Say What?
Colloquialisms occupy a lot of the space in a teenager’s vernacular. I was just thinking about it the other day and a lot of our colloquialisms come from the other people. The way we speak is influenced by phrases that other people pick up and start speaking with in daily life, and consequently, we sometimes begin thinking in colloquialisms too. It’s a whole cycle of hearing new things, using them, passing them on to other people, who pass them on to yet more people. Phrases like, “You tight,” “LOL,” etc. have become really common. But what part of our vernacular is ours? What part of the things we say each day are created by us? Maybe it’s the fact that we make a conscious choice to use these popular phrases that makes it so unique to us. Perhaps what makes our speech so different is the arrangement and choosing of these different phrases to compose our vernacular.
Sometimes I think in phrases I don’t normally use everyday. In my mind, if I’m thinking about being angry, I might say to myself, “I would be so tight if…” But I almost never say that out loud. At what point do we make that decision to move from words in thought to words in mouth? Do these phrases always pass through the mind first before coming out in everyday speech? Maybe it’s just me.
As a friend of mine would say, “We out!”
-lily k.
