Cover photo by Rishabh Jain.
Listen to any conversation among adolescents today, and you will be sure to hear sentences peppered with dudes and bruhs, most likely meaning something slightly different each time. Upon further research, this fairly common observation of dude’s and bruh’s popularity and versatility has grounds in established sociolinguistic theories.
In 2004, before bruh in its current form emerged, linguist Scott Kiesling published an academic paper explaining the emergence of dude by young men in the 1980s and its continued popularity through the lens of conformity to hegemonic ideals of masculinity. In this article, I will briefly describe the similarities between dude and bruh in order to demonstrate that his explanations apply strongly to bruh as well.
Both dude and bruh started out as terms of address (words used to greet or speak to another individual) and used exclusively among young men. They then evolved into address terms used among all genders. Today, the two words have become much more than address terms.
After observing and gathering 519 instances in which dude was used and conducting a self-report survey on dude usage by students from the University of Pittsburgh, Kiesling analysed the compiled “Dude Corpus” and identified five interactional functions of dude. They are the following: (1) discourse marking, (2) exclamation, (3) signalling affiliation and connection, (4) signalling agreement (which includes sympathy), and (5) confrontational stance mitigation.
Below is a recorded conversation between two young men, Pete and Hotdog, in which dude is used as a discourse marker. A discourse marker is a word that functions to segment or organize speech, such as “anyway.” It is typically used to “return to the main thread of conversation.”Kiesling, S. F. 2004. “DUDE”. American Speech 79 (3): 281-305. doi:10.1215/00031283-79-3-281.
Example A
Hotdog: It’s it’s the northeast of Washington D.C.
Pete: It is it’s the southeast of Philadelphia that’s what it is. I mean it’s southeast
Dude.
We’re driving a 94 Geo Prism (.)with no tags, two White boys, and we’re like stuck behind this bu-
Fragment of a conversation as recorded in the Dude Corpus.
(The repetition of “it’s” and other grammatically incorrect instances are a result of Kiesling’s decision to record and relay the overheard exchanges verbatim.)
Below are two other conversations, in which dude was used simultaneously in 1) exclamation, 2) signalling affiliation and connection, and 3) signalling agreement. The contexts were ones of commiseration.
Example B
“Dude, this class is soooo boring.”
A student whispering to another in class. From the Dude Corpus.
“Dude.”
A woman confided in her female friend about being “hit on,” to which her friend replied “Dude” with “a tone of disbelief and disgust.” From the Dude Corpus.
Now replace each of these instances with bruh. You will find that the conversations retain their tone, and the sentences retain their meaning. Indeed, based on discussion threads on Reddit alone, bruh already shares at least four out of the five interactional functions of dude.
(Online forums present themselves as one of the more apt sources of information for this topic because adolescent slang is ever-changing and commonly “underground” or informal. Reddit, which is essentially an enormous collection of forums with over 2.2 million subreddits,Curry, David. 2020. “Reddit Revenue And Usage Statistics (2020)”. Business Of Apps. https://www.businessofapps.com/data/reddit-statistics/. effectively serves as our own online “Bruh Corpus”. The information on Reddit threads are as copious and up to date—if not more so—on adolescent slang, as Kiesling’s formal corpus. 18-year-olds to 29-year-olds, the target age of this research, comprise the largest age demographic of Reddit users.Clement, J. 2020. “U.S. Reddit Reach By Age Group 2019 | Statista”. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/261766/share-of-us-internet-users-who-use-reddit-by-age-group/. Reddit is thus a source I frequently turn to in this article for its wealth of “insider knowledge” by first-hand users of bruh.)
Bruh first gained popularity as a trend on Vine,“Bruh”. 2015. Know Your Meme. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/bruh/. where the poster reacted to someone who “does something idiotic [or] out of the ordinary” (posted by Reddit user u/some-tortel) by inserting bruh, which would be a pre-recorded sound effect.
The original sound-byte.
Since its spread in the 2010s, bruh has evolved into an interjection used in reaction toward “something a fellow guy finds amazing, surprising, or exciting as well as its opposite—something exasperating, embarrassing, or questionable in some way.”“Bruh, This Word Is Older Than You Think”. 2021. Dictionary.Com. Accessed January 10. https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/bruh/.
