How Gen-Z Slang Defines a Cultural Identity.

The words of young people have always attracted derision, and yet they’ve persisted. Whether it’s groovy in the ‘70s or lowkey sus today, slang persists as a marker of identity for many. 

The way we use language says a lot about who we are, and how we relate to others. 

Urban Dictionary is home to many slang word’s definitions.

Are you calling people peng? Are your friends your mandem? Because that might say a lot about you, where you’re from, and who you relate to.

Gen-Z is defined as the generation born between the late ‘90s and early 2010s, that was raised with more widespread access to the social internet than any generation that came before.

Known as digital natives, many young people’s lives are dictated by time spent online. It follows that the words used across the web become an important part of the cultural lingo for zoomers. 

Sociolinguist Dr. Christopher Strelluf spoke about why slang gets used.

“If you choose to use words that are local to your area and choose to use words that old people don't use, then that allows you to position yourself as part of the group of your friends, your area and establish your local identity”

“We use language to be creative, to be clever, and to mark ourselves out as members of groups.”

Words will often spread from more specific ‘in-groups’ - such as a local community - into common vernacular. This process has accelerated as social media gives us insight into communities we did not have in years prior.

Linguist Benet Vincent told us about this.

“Being online a lot of the time helps words spread and language change. For example, memes are a key way of words spreading really really quickly”

While slang has been around forever, gen-z is perhaps the first generation to have a lexicon that defines it’s whole generation, across even country borders.

Professor Benet Vincent.

For example, the word peng travelled from Cantonese slang in China, into the common parlance of South Londoners, and then further into the language of millions, far removed from the origins of the word. 

The shared language of a generation defines it’s identity, often in opposition to the generation that came before. 

“Slang is about identity. It’s wanting to be part of a group.”

But the way slang shifts from the dialect of a specific group into the language of the generation at large has been the cause of complaint for some groups.

Historically, slang has come from marginalised and oppressed communities as a way to define themselves, and as words leave these groups some view their importance to these communities as being watered down. 

“Minorities create language to be able to communicate with each other and to be able to keep out others.”

“But as words spread from there and become sort of common currency, they have to create new slang.”

This is often the impetus for new slang being created, to create a more specific identity as other markers for being in an ‘in-group’ get diluted. 

Ultimately, the language we use is about how we relate to the world around us, and to ourselves.

Benet Vincent says: “It's all about which groups you see yourself as being a part of, who you want to identify with.”