THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IS HAVING A BRAT MOMENT

First, a brat girl summer, what’s next for Gen Z this autumn? If you’ve just googled brat girl summer, we are in the same boat. Language is changing faster than we can keep up, and even though the Oxford Dictionary tries to stay up to date with the latest unfamiliar words, it has its work cut out this year. In 2023, the Oxford Dictionary chose ‘Rizz’ as the word of the year. Short for ‘charisma’, ‘rizz’ is still being used in 2024, but a plethora of new slang words have also joined our language.

Currently, language change is driven by younger generations, while older generations grumble and bemoan the state of the English language. In another 20-30 years, a new generation will inevitably coin phrases, leaving Gen Z to reminisce over the ‘lit’ times of 2024. Historically, language was changed by ‘higher class’ or nobles like the King. The Government was also a source for dictating language usage, however, in the 21st century, it is rare for a royal to influence language change. In contrast, our language is created by the general population, particularly younger generations. They adapt language to suit their needs, and this new language enters by constant usage. Additionally, the language of today’s youth is short and snappy, featuring abbreviated words and plosive sounds like ‘bussin.’ Sentences tend to omit prepositions and auxiliaries like ‘is’ in the sentence ‘ice cream so boujee.’ Language gives the impression that it is being used for fun with words like ‘delulu’, which is a shortening of delusional, and originates from K-pop communities.

This shortening of words is an interesting phenomenon as sentences become shorter, and it becomes quicker to communicate with each other. The result is we can say a lot in a little. This change may have been influenced by the shorter attention span of younger generations. Research suggests Millennials have an attention span of 12 seconds, whereas Gen Z has the shortest attention span to date, a mere eight seconds. The use of short videos like Tiktok videos, reels and the endless stream of media content has likely contributed to this.

Therefore, it seems natural that younger generations might shorten their language. Language, after all, plays a function, and in the 21st century, it allows for quick conversations.

One might wonder if situations like Covid-19 have spurred the wish for shortened conversations — zoom chats over unstable internet might have influenced the need to say a lot before the connection cut out! Regardless, it is food for thought.

Some people might argue that this shortening of language is sloppy and improper; however, since when has the English Language been pristine?

In England in 1066, William the Conqueror was crowned and brought the French language across with him, adding over 10,000 words to the English Language, many of which are still used today. Similarly, English borrowed words from Italian to expand our language of music, architecture, and literature. Other languages such as Spanish,

Arabic, Latin and Persian all filter into the English Language and shape the language we speak today. Despite the English Language being a mashup of many other languages, many people believe in the purity and ‘proper usage’ of our language. This belief has been ingrained in us and dates back to the 18th century when Lowth and Murray suggested ‘one correct form of grammar.’ Together, they compiled a list of rules for ‘proper’ English, such as never putting a preposition at the end of a sentence and not using double negatives.

Raising the Standard

Lowth and Murray were examples of ‘prescriptivists’ who strived to maintain standardised English in our language. Doubtless, they would be shook at the woke language used by people in the 21st century. In fact, they would express their displeasure sooner than this and likely find fault with one of the greatest language creators. This creator was, of course, Shakespeare.

The bard, William Shakespeare, invented around 1800-2000 words, some of which are fun-sounding phrases like ‘wild-goose chase’ and insults for his unfortunate characters. However, many of his insults like ‘cozener’ and ‘lily-livered’ are considered outdated and no longer used. His iconic clap-back, ‘Villian, I have done thy mother’, is still used in society and evolved to form a ‘your mom’ insult. Noticeably, other insults like ‘plonker’ and ‘pillock’ are dying out with younger generations favouring taboo lexis.

It seems if someone from the younger generation were to roast you, they would either make their feelings known by swearing at you or express your idiocy with a simple but effective eyeroll. No idea how to reply to a teenager saying, ‘go off’? Expect an eyeroll at your lack of response.

Continued below…

Nowadays, we notice language change is fuelled by the media, memes, videos, and films. With younger generations being avid social media users and other online platforms, it’s no surprise that they are creating, using and spreading this new language. In 1816, the creation of newspapers, and later in the 19th century, mass media production enabled language to spread far and wide to other countries. Social media has overtaken newspapers, playing an essential part in language change. Instagram, Facebook, various forums and TikTok all provide a space for like-minded people to come together, communicate and inevitably come up with new words.

This change is sometimes unconscious and appears to be motivated by the wish to entertain or use language for fun. A recent example of this is language creation through sharing videos on the social media platform TikTok. Social media star Jools Lebron took the internet by storm when she shared a satirical video on presenting herself as ‘demure’, ‘mindful’ and modest at work.

The phrase ‘demure’ has since become Lebron’s signature catchphrase in her videos. Her comedic spin on ‘demure’ has grown overnight, with TikTok creators jumping on the trend and displaying various situations of them being ‘demure.’ One example might be elevating the ‘bed rotting’ trend as ‘demure’ or drinking wine ‘mindfully’ and ‘demurely.’

‘Demure’ may fast be overtaking the previous buzzword, ‘brat summer.’ Brat became popular thanks to Charli XCX’s album ‘Brat’, another example of media spurring language usage.

Despite being the opposite, Brat summer overtook trends like ‘clean girl’, ‘Barbiecore’ and ‘quiet luxury’.

Instead of coquette, pink and prettiness, Brat embodies chaos, fun and carefree living.

Like the other trends, it became an aesthetic in itself, branching into fashion with neon greens, leather, and cut-outs. With this in mind, Brat is the opposite of ‘demure,’ however, the comedic spin on ‘demure’ and poking fun at the polished looks of ‘clean girl’ could be a natural progression for those onboard with the themes of Brat.

So, despite the historical desire for standardised language, English is evolving faster than ever in the 21st century. Our English Language is no longer demure. It is having a Brat moment.