OK, Boomer: learning about modern slang and its relation to culture and history

I think of slang as being made up of several factors. It can be geographically situated, but it's also something that is culturally situated, depending on your cultural backgrounds or what type of experiences you have had within those communities. But what's most important is that slang is something that is often evolving over time, place and within communities and context.  

It is a way of seeing yourself and one another through your language practices. I saw on social media recently someone said “hankering” to their partner. Their partner's from D.C.; they're from the South. The partner didn’t understand the term. It’s the small things that are distinct enough you can pinpoint the region, but you also see yourself in that language.

But there can also be generational language differences. There are certain words or phrases that I don't really know a lot of other people who say, but then when I look at my parents' generation, a lot of them say that.

I would say jargon is more disciplinary or professionally situated. It is specific to a set of ideas and practices that individuals outside of those industries or practices likely don't have the same access to or the need to use.

Non-standardized variants of English, like Black English or Chicana English are their own language forms.

Slang is something that is focused on the communal aspect rather than the disciplinary practice. I see jargon as a type of gatekeeping, where I see slang as an opportunity for connection.

When people talk about non-standardized variants of English—Black English or Chicana English—they sometimes conflate that with being slang. That is inherently wrong because those are their own language forms.

For example, irregardless is very commonly used in Black English, and among some Black communities understood for what it means. In previous standardization of grammar and language, it was incorrect but now has been adopted as a possible usage. 

It has become so widely recognized, the use or the understanding of it is no longer specific to its cultural or regional origins. They are lost in that transmission. 

Sometimes it’s like, ‘Oh, this is Gen Z language,’ but a lot of these phrases have origins in Black English and LGBTQ+ language practices. The language becomes flattened—presented as shared knowledge rather than acknowledged that it is often co-opted from marginalized communities. Language should reflect where people are and how they are evolving, but more parameters are necessary to reduce cultural theft.

That is difficult to answer. It might be related to how that term or phrase emerged. If it is some clip of somebody saying something that randomly circulates on the internet, I don't know that that is as longstanding as maybe something that emerged out of a very popular song that has lasted generations.

There has to be something memorable or affecting you can pinpoint in the language that causes it to stand the test of time.