While listening carefully to the everyday conversations of university students in Pakistan, we will hear a language that was unintelligible almost a decade ago.
In an ethnographic study of Pakistani Gen Z speakers born between 1997 and 2012, we invited college and university students from Lahore and Islamabad to share expressions they regularly use in their everyday communication.
Someone is “cooked” after a deadline. Another asks “kia scene hai?” to check the social temperature. A task is “ragra” rather than difficult. A performance is a “W” or an “L”. A moment is “low key”, a person is a “red flag”, a situation needs to “chill”. These expressions shape the way young people perceive the world. They relate to one another in terms of how they learn, and increasingly, how values are created and exchanged.
Where do these words come from? What exerts the greatest influence on their circulation? And what are the implications of this evolution for everyday communication, education, and the digital economy?
What we are witnessing is a phenomenon of language variation and change. Social media feeds, gaming environments, and video streaming have become the primary sites of language acquisition. New words are emerging in Gen Z’s everyday conversations through exposure to digital media. It appears to us that communication is now on a superhighway. Urdu and Punjabi expressions such as ragra, ajeeb, jugaar, and bindaas are firmly rooted in the everyday speech of Pakistani Gen Z. One of the respondents articulated, “Submitting an assignment 5 minutes before the deadline and still smiling. That’s bindaas”. Interestingly, these words also morphed with English lexemes, often within the same utterance. Bilingual forms such as chill kro or good ho gya perform emotional regulation while maintaining solidarity. A single word like “cooked” carries emotional exhaustion, academic pressure, and collective frustration. “Red flag” compresses moral judgment, experience, and warning into two lexicons. The expressions such as low key, tea, six seven, flex, lmao, among others, may not appear in a dictionary, but they showcase how meanings now circulate more through familiarity than formality. These expressions allow speakers to say more with less. Once born in comment sections, circulate in classrooms, social discourses, and homes.
This linguistic shift has made communication faster and more effective. In doing so, Gen Z relies on shared context and presupposition to draw meanings. It is fair to assume that those outside the generational or digital community may struggle to interpret these expressions accurately. Our data demonstrates a clear trend towards minimal linguistic forms. Essentially, the boundary between online and offline speech is becoming increasingly porous.
The challenge for institutions is now understanding this linguistic evolution. They require pedagogies that connect digital, academic registers and culminate them into a linguistic capital that
shapes access, inclusion, and opportunity.
The implications for education are profound. Students arrive in classrooms with a fully developed linguistic repertoire shaped by digital culture, which privileges brevity, stance, and affect over linear argument. They do not, perhaps they are not allowed to, expand these expressions into prescriptive academic language. When institutions fail to acknowledge increasingly proliferating sociolinguistic dynamics, they might miss an opportunity for pedagogical engagement. Eventually, a generational gap occurs and may expand gradually if institutions fail to understand.
A pedagogy that recognises translanguaging as a cognitive resource would be more aligned with actual language practice. We must understand that minimal linguistic forms do not replace analytical depth. Therefore, our task is not to suppress Gen Z’s unique language but to capitalise it for cultivating the capacity for extended reasoning, careful explanation, and disciplinary dialogue. This will help scaffold emerging trends, teaching, and learning approaches.
Beyond classrooms, the economic implications of this linguistic shift are already visible. Gen Z’s linguistic repertoire has become a form of market capital. Brands, influencers, and employers increasingly rely on Gen Z language to signal relevance and authenticity. Trends emerge quickly and fade. Campaigns that misjudge tone or timing are immediately rejected. Adaptability becomes more valuable than consistency. In this environment, those who understand the evolving vernacular gain an advantage.
What emerges from this analysis shows that Gen Z’s language is not a linguistic shortcut. This is a linguistic evolution. The work of the first author, published by SAGE Open Meaning Making Through Minimal Linguistic Forms, concludes that fewer words often carry more meaning. These words are adaptive responses to a world shaped by platforms, pressure, and speed. The challenge for institutions is now understanding this linguistic evolution. They require pedagogies that connect digital, academic registers and culminate them into a linguistic capital that shapes access, inclusion, and opportunity.
The language of Gen Z informs us how they experience education, uncertainty, and the social fabric of life. Ignoring them will not restore older norms but possibly widen the gap between millennials and Gen Z, including Gen Alpha, fast marching in this increasingly ever-changing world. Understanding them will eventually help us rethink our communication, pedagogy, and participation.
The first author is a Professor of English at Riphah International University, Lahore. He is a lead guest editor at Emerald and Springer publishing.
The second author is an Assistant Professor of English at Govt. Graduate College for Women, Samanabad, Lahore