#socioling

take a silly little linguistics survey 2 help us reach sample size!

i tend to switch into a more slangy register of speech (phonologically and somewhat lexically) when im talking to people who are speaking in slang-influenced or aave-influenced colloquial english in an informal context, and i worry that that tendency is me being Cringy And White And A Wannabe Cool Kid, especially cause i wouldnt really describe it as my native idiolect (though our idiolects change over our lifespans, so what even is “native”...?). still, at the same time, it’s not something i actively decide to do (though im very aware of it nowadays because sociolinguistics), it’s just something i naturally fall into. the slang itself is probably something i picked up in high school when i was a nerdy friendless trans student trying to fit in a little better.