Based on both its origins as a reactionary Vine and the interjection it has evolved into, bruh’s predominant interactional function is thus the second function of dude that is exclamation. Since then, it evolved as a reaction term for all situations that merit mostly any “strongly felt emotion” (as opined by Reddit user u/spend-more-For-WHAT), with such situations being classed as bruh moments.
Below is an example of Reddit users discussing specific instances of bruh used as an exclamation:
Example C
Because bruh became popular as a reaction toward a third party’s actions, for the benefit of an online audience, it also indirectly fulfils the third function of signalling affiliation and connection. The speaker of bruh is connecting with the online audience. It is perhaps the vocal equivalent of Jim Halpert turning to glance at the camera in reaction to another of Dwight’s kooky behaviours in “The Office”. Furthermore, as u/spend-more-FOR-WHAT pointed out, bruh is said “typically in a low tone of voice”, like an utterance of exasperation whispered to a nearby—in this case, digital—friend, expecting them to either share your sentiment, or for yourself to express that you share in their sentiment. In the second half of Example C, bruh is used precisely as commiseration between friends, just like dude in Example B.
Bruh’s etymological origins also point to the third function of signalling affliction and connection once more. Bruh originated from bro, or brother, and gained popularity in the 1960s as an address term for friends.“Bruh, This Word Is Older Than You Think”. 2021. Dictionary.Com. Accessed January 10. https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/bruh/. Thus, its usage automatically implies “affiliation,” and a familiar relationship between the speaker and addressee.
For example, Reddit users discussed bruh as such:
Example D
It is evident that dude and bruh have evolved to express similar attitudes, and it is in these attitudes that we can find explanations for their emergence and popularity.
Performed Masculinity and Social Identity Theory
Kiesling asserts that dude enjoys such popularity because it conveys an attitude of “cool solidarity”Kiesling, S. F. 2004. “DUDE”. American Speech 79 (3): 281-305. doi:10.1215/00031283-79-3-281., which, in turn, aligns with ideals of hegemonic masculinity.
Before expanding on this further, I need to digress briefly to explain performative gender theory and social identity theory. In her ground-breaking book Gender Trouble published in 1990, gender theorist Judith Butler proposed the revolutionary perspective of gender as not fixed, but performative. According to Butler, gender is “a set of repeated acts within a rigid regulatory frame which congeal over time to produce the appearance of substance, of a ‘natural’ kind of being.”Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge. In other words, gender is not something one is simply born with, but is the result of the repeated performance of acts that accord with cultural norms of “masculinity” and “femininity.”Cameron, Deborah. 1997. “Performing Gender Identity: Young Men’s Talk And The Construction Of Heterosexual Masculinity”. Language And Society, 328-335. When applied to gendered speech, the performative theory suggests that instead of seeing it as “people talk the way they do because of who they (already) are,” we should see it as “people are who they are because of the way they talk.”Cameron, Deborah. 1997. “Performing Gender Identity: Young Men’s Talk And The Construction Of Heterosexual Masculinity”. Language And Society, 328-335. Therefore, saying dude is a way for males to effectively ‘perform’ and solidify their male gender identity.
In a similar vein, social psychologists John Turner and Henri Tajfel posited social identity theory, which suggested that one’s social identity (the individual has several identities, each corresponding to group membership) is created through several mechanisms. First, social-categorisation occurs, which entails classifying everyone into groups based on similar characteristics, thus creating in-groups (“us”) and out-groups (“them”).Crane, John. 2016. “IB Psychology: Social Identity Theory”. Thinkib.Net. https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/page/22441/social-identity-theory. This causes individuals to conform to, and share, the same behaviours, including speech style, as the group that they have categorized themselves into.Hogg, Michael. 1985. “Masculine And Feminine Speech In Dyads And Groups: A Study Of Speech Style And Gender Salience”. Journal Of Language And Social Psychology 4 (2): 99-112. Then, social comparison is applied, comparing the benefits of belonging to the in-group and out-group. Since the individual has an urgent need to belong, and extracts their value and self-worth from their position in social contextsBerger, Peter L. 1963. Invitation to Sociology: A Humanist Perspective. New York: Anchor Books. Chapter 4., they tend to use their group membership as a source for their self-esteem.Crane, John. 2016. “IB Psychology: Social Identity Theory”. Thinkib.Net. https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/page/22441/social-identity-theory. Therefore, individuals will instinctually hold in-group favouritism and out-group discrimination, in order to establish their “positive distinctiveness” from the out-group. Therefore, dude is so popular among young men because the word is typical of their in-group. Saying dude reinforces their membership, and by extension, affirms their self-esteem.
