Student Slang and the Change in Student Slang from the Eighties to the Present

Abstract

Each new generation has a different perspective on culture, language and slang, which is a field that witnesses social change and constantly renews and expands itself. The most similar aspect of slang and youth language is that they are in a state of rapid change. In this study, it is aimed to determine the generational difference in student slang and the change in student slang from the eighties to the present day by scanning slang dictionaries and conducting a survey. In the first part of the study, it was determined whether the 89 words and idioms that meet student slang, which were determined based on the sixth edition of Ferit Develioğlu’s dictionary titled Türk Argosu (İnceleme ve Sözlük) in 1980, were included in the thirteenth edition of Hulki Aktunç’s Büyük Argo Sözlüğü (Tanıklarıyla) in 2020. In the second part of the study, the validity of these words and phrases was analyzed through a questionnaire applied to university students. This study provides data on the extent to which variables such as gender, age, family income and education level affect the use of slang, the area of use of slang and in which situations it is preferred, students’ perception of swearing-slang, and the determining role of time in slang. © 2024 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.