It is often difficult to understand the speech of adolescents even for those who communicate with them constantly. One of the most popular attributes of independence that teens use to defend their independence is youth slang, in which familiar words are changed to abbreviated or simplified versions.
Slang, as a rule, means a certain lexical set of new words, as well as giving new meanings to old words. Many groups and communities have their own slang words and expressions, organized by race, occupation, geography or age. In some cases, slang is used to emphasize belonging to a group, in others it is a tribute to fashion, and sometimes even used as a secret language (for example, criminal slang).
The penetration of slang words and expressions into normative speech is an inevitable, albeit not a very quick process. Nevertheless, many literary words in the Russian language once belonged specifically to slang, for example, the word "cheat sheet". Naturally, the less closed a particular group is, the more likely it is that its jargon will fall into normal speech. The main source of new words is traditionally considered to be youth or teenage slang.
There were three main periods in Russia when teenage slang changed a lot. After the revolution, speech was "enriched" with criminal jargon, in the middle of the last century dudes ascended the pedestal, and at the end of the century - "computer scientists".
Teenage slang is a product of the eternal desire of teenagers to protest against "adult" rules and regulations. The teenager seeks to oppose himself to the older generation, and, in particular, this desire is expressed in not using the words that adults use. The basic basis of youth slang is not only the native language, but also numerous borrowings from foreign speech, one or another terminology.
Another important feature of adolescent slang is its constant volatility, due to the fact that generations of adolescents are rapidly changing. In addition to the protest function, youth slang also plays the role of an indicator that allows a teenager to classify himself as a group. Since peer opinion is crucial at this age, it is extremely important for a teenager to be a member of the community.
Do not confuse teenage slang and games. If in the first words mainly appear by simplifying native speech, then game jargon is almost entirely based on Anglicisms.
Like any other variant of slang, the adolescent vocabulary concerns only those concepts and phenomena that are among the most significant. Trying to defend their independence, teenagers come up with new designations for the most important things in their life: themselves, other people, relationships, money, entertainment, computer terms, emotions. Some of these words are becoming so popular that they are beginning to be used by recently matured people, while others, on the contrary, are forgotten as soon as their inventors grow up.