Returning to the main topic of discussion, dude is typical of the “male” social group because of how specifically it aligns with hegemonic masculinity. One main trait of hegemonic masculinity is its prizing of close, loyal bonds between men (“solidarity”), while simultaneously demanding “strict heterosexuality.” The trait of masculine solidarity is perhaps best represented by the ideal of loyalty within a military unit, as portrayed in countless war films. The latter trait of heterosexuality is perhaps best evidenced by the strong, underlying homophobia within hegemonic masculinity. It has been argued that the dominant definition of masculinity is “a decisive effort to prevent being emasculated, where ‘emasculated’ is equivalent to being perceived as gay by other men”Kiesling, S. F. 2004. “DUDE”. American Speech 79 (3): 281-305. doi:10.1215/00031283-79-3-281.. This is attested to by how, despite an increase in political tolerance attitudes toward the LGBTQ+ community among adolescents, the term “gay” has still evolved into a common pejorative term among high school and college students, used as a synonym for something “lame or stupid.”Postic, Robert, and Elizabeth Prough. 2014. “That’s Gay! Gay As A Slur Among College Students”. SAGE Open 4 (4): 215824401455699. doi:10.1177/2158244014556996. Because of this nearly-paradoxical requirement, where masculinity entails being very-close-but-not-that-close with other men, there remains only a “narrow range”Kiesling, S. F. 2004. “DUDE”. American Speech 79 (3): 281-305. doi:10.1215/00031283-79-3-281., of “acceptable” relationships among men. Dude and bruh allow men to stay in this “narrow range.”
Importantly, however, they still enforce a sense of distance amidst “solidarity” and satisfy the criteria of heterosexuality in hegemonic masculinity. In the self-survey report, students were asked to rate how often they would use dude with particular addressees (romantic partners, a friend, parent, etc.).Kiesling, S. F. 2004. “DUDE”. American Speech 79 (3): 281-305. doi:10.1215/00031283-79-3-281. It was found that women in romantic relationships with the respondents were among the least likely addressees of dude, whereas women who were merely friends with the respondent were the most likely addressees of dude. These findings, combined with the Dude Corpus analysis, indicate that dude expresses stances of distance and non-romantic relations. The same can be said of bruh, because its origin as brother entails, by strict definition, a non-romantic relationship.
Another trait of hegemonic masculinity is “coolness.” Kiesling’s analysis of the Dude Corpus summarized that dude was often uttered in a casual, stand-offish, nonchalant attitude.
For example, in a recorded conversation, this time between fraternity members, Kiesling observed that, following Dan’s declaration that he loved “playin’ caps,” Pete responded that “everybody plays that damn game, dude.”Kiesling, S. F. 2004. “DUDE”. American Speech 79 (3): 281-305. doi:10.1215/00031283-79-3-281. Pete’s use of dude here serves to tone down Dan’s enthusiasm.
Another recorded conversation demonstrates dude’s stance of non-intervention, which is another form of “coolness.”
Speed: Ritchie. I like Ritchie ’cause he’s smart and he probably (writes really good).
So let him do it dude.
Therefore, it seems dude and bruh are popular because they are words which allow young men to perform hegemonic masculinity, and thus reinforce their membership in their group identity of gender.
A Shift To Coolness
However, the explanation that dude and bruh allow young men to demonstrate their masculinity is not sufficient to explain their usage by females. In Example B, dude was used by a woman to commiserate with another woman. U/spend-more-FOR-WHAT in Example C also specified that bruh is no longer used exclusively by males. It should also be apparent upon reflection that dude and bruh are used by both genders.
