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Why do you Tok like that?
你怎么这么讲话？
The word “demure” is old—it describes the sort of modest lady Victorians esteemed—but it is freshly fashionable. There are some 800,000 posts on TikTok with the tag #demure.
“端庄”是一个很古老的词，描述的是维多利亚时代的人很敬重的那种谦逊庄重的女士，但这个词又重新流行起来了。在TikTok上，约有80万个带#端庄标签的帖子。
Youngsters today are using the word with lashings of irony, invoking it to describe everything from Saturn to sunset to New York City’s bin service.
如今的年轻人使用这个词时带有很强的讽刺意味，用它来描述从土星到日落，再到纽约垃圾清理服务的一切事物。
TikTok is changing how young people talk. Other fusty words, such as “coquette”, are fashionable again. Colloquialisms are on the rise: members of Gen Z say “yapping” instead of “talking” and trim “delusional” to “delulu”.
TikTok正在改变年轻人的说话方式。其他一些古老过时的词，比如“卖弄风情的女子”，又流行起来了。口语化表达越来越流行：Z世代说“闲扯”而不是“聊天”，把“有错觉的”简化为“想多了”。
The platform’s versatility encourages experimentation. Users can combine audio, text and video in a single post. That means words that sound especially satisfying can go viral, as well as those that are memorable in written form.
该平台的多功能性鼓励了语言实验。用户可以在单个帖子中把音频、文本和视频结合起来。这意味着不仅书写形式令人难忘的词，而且发音特别让人喜欢的词都可以迅速传播开来。
Linguistic code has emerged, dubbed “algospeak”, to dodge content-moderation algorithms. It includes euphemisms (sex workers are called “accountants”), and misspellings (“seggs” instead of sex).
语言代码已经出现，这种代码被称为“算法黑话”，以躲避算法进行的内容审核。其中包括委婉语（性工作者被称为“会计”）和拼写错误（seggs而不是sex）。
The mutation of language on TikTok is also due, in large part, to the age of its users. Most are 18-34 years old. That matters because “Young people are language innovators,” says Christian Ilbury, a sociolinguist at the University of Edinburgh.
TikTok上语言的演变在很大程度上也是因为其用户年龄。大多数用户是18至34岁。这很重要，因为“年轻人是语言创新者”，引自爱丁堡大学社会语言学家克里斯蒂安·伊尔伯里。
For decades youngsters have created words to distinguish themselves from adults. On social media such neologisms find a big audience. Mr Ilbury describes this as “linguistic identity work”; parents have long called it attention-seeking.
数十年来，年轻人创造新词，将自己与成年人区分开来。在社交媒体上，这样的新词会找到大量的受众。伊尔伯里将此描述为“语言身份工作”，父母们则称之为寻求关注。
The platform brings together fan groups and communities, from #kpopfans (people who like Korean pop music) to #booktokers (people who love reading).
TikTok汇集了各种粉丝群体和社群，从#kpopfans（喜欢韩国流行音乐的人）到#booktokers（热爱阅读的人）。
These groups create their own slang, says Adam Aleksic, a linguist and influencer. Some of it leaks into the mainstream.
语言学家兼网络博主亚当·阿列克西奇说，这些群体创造了自己的俚语。其中一些会渗入主流。
All this speeds up the evolution of language. That delights logophiles but befuddles dictionary-makers, who must keep a record of the ever-expanding lexicon.
所有这一切都加速了语言的演变。这让词汇爱好者感到高兴，但却让词典编纂者感到困惑，他们必须记录不断扩大的词汇表。
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), Britain’s most illustrious chronicler of language, adds a word only after it has been used for about five years. That is too slow to keep up with modern parlance.
《牛津英语词典》（OED）是英国最负盛誉的语言编年者，只有当一个单词被使用了大约五年后OED才会收录这个词。这太慢了，完全跟不上现代用语的节奏。
The OED is just now adding words such as “binge-worthy”, which already feels tired; its own “word of the year” for 2023, “rizz” (charm), which originated and was popularised online, has not yet made the cut.
OED最近才收录了binge-worthy（值得一口气看完的）之类的词，这些词已经很老套了。OED评选的2023“年度词汇”rizz（即魅力）起源于网络并在网上流行，但还没有被收录进词典。
TikTok has just the phrase to describe such a modest approach: very demure.
TikTok刚好有一个词可以用来形容这种谦逊审慎的态度：非常端庄。
