Youth language: Do you also unbuckle when things get too cringe? | Life & Knowledge
Today is Youth Day. I'm 41 and I want to use this occasion to write about youth language. If that's not “cringe” enough and you're now giving a big “side eye” to a “tryhard” like me, I have a “weird” confession for you: I watch linear television.
It gets even stranger: third programs. Love stories from the 60s and 70s with Roy Black, Peter Alexander and Uschi Glas. They have “wylde” titles like “Bel Ami 2000 or how to seduce a playboy?”, “Paradise of the dashing sinners” or “When my darling hits the drum”. You can find all the “great” ones in there, they “sweet talk” and “bucket off”, often with a “lulle” in the corner of their mouth. Ah, I feel at home here. Everything is so beautifully simple, it always ends well and I understand what these people in funny flared trousers are saying. Or singing.
“Alta”, “Digga”, “sheesh”! This is really too sweet for me
Presumably the parents’ generation of that time found these new-fangled Expressions not so nice. And you? Are you closer to Roy Black than Apache 207? Do you sometimes feel as old as I am? Not when watching linear TV, but when you listen to young people? “Alta”, “Digga”, “sheesh”! That’s really too “sus” for me. I just googled it. Stands for “super uncool thing” and is used when you don’t think something is quite so cool. By the way, when I was young, cool was a Youth word. And awesome.
Until my parents set up a Geil cash register at our house. When my siblings and I used the word, we had to pay one D-Mark. “Kids, there are such lovely adjectives, you only say geil when you mean geil.” When I was twelve, I didn't understand when that was supposed to be. That's probably different today too.
My six-year-old came home from daycare the other day and said “What the F***”. My husband and I explained in detail why we definitely didn't want her to use that expression again, until her two-year-old sister stood in front of the aquarium and contradicted our explanations with a “What the fish”. Language is constantly evolving. In a way, that's cool. Isn't it?