Beyond Slang: Nigerian Gen-Z Digital Vernaculars as Resources for Identity, Belonging, and Social Commentary

This study investigates the socio-pragmatic dimensions of Nigerian Gen-Z digital vernaculars in public Facebook interactions. Drawing on a purposive sample of 70 recurrent linguistic forms extracted from naturally occurring Facebook discourse, the study examines how Nigerian youths employ locally innovative expressions to negotiate identity, belonging, humour, solidarity, secrecy, and social realities in digitally mediated environments. Guided primarily by Labov’s Sociolinguistic Theory of Language Variation and informed by perspectives on language localization in digital contexts, the analysis identifies recurrent vernacular forms and maps their socio-pragmatic functions within contemporary Nigerian youth communication. The findings reveal that expressions such as lwkmd, sapa, japa, e choke, gbasgbos, and pepper dem function not merely as slang items but as socially meaningful resources through which young Nigerians articulate economic precarity, migration aspirations, social belonging, cultural identity, and collective experience. The study further demonstrates how Nigerian Gen-Z users creatively adapt linguistic resources from Nigerian Pidgin, indigenous languages, and popular culture to construct distinctive forms of digital expression. Beyond documenting emerging linguistic practices, the paper argues that Nigerian Gen-Z digital vernaculars provide valuable insight into broader sociocultural transformations occurring within contemporary Nigerian society. The study contributes to scholarship on digital discourse, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, youth language, and Nigerian Englishes by highlighting the role of localized digital vernaculars as sites of identity construction, social commentary, and linguistic innovation in multilingual contexts.