# Teenspeak: unique to Americans **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 9, 2003, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenspeak-unique-to-americans/147436 "2003-01-09T03:02:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KenP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c0e974/32.png) [@KenP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KenP)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenspeak-unique-to-americans/147436/1 "2003-01-09T03:02:53Z")
My daughter and her friends, although bright kids, speak a language that’s not quite English: “So I was like (grimace). And she was like (smirk). But David? The guy she used to go out with? He was like (scowl).” Is this unique to Americans? Or do teenage Aussies also speak not-quite-English? Do teenage Germans speak not-quite-German? Etc., etc. ---
**Author:** ![Cessandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cessandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cessandra)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenspeak-unique-to-americans/147436/2 "2003-01-09T03:08:03Z")
Well, I don’t speak any languages other than English, but, my best friend speaks French as a second native tongue – that is, she grew up in America speaking English to her dad and French to her mom, and spending summers in France. As a teen, she sometimes had trouble understanding French teenagers and their slang. So, no, it doesn’t appear to be a totally American thing. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenspeak-unique-to-americans/147436/3 "2003-01-09T03:22:32Z")
Teenage Aussies do indeed speak not-quite-English\*. The habit of peppering conversations with the word ‘like’ isn’t a new one. It can still be heard in Australia, but not as much as it was ten or so years ago. If I’m not mistaken, it’s Californian in origin, and dates from around the mid-1980s. The language teenagers use here has changed over the twenty years I’ve been paying attention to it, but the “weird teen accent” hasn’t. It’s a challenge to describe this accent. It’s a lazy accent in some ways, but also carefully modulated in others. There are lots of very round (rOWnd) vowel sounds, and words tend not to run in to one another as they do in general Australian English. Each word tends to get clipped short. It has a slightly pretentious feel to it, and sounds as though the speakers are trying to sound educated and worldly (which is exactly what the average older teen IS trying to do). The latest hot phrase for them here in Sydney at least, is “Are you serious?”, pronounced “_Are. You. Seri. Ussss?_”. It’s incredible how often they can manage to say this within the space of a one or two minute conversation. It has become the standard response. Of course the teen classic (favoured by the girls) of “Oh. My. Goddddd” still has some currency. They’re also still describing things as “fully sick”, “hardcore”, and “mad”, all of which more or less mean “good”. \*Yes, Yes. I know. The same could be said for the adults. ---
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenspeak-unique-to-americans/147436/4 "2003-01-09T03:28:47Z")
In Australia the kiddies are understandable, nothing like Valleyish, which I think is what you are referring to. Like, OH MY GOD! Like - TOTALLY Encino is like SO BITCHEN There’s like the Galleria … It s like so BITCHEN cuz like everybody’s like Super-super nice It’s like so BITCHEN… - F Zappa ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenspeak-unique-to-americans/147436/5 "2003-01-09T04:39:45Z")
Japanese also has its own teen language, which frequently uses abbreviated mixtures of Japanese and English. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenspeak-unique-to-americans/147436/6 "2003-01-09T04:40:19Z")
In Mexico, the upper class teenagers (“fresas”) have a lot of their own slang. Working class kids have a separate set of slang. Anyway, the Mexican fresa equivalent of “like…” is “o sea…”. [http://www.osea.com.mx/](http://www.osea.com.mx/) ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenspeak-unique-to-americans/147436/7 "2003-01-09T04:55:13Z")
My Japanese friends tell me that there’s a “schoolgirl dialect” that seems to be the Japanese equivelant of “Valley Girl” speech. I don’t speak Japanese but I can tell that the “schoolgirl dialect” is higher-pitched and more sing-songy than standard Japanese, and my friends tell me the word selection and sentence formation also make it sound cutesy. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenspeak-unique-to-americans/147436/8 "2003-01-09T06:14:20Z")
Shonen! ---
**Author:** ![Latch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f475e1/32.png) [@Latch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Latch)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenspeak-unique-to-americans/147436/9 "2003-01-09T08:20:07Z")
A mate of mine came back from Sydney after a 4 month stay. Now when we go out to a pub or niteclub he yells “chucks everwah” (chicks everywhere). He has a lot more slang he picked up from there, but that’s the one I can remember offhand. ---
**Author:** ![Latch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f475e1/32.png) [@Latch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Latch)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenspeak-unique-to-americans/147436/10 "2003-01-09T08:22:15Z")
Oh, and I’m pretty sure it’s not just a slag at the kiwi (New Zealand) accent. ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenspeak-unique-to-americans/147436/11 "2003-01-09T08:37:41Z")
