I get a mail magazine called ３分!かんたん！にほんごニュース, which featured this today that I thought was interesting:

若い世代の言葉の中性化

民間調査によると、最近の小、中、高校生の男子は女性語を、女子は男性語を使うようになってきており、言葉の中性化が進んでいるそうです。「男性と女性が使う言葉は同じだと思うか」との質問には約7割が「いいえ」と回答。しかし実際は女子の3割が男性語を使い、男子の5割が優しい言葉を使っています。

This is the site for the magazine. I've never been to it before (I think I found the magazine on a site called まぐまぐ), but it seems to have some other stuff up there as well.
http://nihongo.okoshi-yasu.com/

Hey that was a pretty interesting read, it think maybe just because I COULD read it for once. Thanks for that, I will try and read up on that site more. Does it say anything about where the 調査　was conducted...was it country wide or just based in a certain prefecture? Because I hear even the adults speak more femine in the tokyo area than prefectures outside of tokyo

There doesn't seem to be a source for it. That's basically it for what it says about it, but it's mainly about giving a little news article to read. I noticed there's a link to the full text of the email here:

http://archive.mag2.com/0000174930/index.html

I found this link on Google, but I don't know if they're the same study (haven't got the time to read them properly right now):
http://ichigaya.keizai.biz/headline/562/

By girl's speaking boy's language, do they mean saying "boku" and things like that?

I think they mean things like 勉強しろよ。取ってくれ。This is the command form (命令形) that guys often use with other guys. Also stuff like じゃねぇ instead of じゃない, すげえ instead of すごい. Making い sounds into え sounds is a cool, young and traditionally male way to speak.

thermal Wrote:I think they mean things like 勉強しろよ。取ってくれ。This is the command form (命令形) that guys often use with other guys. Also stuff like じゃねぇ instead of じゃない, すげえ instead of すごい. Making い sounds into え sounds is a cool, young and traditionally male way to speak.

All the japanese girls I know at my school talk like that.　They are in a forein non jaapanese country though so that may be influencing there language use choices.

Same in Japan, at least for Tokyo and Kawasaki. Especially highschool girls tend to speak rather "boyish" from my experience.

Evil_Dragon Wrote:Same in Japan, at least for Tokyo and Kawasaki. Especially highschool girls tend to speak rather "boyish" from my experience.

I wonder if Japanese is set to have some drastic transformational changes come about. There is such a growing cultural divide between the young and older generations now. It would not be surprising to me to see that spawn some big changes in language. In the next few decades, Japan's population may contract by an astonishing percentage, and relatively few youngsters are set to inherit the assets of a relatively large elderly (and dying) cohort. This has similarities to the 14th century Black Death in Europe.

I know that English underwent something called "The Great Vowel Shift" from roughly 1200 to Shakespeare. But I've never read very much on what exactly might have triggered this shift -- although young people seem to have constantly been in the forefront of it.

My guess would be that, at the very least, 敬語 has seen its heyday in Japan.

saizen Wrote:Because I hear even the adults speak more femine in the tokyo area than prefectures outside of tokyo

Hm, do you mean male adults?

Wally Wrote:I wonder if Japanese is set to have some drastic transformational changes come about.There is such a growing cultural divide between the young and older generations now.It would not be surprising to me to see that spawn some big changes in language.

But this is true in all countries surely? Youngsters using inane slang and incorrect grammar won't cause the government to completely reclassify the language. If anything the opposite is true: an invasion of slang would lead to a more defensive stance.

I could probably think of 500 Br. English words which have been in common use for decades but which will never be considered officially part of the language - words like "duck" (term of endearment), "ta" (thank you), "tab" (ear / cigarette), "mucker" (friend), "spud" (potato) etc. No formal written source would ever say, "Ta for the spuds & tabs duck", despite the fact that 99% of English people would understand that sentence perfectly and likely encounter something similar on a daily basis.

I see no reason to believe why the same stupid words & trends wouldn't exist in any other language. You just have to get used to them.

yukamina Wrote:

saizen Wrote:Because I hear even the adults speak more femine in the tokyo area than prefectures outside of tokyo

Hm, do you mean male adults?

yup the guys

Wally Wrote:I wonder if Japanese is set to have some drastic transformational changes come about. There is such a growing cultural divide between the young and older generations now. It would not be surprising to me to see that spawn some big changes in language. In the next few decades, Japan's population may contract by an astonishing percentage, and relatively few youngsters are set to inherit the assets of a relatively large elderly (and dying) cohort. This has similarities to the 14th century Black Death in Europe.

I know that English underwent something called "The Great Vowel Shift" from roughly 1200 to Shakespeare. But I've never read very much on what exactly might have triggered this shift -- although young people seem to have constantly been in the forefront of it.

My guess would be that, at the very least, 敬語 has seen its heyday in Japan.

According to my linguistics prof, the biggest change in Japanese right now is probably the huge number of loan words from English coming into use. The rate of new word adoption is ridiculous.

Language change tends to always be new generation reinterpreting/changing 'the rules' until they become the older 'established' generation.

somehow this made me think of:

(not really related to topic)

Transparent_Aluminium Wrote:somehow this made me think of:

(not really related to topic)

What the heck was that... o_O

SammyB Wrote:

Transparent_Aluminium Wrote:somehow this made me think of:

(not really related to topic)

What the heck was that... o_O

Lurnding 0.0

kazelee Wrote:

SammyB Wrote:

Transparent_Aluminium Wrote:somehow this made me think of:

(not really related to topic)

What the heck was that... o_O

Lurnding 0.0

HOLY.... O.O;;;

What the...the...crap?! I'm confused... DanChoDanChoChoDanCho....

better:

Transparent_Aluminium Wrote:somehow this made me think of:

(not really related to topic)

That was awesome. That video just summed up all junior high schools in Japan.

Edit: All co-ed JHS.

@Brokenvai
It's "DanJyo" as in 男女。

*cough*

QuackingShoe Wrote:

*cough*

全部動画の中で、好きな