Wrong turn for evolution?
As all linguists are aware, language is never static but constantly evolves with vocabulary and usage constantly evolving to adapt to milieu. Perhaps though, some parents in Australia might be feeling that evolution could have taken a wrong turn with regards to their children’s linguistic direction, because it seems that it has proved necessary to publish a new dictionary designed to assist them in understanding their children’s jargon.
It has been estimated that Australian children, mostly teenagers, actually communicate using over 400 words that are not found in any standard dictionary; almost a quarter of these new words have exclusively appeared within the last 12 months!
Academics studying this ‘divergent language’ phenomenon believe that it has mostly been spawned by the overwhelming exposure of teenagers to online modes of communication such as e-mails, texting and blogging, where the increased use of abbreviations is commonplace as a time saving measure.
Interestingly, abbreviated use relating to texting was originally a cost cutting measure (analogous to abbreviated usage in Telegrams), however, as texting costs have reduced substantially, the use of abbreviations has not reduced commensurately.
The new ‘jargon dictionary’ which is due for release in Australia in December (and should also be available over the internet for UK readers) is entitled ‘Word Up’. Keep an eye out for it and you should then be able to decipher that a ‘chilli’ is nothing to do with spices, but a pretty girl; that ‘salty’ is nothing to do with condiment content, but a bad attitude; or that ‘crunked’ is someone who is both intoxicated as well as crazy. Good luck.