22

In Germany, there a several characteristics which only exist in youth language. First of all the vocabulary partly is different, words like "Digga(h)" (bro) were introduced into German by youth language and have now partly become widespread terms. But there still are specific words only younger people use and these words constantly change while only a minority stays part of the German (youth) language. On the other hand there are some words which already exist in German but are more widespread in youth language, for example the North German greeting "Moin". The gramma also partly differs since the youth language tends to accelerate the process of language simplification. There are also exeptions for that. The youth language is influenzed by different actors. First of all probably by other languages like English (many, many anglicisms) or Turkish. But also by people who are known among young people and by more complex structures. All these characteristics differ from region to region and only a minority actually applies to the whole of Germany.

Which country are you in? Are there any characteristics of your country's youth language? Does the youth language maybe differ from city to city? How did it change over the time? By what is your youth language influenzed?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] deadcatbounce@reddthat.com 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Yes. Almost always.

As a kid, we wanted to obscure what we said from the adults or at least make them stop listening (there was a phase when I was in school of including a speech impediment when speaking; we found that teachers didn't listen to us after a little while.).

We'd either done something the adults had forbidden or were about to, something that would cause us embarrassment if the adults knew, or it was just more exciting if they didn't know.

As the adults catch on to what things mean, we all using those terms in that specific way.

I'm using 'adults' to mean someone who is responsible for themselves so somewhere between eighteen and thirty.

If you're an adult reading this in the UK and US (maybe other places), urban dictionary is your friend.

this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2025
22 points (100.0% liked)

Asklemmy

47134 readers
1146 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy ๐Ÿ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS