Language

''Language. What languages are most commonly spoken in what is now the United States? What languages across the world have become extinct? What neologisms have been coined to refer to new inventions, new demographic trends, new social phenomena? What slang terms are currently being used (for cool, square, neat, shan, dorky, nasty, silly, suspicious, stupid, smart, crazy, idiot, suck/blow, rock/rule, guy/person, guy/boy, girl, alcohol, marijuana, stoned, car, money)? How do people informally recount bits of a conversation (the way we use “I was like” or “He’s all” today)? What fillers/wordweed (like, y’know, dude, and stuff, or something, etc.) are popular among younger speakers? How have the rules of grammar changed since now? Have today’s languages evolved into new languages unrecognizable to speakers of today? Has the Internet or some other medium changed the way people speak and write?''

Slang words include “grilling” (cool), “nim” (idiot), “syncked” (having got it all together), “shussy” (sucky), shackstick (bang-up), and “zanked out” (passed out). “Stiffer” is a general insult, similar to the British “wanker”. People say, “Shock!” when something shocking was just said by their interlocutor. Calling someone “kunk” is like saying s/he is kooky, or a crackpot. A heartburst is something (an incident, a fact, news, etc.) that breaks somebody’s heart. “Ja”, borrowed from German, is often used for yes. “Fall into the cap-trap” means “fall into the capitalist trap”. People still say “chillax” and “Sweet!”