Kristina Kljajic
BBC journalist
"Skibidi", "You really have a rizz", "POV: You came to school, but you didn't do your homework".
If any of these words sound like a coded message from some video game universe, you're probably talking to a member of Generation Alpha.
These are children born around 2010 and they are the first to not experience a world without tablets, YouTube, and apps.
They grew up during the recovery from the global economic crisis and followed online classes during the Covid 19 pandemic.
And while the generations before them watched TV, Generation Alpha watched reactions to how others watched TV, but at twice the speed.
They are also pioneers growing up in the era of artificial intelligence.
"Their language is fast, multi-layered, and they often combine English and Serbian."
"Their speech is rooted in digital culture, and there is a decreasing presence of literary language," explains Petar Takić, professor of Serbian language and literature, to BBC Serbian.
It's about alternative speech of children and teenagers.
"Alternative speech is a classic social technique for affirming one's own generational identity," Miloš Milićević, a doctoral student at the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade, tells BBC Serbian.
Several hours a day spent in front of a phone screen is linked to poorer language development in young children, study shows research Danish National Institute of Public Health.
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What are the most common words?
- Riz - charm, charisma. It is a shortened version of the English word charisma (charisma) and can be used as both a noun and a verb. When someone "has rizz", it means they know how to get someone's attention.
- Slay - to do something very well, to impress someone, to win them over with your attitude and behavior.
- Prenk - to joke with someone, to fool them, to create a confusing and funny situation. English pronunciation prank (joke, prank).
- NPC – video game abbreviation for a player who is not important (non playable character). Used ironically for people who seem like they don't have their own opinions or aren't very important.
- Main character - used to describe someone who acts as if they are the main character of their own movie or series. Often dramatizes everyday situations. The expression is used both complimentary and ironically, especially in TikTok: "She has main character energy."
- Skibidi - an absurd expression that originated from the viral "Skibidi Toilet" video clips and has no real meaning. In children and teenagers, Skibidi refers to something that is silly, funny, and "catchy," even when it makes no sense.
- Delulu - Abbreviated from delusional (to be in a delusion). Used to describe a state in which someone consciously believes in a positive outcome of an event.
- POV (point of view - point of view) - mostly used on TikTok to describe a situation. For example: "POV: You walk into a room and everyone is looking at you like you're the main character."
- Brain Rot (brain rot) - meaningless and low-quality online content
'We still understand each other'
"Hey, how are you? What are you doing?"
"I'm fine and doing absolutely nothing, slay"
Word order rearrangements in sentences, abbreviations, loanwords, and jargon - this snippet of conversation with my seven-year-old sister perhaps best describes oThe attitude that the alpha generation has towards language.
Language ability is largely imitation, and they imitate what they see on social media, says philologist Milićević.
Although he assumes that his students do not know the meanings of archaic words, teacher Petar Takić is surprised by what ""sometimes they have problems understanding standard language."
However, we still understand each other, which is good, adds Takić.
Children and teenagers have "visual way of remembering and it is noticed that the classic teaching in which the professor sits at the desk, talks and lectures is uninteresting."
"Besides, I think that the alpha generation is no longer interested in literature as such, and teaching needs to be made a little more dynamic.
""We should read classic works of literature, but we must also leave children the freedom to interpret language and literature," he explains.
The increasing influence of the English language
And while older users social networks discussing the meaning of new words, Generation Alpha never ceases to amaze linguistics linguistic creativity.
That's how it is said delulu (from the English word delusional, whose basic meaning is mistaken) is used to describe a belief in something irrational but desired.
Over time, the meaning expanded.
The word developed into a kind of magical-spiritual belief, based on the idea that one can achieve anything one desires with just one's thoughts.
""The sun is the moon"- repeated by numerous TikTok users, (Delusion is solution - The solution is to be mistaken.).
Most of these words does not have appropriate translations into other languages.
"It is already commonplace to list the specific lexemes they use, but the lexicon is of a transient nature, the bigger problem is the penetration of English into the syntax and plane of thought," explains philologist Milićević.
Lexis is the set of words - lexemes - that make up a language, and syntax is the area of grammar that studies the structure of sentences.
Children often speak with "intonation typical of English, and this intonation is accompanied by certain gestures and facial expressions."
"That's why the youngest form their mental concepts unconsciously by taking them from the Anglophone world," he points out.
Have memes and TikTok changed the way we think?
A drawing of a shark in blue sneakers created with the help of artificial intelligence, accompanied by sound "tralelero tralala" is one example of content called brain rot or brain rot.
It is a term that represents the excessive use of low-quality online content, especially on social networks.
These are the words that marked the year 2024 by choice. Oxford Dictionary.
"The popularity of the term is a symptom of the times we live in," said Andrew Przybylski, a psychologist and professor at the University of Oxford. previously for the BBC.
Frequency of use increased by 230 percent from 2023 to 2024.
"Children are shaped by the media space, and that is often a space of the banal."
"The dictionary is the smallest problem, a much more serious problem is the structural simplification of linguistic expression, which is a consequence of uncultivated thinking," says Miloš Milićević.
Unlike previous generations who had a richer vocabulary, Generation Alpha is developing visual literacy, often at the expense of spoken expression, using mime.
Mimes are humorous content, have got in the form of photographs, videos or cultural information adapted with appropriate text.
"It's a much more complex and interesting phenomenon that allows each community to have authentic expression, and I wouldn't put it in the same category as abbreviations and internet jargon," says Milićević.
"On the other hand, abbreviations and internet jargon are a consequence of a much more banal phenomenon - the need for economical communication," he concludes.
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