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Slang often suggests that the person utilizing the words or phrases is familiar with the hearer’s group or subgroup it can be considered a distinguishing factor of in-group identity. But not all US slang is universal either. Today, slang is embedded in our culture and people use it everyday even though they might not realize they are using it. During the post-World War I era, society gained new attitudes about slang and there was now a demand for slang in entertainment, mass media, and fiction.
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As time went on, slang began showing up in popular culture such as plays and books and, in the early 1920’s, slang had gained the interest of popular writers. So, slang began making its way amongst the youth. School children at this time were taught that using slang was taboo and improper, but children will be children and innately want to do what is forbidden. So where did all of this slang come from and how does it evolve?Īccording to an online dictionary, slang is defined as ‘very informal usage in vocabulary and idiom that is characteristically more metaphorical, playful, elliptical, vivid, and ephemeral than ordinary language.’ Slang can also be described as nonstandard words or phrases (lexical innovations), which tend to originate in subcultures within a society. As a matter of fact, English slang started as language used mostly by criminals in 16th and 17th century England and developed primarily in saloons and gambling houses. But people from the US have been using this phrase for so long that it is not even considered slang anymore, but it actually is. For example, in the US, one of the most common slang phrases is ‘what’s up?’ It means, ‘what is new in your life?’. Sometimes we don’t even realize we are using slang. Every language has slang and sometimes nobody knows where some of the slang words or phrases come from. I just thought it bizarre that two countries so close together that use the same language would at least know of one another’s slang words, yet when I went to Argentina and used slang from Chile, the Argentineans had no idea what I was saying.Īs an English learner, slang is one of the hardest aspects of the language to understand. However, if you compare the US with the UK or Australia or South Africa, the slang of those countries is also completely different. I thought that was an interesting phenomenon since, in the US, most slang is widespread from state to state. I lived in Chile, only forty-five minutes from the border of Argentina, yet right across the border into Argentina, the slang is completely different. If there is one thing I learned during my two-year adventure in South America, it is that even though most of South American countries speak Spanish, (excluding Brazil, Guyana, French Guyana and Suriname) each country has its own slang.