This is where dude and bruh’s characteristics of “coolness” return. I mentioned earlier that the two words are used by adolescents. It has been found that, during adolescence, “gender becomes a less salient marker of group identity.”Meyerhoff, Miriam. 1994. “Updating “Gender” As A Sociolinguistic Variable”. Working Papers In Linguistics 1 (5). Thus, if we switch from the perspective of individuals being grouped by gender, to being grouped by age instead, where adolescents view the older generation as the out-group, we begin to find answers.
A main trait of adolescents’ social identities is that “they are not the same as their parents’ salient social identities,”Meyerhoff, Miriam. 1994. “Updating “Gender” As A Sociolinguistic Variable”. Working Papers In Linguistics 1 (5). and youth thus act in ways which “express rebellion,”Kiesling, S. F. 2004. “DUDE”. American Speech 79 (3): 281-305. doi:10.1215/00031283-79-3-281. or “differentiate them in some way from older generations.”Kiesling, S. F. 2004. “DUDE”. American Speech 79 (3): 281-305. doi:10.1215/00031283-79-3-281. That is, they act in ways to establish positive distinctiveness from the out-group of adults. Dude emerged in the speech styles of adolescentsIt has been found that it is youth who are the main drivers of language change and users of language variants or slang.Eble, Connie, and Félix González. 1998. “Reviews – Slang And Sociability: In-Group Language Among College Students”. Journal Of English Linguistics 26 (3): 247-265. in the 1980s, which was a period where “consumerism and wealth accumulation were hegemonic,”Kiesling, S. F. 2004. “DUDE”. American Speech 79 (3): 281-305. doi:10.1215/00031283-79-3-281. and adults espoused hard work to achieve success. Dude, a word which is almost the epitome of a casual, laid-back attitude conflicts with these “adult values” of harried, “uncool” effort, and it is this nonconformity to “adult values” which makes it “attractive to adolescents.”Kiesling, S. F. 2004. “DUDE”. American Speech 79 (3): 281-305. doi:10.1215/00031283-79-3-281.
The phonology of bruh itself is a literal shift to “coolness” and the exertion of less effort. Its previous form, bro, uses o (“oh”), the close mid-back rounded vowel.“Vowel List”. 2020. Depts.Washington.Edu. Accessed December 13. http://depts.washington.edu/lingsup/ling200/vowellist.php. This is classified as a “tense” vowel, because pronouncing this takes greater muscular effort.“Vowel | Phonetics”. 2020. Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed December 12. https://www.britannica.com/topic/vowel. The tongue has to stretch downward unnaturally, and the corners of the lips have to be drawn together since the vowel has protruded roundness. Bruh, on the other hand, uses /ə/ (“uh”), the mid central unrounded vowel.“Vowel List”. 2020. Depts.Washington.Edu. Accessed December 13. http://depts.washington.edu/lingsup/ling200/vowellist.php. This is the most common vowel sound, and classified as a “lax” vowel, producing a very “relaxed” sound.“The Schwa And Clear, Natural English – Wannalisn”. 2020. Wannalisn. Accessed December 14. https://www.wannalisn.com/schwa/. In pronouncing this, the tongue remains closer to its natural position, and since the vowel is unrounded, the lips are also not rounded.This is not the first time that a vowel change is used to indicate group membership. In a study conducted on the speech community of adolescents in Farmer City, Illinois, it was found that fronting (pronounced by pushing the tongue forward) of the /u/ vowel indicated membership in either the social grouping of “redneck” or “burnout.” 16 of the 20 adolescents studied fronted their /u/ vowels in speech, while the remaining 4 who did not, were all members of the “redneck” group.Meyerhoff, Miriam. 1994. “Updating “Gender” As A Sociolinguistic Variable”. Working Papers In Linguistics 1 (5).
