Monitoring 21st-Century Real-Time Language Change in Spanish Youth Speech

Linde Roels,Renata Enghels,Fien De Latte

doi:10.3390/languages6040162

Abstract

In recent decades, youth language has become one of the preferred research areas in sociolinguistics, not only because of its non-normative nature but mostly because it is recognized as a catalyst for language change. Since adolescents aspire to create and safeguard an in-group identity, they constantly generate innovative linguistic forms. However, few studies have empirically monitored the speed at which linguistic innovations are introduced into youth language. This study explores the speed and nature of recent language change within Spanish youth language by conducting a corpus analysis in real time. Data of the contemporary CORMA corpus (Corpus Oral de Madrid, compiled between 2016 and 2019) are contrasted with the highly comparable data of the COLAm corpus (Corpus Oral de Lenguaje Adolescente de Madrid, compiled between 2003 and 2007). The study scrutinizes two typical phenomena of youth language, namely the use of intensifiers (e.g., super-, mazo) and vocatives (e.g., tío/tía, chaval/chavala). It is shown that changes occur at a more moderate speed than previously assumed and that the speed of change depends on the linguistic phenomenon under study. Additionally, the data suggest that more neutral forms remain quite stable over time, while the use of more expressive items shrinks or increases faster.

Highlights

The first two decades of the 21st century have witnessed a number of important sociocultural changes in Western societies, including Spanish society, which have undoubtedly influenced the languages they use
This paper aims to investigate the speed and nature of recent language change as it occurs in Spanish youth language
We evaluated if and how the frequency of intensifier and vocative forms in youth speech was affected by the time variable

Summary

Introduction

The first two decades of the 21st century have witnessed a number of important sociocultural changes in Western societies, including Spanish society, which have undoubtedly influenced the languages they use. One of the milestones of the current era is the unstoppable expansion of social media (e.g., Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok) and streaming services (e.g., Netflix, YouTube) (Jenkins 2009). Because of the strong development of social media as a primary means of communication, speakers continually enter into interaction more indirectly rather than engaging in face-to-face conversations. Conversational rules no longer apply in the same way in these ‘mediated’ interactions, which may, in turn, have an impact on the strategies applied during a direct conversation. This has resulted in the use of a more informal language in general (Gutzmann 2019). English borrowings entered the Spanish language much earlier, in the current era, there is a considerable increase in their diffusion and use (García Palacios et al 2016)

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