, until Chaucer came along and did just that.
@@DaveHuxtableLanguages Chaucer’s English was certainly very different from that spoken in 1066. Do you suppose Chaucer would have understood the text of Beowulf if he had seen it (which he might even have done)? My guess is, it would have seemed to him much as it does to an educated speaker of English in our time, who has never studied Old English, like a peculiarly opaque dialect of Dutch.
5:13 That table of common French slang is absolutely fascinating. I've studied very little French and have never previously heard of the slang terms listed, but I can take a guess at just a few English cognates:
fringues => fringe
baraque => baracks
bouffer => buffet
mec => Mack (informal US addressing an unknown male: "Hey, Mack!")
I'll bet some of those go back to encounters with US troops in the First World War.
An interesting theory. I don’t know about fringues. baraque is from Valencian. English barracks descends from it, not the other way round.
Bouffer is from Latin. Buffet is from French.
Mec is from Dutch and originally meant pimp.
Just seen that fringues comes from frange, which does mean fringe. The English word comes from the same origin.
The only language habit that annoys me is people that finish your sentence which causes me to change what I intended to say just to foil their attempt to predict my words.
Still wish that they would note use the word 'of' as a verb instead of 'have', as in - "I should of done that..."
One way in which language develops is through convenience-driven motivation, usually simplification, often illogical, which I would say is an expression of scarcity ruling in society. (Why put effort into language when there are more pressing concerns?) Where young minds are not ruled by scarcity, language might become more elaborate and beautiful. So development of language is one of many indicators through which the state of a society can be read.
1:52 In slightly literally related news, that one time in Nicaragua, contraculture led to the emergence of a death community.
6:37 Hattay oundsay eryvay amiliarfay.
16:43 You are ignoring that language emphasis in a job interview is not *for* the job interview but for what comes after. (And even if it was *for* the job interview, then you would still fail if you don't prepare for it.) - It's like saying you shouldn't learn proper math because job interviews are talk and not calculating.
North american English has been having a similar change too. Specially with the you was, we was, instead of you were, we were
Interesting.
as humans we need to understand and accept we need a universal language to make the world a better place and I think the youth will do this( me I am 80 years old)
I also have great confidence in young people. Many thanks for your comment.
With spell checks and grammar checkers being so readily available now, and the way English is taught in schools, do you not think that it will be harder for the language in the UK to change?
I think the change comes mostly from spoken language. I would argue that change could be more rapid these days since we can easily communicate with people from all over the world.
@@igotes Could in theory English become almost a bilingual language in the sense of a written language and a spoken language, not being the same.
Have you noticed the change in the schwa in south eastern often young female ‘posh’ rp ..? No longer the neutral uh, but extended to a longer ah.
Regarding Rinkebysvenska: Guzz just means a girl/(young) woman, not "attractive person". Cannot mean a boy/man :)
Secondly, I think the term "aina" also works as an insult because the name Aina in Sweden is a common name for elderly women. Sort of like the old grumpy teacher lady.
Peace!
Litcherally thisssssss
Literally not
16:50 seems like a hand-wave. The argument that something isn't important because it doesn't take up much time directly doesn't make sense when it determines how you go on to spend 150 hours/month.
Firstly, I am one of those old farts that say to youngsters, "Why don't they speak proper like what I does", but I have to say that when I hear kids saying things like, "I done it last week." it's wrong, it's incorrect and it makes my toes curl!! How can you say otherwise?
I imagine that’s just how people felt when kids started saying shoes rather than shoen.
@@DaveHuxtableLanguages However, we live in an age where it's easier than ever to preserve a language. So there's no excuses to be found.
"like what I does" isn't standard English, either. It's a regional variation, and one that would be considered grammatically incorrect where I'm from.
Either sociolects and idiolects are perfectly normal and should be allowed to exist, or they're all wrong and we should speak the exact same way; why are you allowed to be the exception?
Destroy them.@@TOBAPNW_
Can you explain why many from an academic background seem unable to open a sentence without a disjunctive 'So' and unable to end it without a high rising terminal?
I love that all our languages have evolved from kids just trying to communicate in a cool way.
That’s not how it works, that’s not how any of this works. They are standardised things for a reasons it’s how we understand each other and continue to understand history you can add vocabulary, but you can never lose the rules of the language. It always irks me that people want to use this strawman argument to excuse bad education and poor grammar. It’s no wonder people are not only becoming less well spoken, but it’s just harder to connect sentences together it’s harder to express ourselves!
@@mattybrunolucaszeneresalas9072 you say the same comments in a lot of this channel's videos
@@selardohr7697 ?
Is MLE just an academic term for Jafaican, then, or are there differences? Looking at your three generation family model, and Jafaican, Gen. 1 were born and learnt speaking in Jamaica; Gen. 2 were born here and speak English English (cockney for London etc.) but a few of them could revert to Jamaican if they wanted to; Gen. 3 learnt English English, but wanted to revert to Jamaican because it's so attractive . . . but weren't all that able at it, hence, Jafaican, which was seen as cool by their peers (whether white, brown, black etc.) and caught on, gaining elements from Australian informal speech, gay men's speech, and odd bits and pieces from all over. Whaddya think, Dave Huxtable? Jafaican = MLE
Which elements of Australian English have/had been borrowed into 'Jafaican'?
