Slang

Slang ( English slang ) - a set of words or new meanings of existing words used in various groups of people ^[1] .

In English lexicography, the term "slang" was widely used around the beginning of the XIX century. The etymology of the word is controversial. The study of slang was influenced by the English-language culture.

J. B. Greenow and J. L. Kittridge described slang as follows: "slang is a tramp language that sticks around literary language and constantly tries to make its way into the most refined society."

The concept of “slang” is mixed with such concepts as “ dialecticism ”, “ jargon ”, “ vulgarism ”, “ colloquial speech ”, “ vernacular ” ^[2] .

Many words and phrases, which began to exist as slang, are now firmly included in the literary language ^[2] . Examples in the Russian language can be the words “cheat sheet”, “hype”, “fail” (meaning “fail”).

In contrast to vernacular expressions , educated people, representatives of a certain age or professional group (for example, aka or Threat in computer slang ) actively use slang in their speech. Often this just emphasizes belonging to a certain group of people. A well-known example is youth slang or “ thug fenya .”

By functional application, controlled languages adjoin slang, in particular simplified technical languages , however, unlike them, slang usually does not imply strict formal regulation and reflects the lively development of colloquial speech.

Linguists distinguish the so-called "new vernacular " ("common slang"), which is an extensive group of non-standard lexical and phraseological units, constantly replenished due to various sociolects . These units, going beyond professional and corporate (group) slang, are beginning to be used by wide circles of speakers of a common literary language, not limited by certain social boundaries (age, profession, level of education, common interests and more). In Russian, we are talking about such nominative units as grandmothers , idiot , get (someone), gagging (someone), cool , hang noodles on the ears , cop , put on the paw , on the ball , bummer , lotion , drum , joke , funny , cool , disassembly , trudge , tugriki , party , hanging out , party , garbage and the like. The main sources of such words in the Russian language are youth slang and criminal jargon .