SCIENCE Linguists Try to Decipher Teenage Grunts Clearly, linguistics exists just so we can give a technical description of those hard-to-spell sounds that erupt from callow youths. yeeah. The eye-rolls are vital. Discussion Ideas: Alveolar glides, affricates, glottal stops. Do students think linguists invented these terms to better understand teenage speech patterns? Unlikely. These are words or descriptions that apply to very specific sounds made … Continue reading Deciphering Teenage Grunts. DUH.