Have you talked about the recent tendency of people to mispronounce 'ask' as "axk", 'espresso' as "expresso", 'escape' as "exkape", etc..? I tend to believe it as not a regional thing but an internet-spawned thing...
?
Man like Dave is a roadsman, innit? 😂
My wife would also conclude that he has, as it were, “rizz”.
Damn you. I thought you were going to teach me how to understand teens😅
Sheridan's eyebrows had commensal algae, making them look green.
A detail I was unaware of.
Why is there something like Multicultural london english but there's nothing called Multicultural Toronto English even though they are basically the same thing?
A great point, Andrew. I’m sure there are fascinating new language varieties in all the world’s multicultural cities. Sadly, very few of them have gained much attention so far.
Because no one cares about Canada except Canadians.
Great video but reminded me how much I detest MLE.
I must be getting old.
It's horrible in a semi serious work setting, though.
I think I must be the only person who still uses the words chil and children. 😊
Oi mate, What about Aussie English? I know yous all wanna hear it aye.
innit
Proper Belters
I heard the average italian person has 6000 words in their everyday vocabulary, maybe english morphology seeping into the language isn't as worrying as parents seem to think it is? After all I've heard bits and pieces of it in every circumstance, but what would you say of the way verb conjugations disappear? Maybe it is an impoverishment, but I also maybe wish to see some overly complicated ways of expressing oneself burn and disappear, like subjunctive, maybe language does not have objectives like more diversity or less vagueness? Maybe it just changes and it's fine?
How is subjunctive complicated? We should be adding specificity not getting rid of it!
That’s not how it works, that’s not how any of this works. They are standardised things for a reasons it’s how we understand each other and continue to understand history you can add vocabulary, but you can never lose the rules of the language. It always irks me that people want to use this strawman argument to excuse bad education and poor grammar. It’s no wonder people are not only becoming less well spoken, but it’s just harder to connect sentences together it’s harder to express ourselves!
At the risk of provoking the wrath of the London youth, I don’t really care much for MLE.
Thank you! I'm don't feel proud to be born a Swedish citizen, since it there was neither choice or effort on my part that alloted me this nationality. If it's not my struggle, I cannot claim pride. However, I can - and nearly always will - feel a great admiration for all those that came before me. The homo habilis that mixed, turned, blended and evolved into today's homo sapiens. Here's the allegory: finding out that I carry a few non-homo sapiens sapiens DNA bits feels... Wicked, man! What if we saw the evolution of language in the same way?
I think you are on to something. The way we mostly talk about language change is very Victorian, with family trees and one language splitting into descendants. As you say, it's actually far more complex. English, for example has pretty much Scandinavian grammar with West Germanic, Norse, French and Celtic vocabulary.
Bred ymer.
Well, English is a mongrel language to begin with. You'll probably have some hurdles abroad if you are unfamiliar with some of these alterations.
I remember when I was studying Arabic. One day whilst I was at school,
I hit-up on this chick in one of the ESL labs. I showed her my 'formal' learning with some Arabic I'd previously written out. She started laughing. She said to me, - "if you go over there and start talking this way, they're going to laugh at you". 🥴 I remember going to live in the south of Germany and running into dialects that are so removed from formal Deutsch that anyone would have a near impossible time really understanding them. We had a housekeeper when I was first there. One day, while I was alone there at our apartment (We lived in a very small town in the region of Bavaria), I wanted to ask the housekeeper something, I don't remember what, so what I did was look up every individual word in my dictionary and just put it all together like you would in English. Of course I could have just rambled on some gibberish and it would have been the same. Sentence structure, cadence, inflections, and the very culture must be 'acquired' - obviously. When I was a little kid, I remember getting off the plane in London where a native stewardess was waiting for me. OH man, as soon as she began talking to me, and asking me questions, I was like
😐, I mean, just like that, - I could barely understand a word she said. Every language you look into is going to be far-far more than formal book learning.
While I was in Germany I knew this German girl down the street, she was helping me with my German. One day she asked me to say something in German. It was some short sentence involving the word 'night' or night time.
All of a sudden she started laughing.
I didn't know it at the time, but apparently the word for night and the word for'naked' are very much alike phonetically. I was just a stupid kid.
Many languages do not use the Roman alphabet. Russian for example. Russian uses a Cyrillic alphabet. And even if you've all the right piece's in place, just saying something the wrong way in a language (like Russian) can result in truly offending someone.
For a natural English speaker, picking up French is one thing, becoming comfortable with Mandarin Chinese is altogether something else entirely.
Slang, dialects, or simply regional differences are enough without learning any new language in the first place. Languages will get easier the more you stay with them. And especially if you are learning your first second language, do yourself a favor,
Understand your own grammar first; especially if it's a book and classroom setting.