Youth slang

One of the most interesting problems of linguistics is the problem of youth slang and its functions in the life of young generation.

Slang – is an informal language that contains words and expressions that are considered to be vulgar and not used in the speech of ordinary people. This is one of numerous definitions of slang. But in fact slang is much more important phenomenon.

It is the reflection of the cultural level of the whole nation and a person in particular. Slang is a special code used by a group of people. Youth from different countries has its own slang and sometimes it is very difficult to understand a teen that seems speaking strange language.

Youth slang depends on person's interests, education, subculture to which he/she belongs, music he/she listens to, etc. There are a lot of factors that influence people's preferences in the use of certain words.

Every subculture is based on certain music, sports, interests and youth slang depends a lot on it. For example, such words as duck dive, snap, grom or grommet, floater, etc. are the terms proper for surfing. So those who follow the surf culture of surfers know all these terms and use them in their speech.

There is also a great number of expressive phrases used by young people such as "Hey kiddo", "Hey geezer", or "Hey buzzazd" that give more expressiveness to the words. Try to find more expressive word than "drag", "dullsville", and "yawn". Add special gestures peculiar to every subculture and you'll get new language.

It is possible to define subculture to which a young person belongs by his/her slang. Usually slang is used for communication among youth and very rarely adults and old people use slang.