However, we also discussed the debate around the idea of a professor telling students to never use certain words in their papers. The problem with it is that it essentially creates a class division. Students are told that colloquial speech is unintelligent. As a result, they may think of themselves as above the rest of society and reject their upbringing for how it taught them to speak. We also talked some about how colloquial speech or the speech used by young people and teenagers can actually be meaningful. Teenagers have a language of their own to bond together and to purposefully leave out the adults so they feel more independent. For them, their speech is something they identify with. They know who is "one of them" based on how they talk. Therefore, they can only get across certain meanings by using phrases that the adults may thing sound "stupid." As a teenager, I fully agree with this. I don't know all the phrases but there are certainly things that my parents can't understand when I talk and it is a part of my identity that I share with other teenagers. Anyway, here is a list of some of the words we came up with. In no particular order.
- dope
- homeboy
- interesting
- swag
- so _____
- hella
- hear it ALL the term here. It's a big nor cal thing.
- nor cal should probably also be on this list
- yo
- homie
- stuff
- duh
- howdy
- cool
- awesome
- get/got
- thing
- , like,
- being
- nah
- gonna
- wanna
- bro
- ain't
- 'bout
- 'cause
- 'til
- swagger
- guurl
- means girl
- can be written with at least two u's. But more is preferable.
- Ex: guuuuurl.
- rad
- yeah, uh, like
- I think
- I believe
- gnarly
- hey
- chill
- cool
- super duper
- freakishly
- poopy
- ish
- lol
- omg
- wtf
- any texting language
- totes
- swears
- any cuss words
- contractions
- seriously
- lots
- a bunch
- "so" when you mean "very"
- all in all
- mhm
- big
- yeah
- there are things that
- this is the sort of...
- for sure
- dude
- smang
- finna gonna
- (means going to)
- I'm finna gonna the grocery store
- in deep doo doo
- flowy
- weirdo
- chunky
- sick
- something is cool
- ill
- something is cool
- down with that
- when I was in 8th grade I asked my mom if she was "down with me skipping school" on the last day. She said, "Of course I am down with that." I said "Really? You're down. That's awesome." She got confused and then we realized that she thought down with that meant a negative, a no. Down with that means you are cool with something.
- okay
- frick
- goodness gracious
- you've got to be kidding
- ye
- or any old english terms
These were such a few. Hope you enjoyed :)
Funny when I was out there "hella" was strictly a so cal thing. :)
ReplyDeleteThat's really interesting! I have heard mixed things. Many so cal people say it's only nor cal but I definitely hear some so cal people saying it. My roommate is nor cal and she says it in every other sentence.
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