“Many things have changed including the words we use to talk to each other and express ourselves but… why have these changes taken place? We know that cultural exchange caused by immigration, social media and other ways of communication between people and cultures is one of the reasons why language has changed. Not only does each country, region or city have a specific accent but also special words and phrases that are sometimes only understood by their community, urban or age groups. Another reason is Internet culture. Social media, video games and influencers have invented and introduced new words that weren’t used before: trolls, mansplaining, gaslighting, cappin, bussin, sheepl. A lot of people see that celebrities use these words and start saying them as well so they become viral. Video games are very fast and players need to use shorter words and abbreviations to talk to each other while they are playing. To sum up, language has changed a lot and there are many reasons but in our opinion, cultural exchange and social media are the most important ones”.
Sol, Azul, Valentina and Juan
“Kids also adopt new terms from TV shows, songs or from the interpretation they make out of those words used by the people they live with. On the other hand, teenagers are at their peak when talking about the creation of new expressions; sometimes expressions are invented among groups of friends and spread through their peers. Let’s not forget that influencers such as youtubers or streamers create slang words and use them in their posts. The language adults and seniors speak changes in the same way and that’s either because they learn words from the younger members of the society or because slang from their past comes to life again, sometimes with a new meaning (sweet, salty, savage)“.
Dylan, Luca, Sol, Felipe and Kiara
“We think that language has been changing over the years as new generations appear and create their own language to differentiate themselves from past generations. New abbreviations have come up, some of them used more as an abbreviation itself than as a whole phrase for example LOL, LMFAO”.
Mica and Guille
“Language is also constantly changing when people travel or migrate and there is a constant mix of cultures. On the other hand, new generations adopt their own social networks that influence the language they speak: for example Ibai had his community adopt the word crazy”.
Manuel and Fede
“The language also changes because present generations have different hobbies, interests and habits from the old ones; for example, nowadays video games are very popular and gamers are always inventing new words like OP or changing their meaning such as cheat used as trick”.
Lautaro
“Technology has also made changes in the language due to innovation and the creation of new devices (smartphones, airpods, airdrop). These changes are important because they add more variety of words, new ways to describe things and so on. Languages are constantly changing because society is constantly changing. For example, words referring to specific communities such as gamers”.
Lucas, Juan and Marko
“It is known that the origin of a lot of words comes after a culture crash, which is when two cultures merge and as a result new things such as words, food and music are created. Argentina is a perfect example: the arrival of Italian immigrants brought new slang such as laburo. Another reason for this change is the human instinct to constantly renew themselves. As society evolves and new devices are invented all the time, it is crucial to have words to describe them and be able to talk about them (smart phones/TVs , 3D printers). In conclusion, we need to feel different and unique, this is why the changes in language are inevitable“
Marina and Santino
Autora: Cecilia Cercone
