Pakistan, Jan. 26 -- 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 an...