Youth language is constantly changing, creating the languages of the future. As a passionate polyglot, I look at how young people in London, Paris, Berlin and Stockholm are creating new words, grammar and pronunciation which reflect life in their vibrant multicultural cities. Teen slang comes from a wide variety of different languages, and in London the accent has changed completely in the course of one generation.
I also explore how mediaeval youth language affected the history of English and how people have complained about thew youth of the day ruining the language for thousands of years.
0:00 Intro
0:15 Lang Belta
1:29 Future languages
1:48 Creating a language from nothing - Nicaraguan Sign Language
3:26 Young people as the chrysalis of language change
4:09 Viking slang in old English
4:39 Slang
5:04 French slang
5:34 The purpose of slang
6:18 New slang from other languages
6:40 Verlan - French backwards slang
7:17 Fast language change - Multicultural London English
8:22 Comparison of RP, Cockney and MLE pronunciation
8:45 MLE pronouns - the use of 'man'
9:03 Innit
9:15 'was' vs 'were'
9:47 Please like and subscribe!
9:56 Quotatives - reporting what people say
10:09 Other multiethnolects
10:19 Kiezdeutsch - multicultural Berlin German
10:35 Kiezdeutsch grammar - deleting articles and prepositions
11:18 Rinkebysvenska - multiethnic youth Swedish
12:11 Common features across youth speech in different languages
12:28 Quotatives in Multicultural Parisian French
12:40 Extenders and that
13:29 Hedging and like how to sound less sure and direct
13:54 Conservative reactions to youth language
14:27 A 14th century monk complains
15:16 A dictionary maker from 1780 predicts the downfall of English
15:48 Why the doomsayers are wrong
16:17 The effect of youth speech on job prospects
17:11 Implications for education
18:06 Suggested videos