Understanding Language Variations: Youth, Regional, and Social Influences
Juvenile Language
Juvenile language is motivated by the desire of young people to differentiate themselves from older generations. They often use recent creations and a glossary of anglicisms from marginal languages. There is also an influence from new technologies. However, this carefree attitude sometimes leads to a decrease in accuracy and an impoverishment of lexical or syntactical resources.
Older Generations
Older generations tend to have a more conservative language, using words unfamiliar to other age groups, such as expressions or words of rural origin, proverbial phrases, and sayings.
Child Language
Child language is characterized by the speaker being immersed in the learning stage of the language, which produces analogies, low use of the interface, and changes in intonation.
Jargon
Jargon refers to the linguistic varieties that differentiate various professional groups (e.g., the speech of a lawyer, a politician, etc.).
Slang
Slang is created by marginal social groups, serving to prevent people outside the group from understanding the language.
Linguistic Register
A register is a set of linguistic elements that a speaker chooses to adapt to a specific situation.
Types of Registers
- Degree of Formality: Formal (lectures, exams, etc.) and informal (family, friends, etc.).
- Degree of Planning: Planned (high register, ritual register) and spontaneous (intimate register, friendly register, neutral register).
Choice of Register
The choice of register depends on the relationship between partners, the purpose pursued, the framework in which communication occurs, the medium used, the full text, and the genre.
Difference Between Colloquial and Vulgar Language
Colloquial refers to a register or individual variety, while vulgar refers to a social variety of the language.
Characteristics of the Colloquial Register
Spontaneity, expressiveness, and efficiency.
Linguistic Features of the Colloquial Register
Peculiarities Affecting the Form of Sentences
- Low syntactic complexity.
- Primacy of expressiveness over syntactic order (e.g., “I think the computer is very slow”).
- Use of regular linguistic procedures for the unfolding of the conversation (e.g., “By the way…”, “Do you understand?”, “Look…”).
- Frequent interruptions, suspensions, repetitions, or rewordings.
Peculiarities Affecting Words
- Restrictions on the lexicon (e.g., the use of “ahi” – there).
- A very expressive vocabulary.
- Numerous appellations and references to the speaker (e.g., “child”, “hey”, “don’t tell me?”).
- Frequent use of intensification, weighting, and attenuation of expressive procedures (e.g., “reketebien” – very, very good, “feiya” – a bit ugly).
Peculiarities Affecting Pronunciation
- Tendency towards relaxation of certain sounds.
- Very expressive intonation.
- Use of intonation and other paralinguistic resources as organizers of speech.
Language, Dialects, and Speech
Language is a communication system used by a community within a given territory.
Dialects are geographical varieties of a language.
Speech refers to varieties that are very restricted to areas within a territory, such as counties, valleys, etc.
Dialects in Spain
- Northern Varieties: Historic area of Old Castile, areas of Asturian-Leonese and Aragonese, along with Catalan, Galician, Basque, etc.
- Southern Varieties: Andalusia, Castilian-Manchego, Canarian, and American.