Slay’s out, Skibidi’s in – General Alpha’s ever-changing slang vocabulary.

Ohio skibidi,” “gyat,” “japaholic”—Generation Alpha, the first generation to grow up in the online world, brings dynamic and colorful slang to the lexicon.

Language has always changed over time, but the internet has created layers of slang that are impossible to keep up with, says linguistics lecturer Dr Howard Manns at Monash University on RNZ’s Nine to Noon.

“A lot of these slang words that people our age or older people might think are trendy and new, like ‘no cap’, which means it’s true, or ‘lit’, which means something great, fam.” referring to your friends, or “slay”, which means it’s really good.

“The word is already out there, and a lot of it has to do with the pressure of social media and the growing influence of gaming and YouTube.”

And since language does not tolerate a vacuum, new words flood into it, he said, for example, “slay is out,” “skibidi is in.” “Skibidi” comes from the popular surrealist “head in the toilet” meme.

“It’s not a matter of knowing skibidi and its origins, but the ability to use it correctly.

“An example of this would be skibidi, a lot of Gen Alphas will use this to make fun of another idea that is popular with Gen Alphas these days, the idea of ​​brain rot.”

According to him, the older generation’s perception of Generation Alpha is that excessive online activity causes their brains to rot.

“Young people will actually use it very emotionally and sometimes shout about it to make fun of parents and make fun of the fact that they have brain rot, but also partly to make fun of children who they think are really suffering brain rot.”

Jargon is also evolving, he says, with words and phrases that may have become outdated being given new life.

“One of the things that allows words to last a little longer is how we use them and how we keep adding to them.

“Capaholic, Japaholic is another very popular option. My child sometimes accuses me of speaking Japanese, saying that I talk too much.”

While slang may be changing faster than ever, it’s nothing new. Indeed, some slang phrases still in use today date back in some cases to previous centuries, he said.

“We see this with a word like “cool” which has been around since the 60s but somehow still retains that slang, but an even better example and one of my favorite examples is booze, which has been around , at least since then. 15th century, but for some reason it still sounds a little slangy to us.”

According to him, some modern everyday words originated from slang.

“Fag, joke, boom, these words are just part of everyday English, but they were once slang – in fact, these are all the words that were slang in Shakespeare’s time.”

According to him, rhyming slang traveled the world from Victorian tunnellers in London to prisoners in American prisons.

“Rhyming slang dates back to the navy and engineers who worked on the British railways.

“They were one of the first to use rhyming slang, which later moved on to Cockney and then we adopted it here in Australia.”

He said the Australians then took the rhyming slang with them to the gold fields in the US, but the people who used this secret language were predominantly criminals.

“There was this gang, the Sydney Ducks, who were really into rhyming slang. And what was interesting is that the only place where rhyming slang was really adopted in the US was in prisons, because the Sydney Ducks hung out with other criminals, and these criminals brought the language into American prisons, and you can still find that it used as a secret language in American prisons.”

He believes that the rich linguistic tradition of slang is in the capable hands of General Alpha.

“Their slang is constantly evolving, and they use it very creatively…Capoholics, Japaholics, Japanese, these kids are creative.

“So, I think we should give them credit without any limitations and say these kids are doing well.”