Why every group of girlfriends speaks its own language

There is a colleague who will be a bit late today, ‘because she is still in the apo’. Well, that has to happen too. Or someone has a meeting in the morning or uub later. Otherwise, we will go goat knitting.

Every office, every group of friends, and every couple has its own language. Words that no one else understands so quickly, but you do. And where you then are laughing. Or words that you don't even realize are weird for others. Or nicknames while you have long forgotten someone's real name and never use it again. That happens automatically. You can't even help it. The more time you spend with people, the more you develop your own vocabulary.

Of course, this can be explained in social psychology: it connects that whole group of people with each other. They have something that makes others not belong to that group, and that means those same silly word jokes are repeated a hundred times. You want confirmation: this is our clique and those who don't get it, don't belong. And you do. That makes you feel good and well, that's just what people want. Purely for survival, being part of a group was very important back in the day. You lived longer, after all. And now it's mainly fun and good for your self-confidence. It is also contagious, that too. If you start babbling in incorrect Dutch but sneaky own words, a colleague or friend will quickly join in. Love it. Joe. We want kof.

And since we're talking about language, here are things you always wanted to know so you have something to talk about during that work break:

• The longest word in our language consists of 60 letters: kindercarnavalsoptochtvoorbereidingswerkzaamhedencomitéleden.
• A third of our language comes from French or English, just think of awkward, jus d’orange, or shopping.
• 24 million people have Dutch as their mother tongue.
• About 2 to 5 million different words are used in our language, but all in all, there have been 60 million words throughout history.
• The most beautiful word in our language is, according to experts, ‘tureluurs’.
• And the ugliest word then? Every year a top one is chosen, and in recent years ‘kids’, ‘oldies’, ‘me’, ‘animal-friendly meat’, and ‘gender-neutral’ have topped the list.