Is GEN ALPHA SLANG just NONSENSE?

How does slang even happen? And what does it mean when a looks maxxing sigma tells you your drip and rizz are on fleek, no cap, on gawd? If you're confused, I got you.

#language #languages #slang #genz #genalpha #rizz #drip #skibidi

[ADJJ]

“Dish” becoming “Snack” because of inflation tho 🤣 😅

[MacroManatee]

I met an elderly man with whom I chatted about his life story. I didn’t know his exact age, but he owned a business in the ‘50s so I could definitely think of him as “old.” As our conversation drew to a close, he invited me to dinner at his house at an undetermined future date. I liked the idea and told him, “That would be really cool.” He shook his head and said, “‘Cool.’ You young people and your slang…”
I chuckled a bit and bid him goodbye, but inside I was reeling. “Cool” has been in use for, like, three generations at this point! I didn’t even think of it as slang until I met someone who PREDATED that definition of the word! Unfortunately I never got the chance to have that dinner, and he died within a couple of years after our conversation. I’ll never forget him, though; it was like the distant past had reached out and tapped me on the shoulder.

[_tonypacheco]

We were yeeting in 2015/16, I don't think gen alpha can have that one

[matus]

GenXer here, I heard "yeet" all the time in high school in the 90s, referring to something like secretly spitting on someone. Fascinating video. subscribed.

[gabebrutal]

I'm 40, parent of a gen z son. I learned all of his slang to embarrass him in front of his friends. No cap. On God.

[cloudx]

I'm 40, black and a gamer, and we've been using a bunch of these words, unironically for decades. It's weird when it's been called Gen Alpha slang, because I don't understand how people don't understand these words.... Except for skibidi, gen alpha can have skibidi.... I am trying to bring wowzers back though.

[Levi_OP]

You should have just left it at "this is skibidi jones" 😭

[choblastr]

I really just watched a 21 minute video about gen alpha slang wihout skipping a minute. Great video mate

[cfkay]

Gen Alpha's slang hasn't changed much at all from Gen Z slang. I bet elementary schoolers are just repeating the slang they are hearing Gen Z influencers say on TikTok

[foogod]

I was kinda surprised that you (and the other references) didn't even touch on "unalive". Arguably, it wasn't invented by Gen Alpha, but it really seems to have been embraced by them as slang in a way not done by any previous generation. As far as I know, it was actually invented by Gen Z as a sort of tongue-in-cheek reaction to de-facto online censorship of words like "die", but for quite a long time was mostly used not as a general-purpose slang word, but very deliberately in specific situations to say "I am using this word because I am forced to, which is a commentary on the state of things". Most Gen Zers wouldn't actually use "unalive" unironically in everyday conversations (which I think would be seen as a bit cringe to most of them).

However, a lot of Gen Alpha seems to have heard this word so much in Youtube videos, etc, that they have actually adopted it, entirely unironically, as a slang term which they use in their everyday lives. What used to be a social/political statement is now just another word for the next generation. So even if they didn't _invent_ the term, they have arguably invented _its use as ordinary slang, _ which I think is an interesting phenomenon in and of itself.

[foogod]

I love how so much of this sounds like it could be some sort of weather report:

"There's a vowel merger slowly spreading east across Pennsylvania, and GOAT has changed part of speech to past-participle, which means expect back-formations soon."

[grunner]

I'm from Australia & started using "banger" in the late 90's! You're very welcome!

[obazu]

The sigma term is a bit more complicated than explained in this video. The meme isn't, that sigma is "super alpha"; it's that the sigma is a "lone wolf", that is neither "alpha" nor "beta".
The first time I came across the term, it was being used satirically, to mock the whole concept of alpha and beta males and red pill culture, but according to Wikipedia (which, I acknowledge, might not be the best source for tracking origins for different internet lingo), it originated as a serious concept by an alt-right writer in 2010. I think this highlights an interesting pattern of a kind of an irony loop where a controversial term gets shot up in popularity, by people using it both ironically and unironically and it getting increasingly difficult to tell, which is which.

[lazerbungalow]

Here I was thinking "fleek" absolutely predated Gen Alpha and had been under the impression that it's already fallen out of fashion.

[TirelessGod]

This is for real one of those "trust me, the video is more interesting than you think" types. I learned a lot, thanks man

[abelhernandez]

Totally rad vid. Your analysis is both mondo and tubular.

[splitp]

Great video as always. As a black Gen-Xer, I laugh so hard when I hear all of the "new" slang . It's nice to have a linguist break down and explain the actual origins of these terms. Also love your distinction between slang and dialect. Keep up the good work. Also, getting onomatopoeia right on the first try is truly epic.

[repker]

I could've sworn sigma originated from a play on alpha and beta, as a way to be adjacent and "above" the ridiculousness of the pseudo-scientific dichotomy. "They're not an alpha but they aren't a beta either. They're a sigma." The self awareness faded and sigma was lumped back into just being "better" in the same way alpha is better.

[dungeoneering]

Dude, 80's slang was rad. Totally bodacious. Today's slang is grody to the max I mean like gag me with a spoon.

[adreabrooks]

I like your suggestion of doing old slang! I might also suggest flapper slang as a source. "Flappers" were an aesthetic group of ladies in the 1920s. Some of their slang fell out of fashion (e.g. using "blouse" as a verb meaning "to leave"), some stuck around as colloquialisms ("daddy-o, cat's meow"), and some settled into the mainstream and we forgot it was slang (snuggle, dapper). Pretty interesting era, linguistically-speaking!