Trend Cycles Apply to Words Too

The unconscious evolution of everyday phrases

Photo by Andreas Fickl on Unsplash

Story by Ozan Konez

Could an American today vacation in a foreign English-speaking country like England, Ireland or Australia and understand every word that is spoken to them?

Not only are words spelled differently and used in different contexts, it's unlikely that someone could immerse themselves in a culture quickly enough to understand the informal elements of the language.

You could hear somebody in England say, “I was feeling rather chuffed with myself after my footie game earlier today.”

What in the world does “chuffed” mean?

But, assuming a word's meaning and accidentally using a culture's slang improperly can result in head-tilting looks of confusion and may even come off offensively. Would you dare venture to say them yourself?

Chau Phan, a student at Western Washington University whose native language is Vietnamese, said that Hollywood acted as a gateway for her friends to learn informal language.

There are people who love watching American movies and films, and that is the main way they pick up American slang words and cultural differences, she said.

“When I moved to the states and when I actually made American friends… I started to pick up different things,” Phan said.

Phan said that English was a subject she learned in school but informal language is never taught to students. “I don't think people teach you words like ‘gotcha’ and things like that,” she said.

In the beginning, she said that her understanding of English was very textbook. It was far too formal for everyday conversations. Over time, practice with her host family and English-speaking friends really helped her grasp informal elements of the language. Even when speaking English, it felt as if she was speaking an alien language at times purely because of context.

Phan said that she used to greet everybody by saying things like, “Hello, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” She discovered that this isn’t necessarily wrong, but the formality isn’t right.

Culturally, there are differences that are hard to tackle. It takes time to understand the way of thinking, and having people to practice learning with was crucial for her.

She advocated for the importance of using language as a tool to express yourself. It's a means to deliver something to people rather than getting everything right in a textbook context.

American English has evolved quite a lot from its British roots. If a person today were to time travel back to the founding of the country, it might be too difficult to understand people to get by. Modern English speakers would stick out like a sore thumb.

Language is something that always changes and it changes rather quickly, said Edward Vajda.

Vajda is a professor of languages, literatures and cultures at Western and has been teaching Russian, Eurasian studies and linguistics for 38 years. He also researches endangered languages in Siberia at the university.

“Slang words cycle like fashion,” Vajda said. “It is not a coincidence that teens are generators of slang and new words.”

When young people are coming of age, they want to differentiate themselves from older groups like their siblings and parents. This desire to define themselves corresponds to the language they use, he said.

In the ‘70s, a lot of slang corresponded with music, Vajda said. Words like “groovy” and “psyched” were based on genres of music that were popular with younger audiences.

Vajda said that this trend took a different form in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Whatever is popular with teens works its way into their language, he said.

“Most slang disappears from language,” Vajda said. “But some words do stay in the language permanently.”

For example, the word “cool.”

“Cool started in the 1940s as a positive term,” he said. Again, taking influence from popular jazz music from the time, the phrase spread like a wildfire.

The slang words that remain in language for long periods of time often stay out of necessity.

“The Irish language filled various niches that English doesn't have a word for,” he said. “English is a language that has been borrowed from hundreds of other languages.”

Vajda said that American English dialects all have origins tied to British dialects from the colonial era of the Americas. Massive Irish migrations to the Americas also had impacts on dialects in the Northeastern parts of the United States like New York, New Jersey and parts of Pennsylvania.

The dialect in the “deep south” of the U.S. borrows pronunciations from London’s upper class, originating from the English who settled in that area first. It has slowed over time to create what we know now as the “southern drawl.”

Slang words and language serve as a marker for generational identities. Phrases get outdated and replaced with new ones that better fit the groups who use them.

“[Human beings] can’t sit still, they always want something different,” Vajda said. But, at the same time, people don’t want to stick out, and dialects mix together as people find common ground on word usage within a given culture.

“Animal systems of communication stay the same for thousands of years,” Vajda said. Meanwhile, humans change their understanding of words constantly. It is a part of languages everywhere and you might say it's almost built into our DNA.