Speak Easy

Much has been written about the changing vocabulary of today’s new generation. The development of SMS/Chat/IM lingo has shown us how a parallel dictionary can run effectively. It vividly captures the new-age conversation.A closer look at the terms used by youngsters today can help brand marketers connect with them much easier. Well, at least brand marketers will be speaking language that'll be perceived as cool.

Increasingly words like ‘awesome, whatever, kickass, timepass, rockin', have fun, yes maccha, screwed, jhakkas, superb, cool, nice, sex-on-toast, F@#$, my ass, great, it’s hot, get a life, life sucks, Yo-man, shoot’ are becoming common in conversations by youngsters.

What can this kind of a vocabulary be traced back to? To begin with, lack of extensive reading (restricted only to newspapers and few popular fictions) is leading to a decrease in vocabulary skills. Though the issue lies on the shoulders of the teachers, parents too are to be blamed. Add to this, a cosmopolitan upbringing in metro cities that facilitates regional and other local words to become a part of the daily spoken English language.

Brand communication has benefited by drawing from these examples and putting them in the right context. "Wassup," is a great example of a word used by youngsters which became part of daily conversation.
(When Priyanka Chopra screams, “Paisa vasool maadi, also win gaadi” on behalf of Spice Telecom, it sounds clichéd, boring, uninteresting and honestly disgusting.)

I’m sure you have observed similar examples in your cities, let’s create a database of words/phrases, most commonly used by youngsters in their day to day conversation. Keeping track of new-age conversation might come handy for a brand trying to speak with today's cynical tweens and teens.

And for all the Wordsmiths among you, if you want to know more about words that are disappearing from today’s lexicons, Grandiloquent Dictionary is the place to visit. A-word-a-day for the wordmasters. To find relationship between two words, go here.