Scroll long enough on TikTok or Instagram – or simply watch reality TV – and one might think that anyone under the age of 25 is speaking a different language.
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Words like “rizz,” short for charisma; “hat,” which means lying; and “lit,” referring to something fun, are just a few examples of Gen Z slang that shapes how many young people communicate today, both online and in person. In some pockets of the Internet and in academic circles, interest in the origin of those words and the phrases that express them is growing, as well as questions about why their history is often lost.
Many Gen Z words, language enthusiasts say, once entered Black culture, including classic hip-hop and underground drag culture, and were never fully embraced or respected by the masses. Words with dropped letters or phrases combined to form new words were considered inappropriate speech for the uneducated and poor. Today, many of those words fill the default dialect of every generation – regardless of race, region or class – that lives online. But critics have called for the erasure of the African American language’s Black origins and pointed out that non-Black Gen Zers are using it without realizing its cultural value.
“It doesn’t make sense to me that you can hear a word and say, ‘That word sounds cool or interesting; let me never look it up and just start saying it,'” said Jamaal Muwwakkil, a sociologist and linguist. “That seems strange to me.”
Muwwakkil, a professor of anthropology at the University of Washington, is among several linguists who told NBC News that many of Gen Z’s most popular words and phrases can be traced back to the African American language, also known as Ebonics or AAVE – African American Vernacular English. Characterized by distinctive grammar, playful pronunciation patterns and regional vocabulary, African American is a fully developed dialect with cultural significance.
“Rizz,” which Oxford University Press declared “voice of the year” in 2023, was created and popularized by Black Twitch streamer Kai Cenat in 2022. “Cap,” often used as “no cap” meaning “truth,” has its roots in 2010s Atlanta rap, according to Merriam-Webster. Similarly, the publisher notes that “light,” as Gen Zers use the term, also has roots in rap music.
Other terms found in Merriam-Webster, such as “unc,” which is short for uncle and is used to deride an old man, and “drip,” which usually refers to a combination of high-quality or well-made clothing, have different origins in rap music from the late 1990s and early 2000s. Some words, such as “slay,” which means to do something well, or “periodt,” which signifies an end, language advocates say, have roots in the Black Queer community and are catching on.
African American language is also often nuanced in its tense structure, which includes unique modifiers and contractions. In standard English, one might say, “I drank that” or “I’m going to drink,” while in AAVE one might say, “I had that” or “I drank that.”
According to Muwwakkil, it is a language with certain structural rules, not a product of randomness.
In the age of the Internet, these words and phrase structures have become universal – I cross cultures and generations with the music and sketches of “Saturday Night Live” and the Internet. Some people have been praised for their use, while others have been punished.
Rapper Kendrick Lamar, who is black, in 2018 won the Pulitzer Prize for his album “Damn” for its collection of songs “with beauty combined with its indigenous authenticity and rhythmic power that provide vignettes that touch on the complexities of contemporary African-American life,” the web page announcing the award.
In contrast, rapper Jack Harlow, who is white, came under fire after an interview last month with The New York Times’ “Popcast podcast,” in which he said that after switching to R&B, his music “became black.” Some famous people, such as actress Awkwafina and rapper Bhad Bhabie, have in recent years been accused of using AAVE to cure evil people while not being able to understand culture.
Sonja Lanehart, professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona, defines African American Language as “a language spoken by or among African Americans” that has evolved over the centuries, reflects intelligence and serves as a means of resisting assimilation. Lanehart notes, however, that this language is not exclusive to African Americans.
“No one can create a language in which some aspect of who you are as a person, people, society and culture cannot be a part of it,” said Lanehart, author of the “Oxford Handbook of African American Language.” “So I have trouble thinking that this is just a language that cannot communicate where people came from with the languages they brought with them.”
It is a language, like any other, that continues to evolve. However, linguists say, its momentum goes back to a dark time in American history.
The African American language was “born out of struggle, conflict and trauma,” according to Muwwakkil. Men and women from different regions of the African continent, who were enslaved and brought to the US in the 17th century, he said, used language to find harmony among themselves. Over time, he noticed that the enslaved used words or expressions to be understood by others, but not by others.
“Part of that corruption was seen as bringing people from different places who do not speak the same language, to bring them together, to work in these ways,” said Muwwakkil. “They found English in this. But there were some points of contradiction there – in the sense that it is like a hidden framework of a culture of speaking openly but indistinctly.”
After the Ebonics Controversy of 1996, when the Oakland, California, Board of Education passed a resolution recognizing Ebonics as a “primary language” for Black youth literacy development, a national storm erupted over the legalization of this language. After the backlash, the district ended up canceling its plans, but African American Language — once taken offline in many Black communities — became nationally known.
While not all “Gen Z language” is based on an African American language, according to Minnie Annan, a professor of linguistics at Georgetown University, the inspiration for the words often is.
“There are other things that people are doing today,” Annan said, adding, “but the source of inspiration comes from the African American language. … There’s a nice Venn diagram that we can draw.”
In Muwwakkil’s view, the difference in the celebration of African American language and Black culture is ironic. The vernaculars and practices of some Black people who are considered uneducated or less than that, he believes, are often celebrated when used by non-Black people and seen as brave and active.
Singer Madonna, for example, widely known as the “Queen of Pop” for decades, has been repeatedly criticized for exploiting Black culture for profit — using Black style and language and her proximity to Blackness to reinvent herself. He once swapped Black icon images to promote an album and used the N-word on social media, and has been accused of not donating just because of the creators of the vogue movement, most of whom are Black and Latino members of the LGBTQ movement.
Annan said ignoring the origin of the language is unacceptable.
“When you say it’s not that deep, what you’re saying to me is that hundreds of years of history, hundreds of years of wisdom, hundreds of years of genius don’t mean anything,” said Annan. “Because what you see right now, you see a broken language system. What I see is language art.”
