Semantic Change in Contemporary Yoruba: Evidence from Youth Slang in Lagos

Youth language innovation is a primary driver of synchronic semantic change in living languages, and the vibrant slang lexicon of Lagos youth offers a productive site for examining the mechanisms and directions of semantic change in contemporary Yoruba. This study documents and analyses semantic change processes evident in youth slang items current among Lagos adolescents and young adults, drawing on lexical data collected through structured elicitation sessions, social media language monitoring, and focus group discussions with one hundred and twenty participants aged between fifteen and twenty-eight. Semantic change categories identified and analysed include pejoration, amelioration, metaphorical extension, narrowing, and semantic bleaching. Amelioration is the most frequently represented change type, with originally pejorative terms being reclaimed and revalorized within youth peer groups as solidarity markers. Metaphorical extension accounts for a large proportion of new slang items, with physical and spatial concepts systematically extended to social and evaluative domains in patterns that reflect the influence of Nigerian Pidgin and English conceptual mappings. The study identifies a significant proportion of slang items showing multiple simultaneous semantic changes, suggesting rapid and complex lexical evolution rather than incremental shift. English and Pidgin loanwords undergoing semantic narrowing upon integration into Yoruba youth slang are documented as a distinct subcategory. The study argues that Lagos youth slang constitutes a dynamic lexical laboratory for studying semantic change mechanisms in real time. Keywords: semantic change, youth slang, Yoruba, Lagos, lexical innovation.