The same conclusion of less effort is also reached when taking into account the phonetic environment, which refers to the surrounding sounds of a target speech sound (“oh” or “uh”).“Phonetic Environment – Definition – Encyclo”. 2021. Encyclo.Co.Uk. Accessed January 5. https://www.encyclo.co.uk/meaning-of-Phonetic_environment. The phonetic environment in our case is “br”. After pronouncing “r”, the tongue is positioned high in the mouth, and the “uh” sound comes naturally, being formed simply by relaxing the tongue. Whereas transitioning to “oh” is more strenuous because the tongue is forcefully stretched downward, which is the opposite direction from its previous position.
Therefore, because dude and bruh are ways in which speakers can reinforce their in-group identity as adolescents—and thus affirm their self-esteemBerger, Peter L. 1963. Invitation to Sociology: A Humanist Perspective. New York: Anchor Books. Chapter 4.—by expressing rebellion against the prevailing “adult” norms, the words are commonly used by both young men and young women.
“Bruh Girl Memes” and Speech Accommodation Theory
Example E
“Bruh girl memes” like the ones above have enjoyed immense popularity. TikTok videos with the hashtag #BruhGirl have been viewed more than 113 million times.
These memes introduce a slightly different story—they suggest that bruh, though fairly ubiquitous in both genders, is still considered a masculine speech style, and confer a sense of masculinity on young female speakers. They look at female usage of bruh not according to their membership to an adolescent group but once again return to gender as the defining social category. The popularity of these “bruh girl memes” also suggest that this sentiment resonates with many people, and reflects a real, widespread phenomenon.
Drawing on social identity theory, sociolinguist Howard Giles’ speech accommodation theory posits that speech styles shifts occur in terms of the need for social approval. When individuals of “different status” converse, their speech styles will converge, “on the part of the subordinate individual.”Hogg, Michael. 1985. “Masculine And Feminine Speech In Dyads And Groups: A Study Of Speech Style And Gender Salience”. Journal Of Language And Social Psychology 4 (2): 99-112. This is further consistent with social identity theory, because one of the factors involved in determining which identity becomes salient is the “status and prestige differentials”Hogg, Michael. 1985. “Masculine And Feminine Speech In Dyads And Groups: A Study Of Speech Style And Gender Salience”. Journal Of Language And Social Psychology 4 (2): 99-112. of the various groups. In today’s patriarchal society, it was suggested that females, with societally lower status, “will sacrifice a degree of feminine speech in favour of masculine speech.”Hogg, Michael. 1985. “Masculine And Feminine Speech In Dyads And Groups: A Study Of Speech Style And Gender Salience”. Journal Of Language And Social Psychology 4 (2): 99-112. Social psychologist Michael Hogg conducted an experiment in which he had males and females converse with each other, and he recorded their speech styles. He found that females were more likely to modify their speech style to be more masculine when their gender was made salient (when they were in a mixed-gender group discussion) than when their gender was not salient (conversed with one other person, of their same gender).
Indeed, in a study on women in the workplace, sociolinguist Judith Baxter observed how female leaders used language that was more “masculine,” in order to exercise power and authority over her team.Baxter, Judith. 2017. “Sociolinguistic Approaches To Gender And Leadership Theory”. Handbook Of Research On Gender And Leadership, 113-126.
Giles’ speech accommodation theory is also consistent with Judith Butler’s performative theory. Though she maintains that gender is carefully constructed by sustained adherence to “rigid”Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge. social norms, she also notes in her book that humans are conscious agents, who can actively act in subversion or resistance,Cameron, Deborah. 1997. “Performing Gender Identity: Young Men’s Talk And The Construction Of Heterosexual Masculinity”. Language And Society, 328-335. and concedes that people sometimes act in ways normally associated with the opposite gender.Cameron, Deborah. 1997. “Performing Gender Identity: Young Men’s Talk And The Construction Of Heterosexual Masculinity”. Language And Society, 328-335. In much the same way that dude and bruh are popular among males because they align with hegemonic masculinity, perhaps they are used also by females in response to masculine dominance.
Some claim that the capacity for language is unique to humans. Others want to add certain species of elephants, whales, and non-human primates to that list. Regardless of which side is closer to the truth, it is clear that, from dude to bruh and from Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski to “bruh girls,” we are defined by our language—and our reappropriation of it—more than we might think.