Are you a “sigma”? Do you have “rizz”? The youngest generation is bamboozling its elders with terms all their own.......
(Source: New York Times, November 2023)
Welcome to the language of Gen Alpha, the cohort coming up right behind Gen Z. These children of millennials have begun a generational rite of passage — employing their own slang terms and memes, and befuddling their elders in the process.
Which brings us back to gyat (rhymes with “yacht,” with a hard “g” and a firm emphasis on “yat”).
“There’s no cute way to say it — it’s just a word for a big butt,” said Alta, a 13-year-old eighth grader in Pennsylvania. “If someone has a big butt, someone will say ‘gyat’ to it.”
Alta and her brother Kai, an 11-year-old sixth grader, said they had learned the word on TikTok and that it had suddenly become popular among their classmates. The internet encyclopedia Know Your Meme credits the sudden popularity of “gyat” to the Twitch livestreamer Kai Cenat. (In August, Mr. Cenat made headlines when his fans swarmed Union Square Park in Manhattan after he promised to give away gaming consoles at no cost.)
“I don’t say ‘gyat’ to people, though, unless they’re my friend,” Alta said. “And we say it to our mom.”
Several other new words have become part of this generation’s vernacular, and six members of Gen Alpha offered their decoding services for this article. (Their parents gave permission for them to be interviewed, with the agreement that their last names would not be used.) Many of the children cited a catchy parody song making the rounds on TikTok as a key to the slang’s rising popularity. The lyrics go like this:
Sticking out your gyat for the rizzler
You’re so skibidi
You’re so Fanum tax
I just wanna be your sigma
A rizzler is a “good person,” according to Malcolm, a 10-year-old in Washington state.
“Having rizz is when you have good game,” Alta said. “Being a rizzler is like when you’re a pro at flirting with people.” (Rizz is short for charisma.)
The word can be used as a compliment or a joke, according to Jaedyn, 12. She said that the boys at her school in New Jersey had been singing the song lately, adding that it gave her a headache.
Task
Students, read the rest of the article here
Now tell us
How much slang do you use? Do you like using the latest lingo, or do you prefer more traditional forms of expression? When do you think slang is or isn’t appropriate?
What’s your reaction to the article? Do you use any of the terms and expressions it mentions in your everyday life?
Where do you learn slang? From your friends or siblings? At school or online?
What is your favorite slang word? What does it mean? Why do you like it?
According to the article, as Gen Alpha’s slang terms make their way into the wider world, the young people responsible for their popularity are ready to move on to what’s next. “If millennials start saying them,” Jaedyn, 12, said, “we’ll be like, ‘We’re done with these now.’” Do you agree? Once a slang word catches on with older generations, is it not cool anymore? Can you think of any recent terms that this has happened with?
Tell us what you think in the comments!
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