Noriko-San Language Analysis

Analysis
After asking both Kaoru-san and Noriko-san about our list of words, the first thing noticed was that youth language is not region locked. According to Kaoru-san, she heard her students use many of the words on our list very often. In fact, she still uses some of words like った, まじ, and めっちゃherself. In Noriko-san’s case, she stated that she also hears them often amongst the people in Kyoto, but does not use them often in her daily life. As a result, from the 16 identified youth words, the following pages will provide a further analysis of the common youth words both Kaoru-san and Noriko-san are aware of – った, まじ, and めっちゃ. Another purpose for digging into these word is because of each showcases a different characteristic that may allow

った is used to coin new verbs off of any nouns and as a result, is slightly different than the suffixes –ing or -ed in English. For example, attaching –ing or –ed to nouns like drive or wash is simply following the grammar rules to make a noun a verb and as a result, it can only be deemed original and not creative. However, –ったis used to invent now words and show creativity. Therefore, in English, only nouns that are changed into verbs without abiding to any grammatical rules can be named original. For example, Google is a regular proper noun, however, with its striking gain in popularity amongst the younger generation, Google became a verb. Thus, attaching –ing to Google, making Googling, is considered creative because it does not abide by any rules, nor is in any dictionary. Another example would be Facebooking. This comes from the proper noun Facebook, a social media channel for communication, that gained popularity with the wide spread of internet service. This leads to the idea that new coined verbs, in English, used in conversations comes from proper nouns that became popular instead of everyday nouns. This notion differs from the った, where it is usually added on to common everyday nouns

めっちゃ is one of the identified youth words that allows for emphasis and expression of feelings. The following conversation exemplifies how めっちゃ can be used in an informal conversation.
B. え、おれめっちゃギターひきたい、みたいな。きたむらみたいな。 (I, like, really want to play the guitar like Kitamura.)
A. きたむらベース。 (Kitamura plays bass.)
B. きたむらはギターがひきたいらしい、どうやら。 (I heard he wants to play the guitar.)
A. そうなの？なんでベースにしたの？ (Really? Why did he choose bass?)
B. いや、なんか。。。 (Well…)

As the conversation shows, めっちゃ was used to emphasize that speaker B really want to play the guitar. Kaoru-san and Noriko-san also confirmed that めっちゃ is used for emphasis. Kaoru-san, stated that she hears めっちゃ used very often in the classroom to describe the students’ feeling when they receive a lot of homework. However, Kaoru-san, herself, would only use that word with her friends. Noriko-san, on the other hand stated that she uses the work as well because it allows her to express her feeling. Both Kaoru-san and Noriko-san, along with the help of the Tsuda students, helped found other synonyms for めっちゃ . They include とても , すごく, すぎる, ばり, げろ, andくそ—in order from ones widely used amongst all people to ones that are more vulgar and would only be used amongst very young people. Likewise, English also has a lot of synonyms for めっちゃ. It ranges from ‘really’ to “badly,’ to ‘I’d love to…’ to even