I read an article recently about the habit in French teen-slang of reversing the order of the syllables of an ordinary word to make a slang word… this is known as _verlan_ - itself a “verlanised” version of the word _l’envers_ meaning “reverse”. Apparantly (according to the article) it makes speaking with French teenagers rather difficult, as these words are liberally sprinkled into the conversation… A site on _velan_: [http://french.about.com/library/vocab/bl-verlan.htm](http://french.about.com/library/vocab/bl-verlan.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenspeak-unique-to-americans/147436/12 "2003-01-09T08:41:28Z")
That “like” business is not confined to only teenagers. It seems as though everyone under the age of forty (and many beyond as well) are afflicted with the “like” syndrome. Makes me want to commit murder! :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Kyomara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8edcca/32.png) [@Kyomara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyomara)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenspeak-unique-to-americans/147436/13 "2003-01-09T10:57:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by grimpixie \* > \*\*I read an article recently about the habit in French teen-slang of reversing the order of the syllables of an ordinary word to make a slang word… \*\* Apparently they had a similar fad in Japanese in the mid-nineties. My favorite _manga_ from that period is peppered with it. It’s almost pig-latiny in its effect, as it was often used to soften dirty or insulting words (at least in this manga it was). So _ketsu_ (ass) becomes _tsuke_ and _hage_ (baldy) becomes _geha_. But nowadays you only hear 30-something salarymen using these words, a true sign that it has fallen out of fashion. Which makes me wonder, what are we really talking about here? If we’re just talking about slang and passing linguistic fads, I would imagine that just about every language in the world has some kind of “teenspeak.” But I think the OP is referring to a more tenacious weird intonation that has been used by American teens for at least the last 20 years. Not that I have any answers for that. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Skip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@Skip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skip)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenspeak-unique-to-americans/147436/14 "2003-01-09T11:04:13Z")
You china’s have naught on South Afrikan slang, ek se. Cheers okes cos I’ve got to chuck with my boets cos we’re jolling. Lekker! ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenspeak-unique-to-americans/147436/15 "2003-01-09T12:11:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Skip \* > \*\*You china’s have naught on South Afrikan slang, ek se. Cheers okes cos I’ve got to chuck with my boets cos we’re jolling. Lekker! \*\* Don’t tune me with your grief bro, I don’t smaak your looks ek se!! Juslaaik, it’s almost chowtime - a bietjie kos, dop and then a dos! Safe my brooo!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![raygirvan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@raygirvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raygirvan)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenspeak-unique-to-americans/147436/16 "2003-01-09T13:18:31Z")
_the like syndrome_ UK is similar. Here they use “like” to mean “said”. Typically heard on the bus, this kind of monologue: And my Mum was like,“Where are you going?” And I was like, “Out with Shaun.” And she was like, “Not while you’re living in my house”. And I was like, “That’s soooo unfair.” … etc ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenspeak-unique-to-americans/147436/17 "2003-01-09T13:43:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Peanuthead \* > Makes me want to commit murder! :mad: Like, lighten up man, why you be sweatin me. :eek: [ducks and runs from barrage of bricks] ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenspeak-unique-to-americans/147436/18 "2003-01-09T13:45:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by raygirvan \* > \*\*_the like syndrome_ > And I was like, “That’s **like** soooo unfair.” … etc \*\* You missed a like. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenspeak-unique-to-americans/147436/19 "2003-01-09T13:48:03Z")
It’s definitely creeping in over here - I find myself using “like” for “said”. I noticed from American friends of mine (in their late 20s) that “the like syndrome” seemed to creep in about '94/'95. I also noticed that it was often coupled with the word “all” - thus “and I’m all like [mimed expression], and he’s all like [another mimed expression]”. ---
**Author:** ![Zagadka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zagadka/32/7272_2.png) [@Zagadka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zagadka)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenspeak-unique-to-americans/147436/20 "2003-01-09T14:31:36Z")
And this is how language changes. In 200 years, they will look back on when the word “like” took on entire new realms of meaning. I blame it on high school English teachers. The god-forsaken phrase “…using ‘like or as’…” has come back to haunt civilization as we know it. Mostly it is used as a disqualifier of knowing what is going on around them, which is common with teenagers in general… I use it in terms like “I’ll fix it like Thursday” or “He said, like, (insert paraphrase)”. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenspeak-unique-to-americans/147436.md?page=2)