Monitoring 21st-Century Real-Time Language Change in Spanish Youth Speech

In recent decades, youth language has become one of the preferred research areas in sociolinguistics, not only because its non-normative nature but mostly it is recognized as a catalyst for change. Since adolescents aspire to create and safeguard an in-group identity, they constantly generate innovative linguistic forms. However, few studies have empirically monitored speed at which innovations are introduced into language. This study explores change within Spanish by conducting corpus analysis real time. Data contemporary CORMA (Corpus Oral de Madrid, compiled between 2016 2019) contrasted with highly comparable data COLAm Lenguaje Adolescente 2003 2007). The scrutinizes two typical phenomena language, namely use intensifiers (e.g., super-, mazo) vocatives tío/tía, chaval/chavala). It shown that changes occur more moderate than previously assumed depends on phenomenon under study. Additionally, suggest neutral forms remain quite stable over time, while expressive items shrinks or increases faster.