2024-08-01 15:28:00
Why the language of youth sometimes seems so old
As of 5:34 p.m
Source: dpa/Peter Kneffel
Among the ten candidates for “Youth Word of the Year” are two that have been in use for years. This contradicts the prejudice about the language of the youth. What you can learn from “Scissors” and “Talahon”. And which word will be the only logical winner.
SChiller reading is always a good start if you want to understand young people. At the beginning of “Räuber”, the great gangster rap of Sturm und Drang, the youth of 1782 fell into hysterics and fainted as they watched a K-pop group. Almost 200 years later, the Boomers were influenced as children by Donald Duck comics, in which the ducks do not always quote Schiller – the favorite poet of the translator Erika Fuchs – (“Can I build armies from the ground? Can I can grow a cornfield on… flat hand?”), but also often says Schiller German (“Schnurrli, what’s bothering you?”).
When these children read Schiller, everything from Duckburg seems familiar to them. They also know the phrase “Young people are quick with words” (“The Death of Wallenstein”) from Scrooge McDuck, who made a harsh judgment: “Young people are quick with words and have no understanding of business terms!” Year”.
Young people are literally obsessed with the word, Uncle Scrooge is right. He called hell without fear and without knowing that it could damage his aura. The words “Hell does not exist” as well as “strong rejection” and the word “aura” for our position among the ten candidates that can be chosen in the election for “Youth Word of the Year”. “Aura” is under the strong suspicion of Walter Benjamin, but it is more esotericism that makes it into the language of youth.
What “Talahons” say in German infantry circles is even more ambiguous. The expression probably comes from Arabic, means something like “we are here” and has recently become known as a self-description of young immigrants in Tiktok videos that show unconventional views and show themselves thoughtfully. If the environment and the hype decide the choice, then the word has to be won.
Young people are not always quick to use the word – Schiller is wrong here. In the 2024 election you can also choose “Yolo”, which was already declared the winner in 2012. And the title “Digga” is currently in the running, although Schiller seems to have already called Goethe. “Yolo” – abbreviation for “You only live once” – which is an expression of optimistic hedonism, is now interpreted in a more depressing way, as spies in youth culture news, more in the sense of: “The world will go anyway.”
Nevertheless, these two reforms show that the language of young people does not move as fast as they always say. Some words run for decades and then become part of the common language – the ancients said “cool”, “crazy” and “cool”, but you can still hear them in school gardens today. But there are also year jumps every time – in 2024 they can include “Yurr” as a greeting, “scissors” as a family acceptance or “Akh” as an address to a friend. However, the last two words are an example of the fact that since the beginning of the millennium, the language of young people has developed and adopted immigrant jargon and argot of artists.
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