The development of language

Returning to the changes of the Japanese language and the language of youth in Japan an often familiar word used by Japanese youth is the word 「超」chou. Chou is often used to express “very” as in 「チョー気持ちいい」(It) feels great! It is not only used for positive expressions but for negative ones as well, for example: 「超むかつく」It’s really disgusting. It is even used with English words like: チョーベリーグ/チョーベリーバwhich are short forms of チョーベリーグッドandチョーベリーバッド. These words have become popularized by the youth throughout Japan. The use of Chou as in 超特急、超満員follows the pattern of preceding the noun and adds emphasis to the noun it attaches to. Moreover, chou is even attached to i-adjectives as in 超美しいcertain dictionaries introduce chou such that it adds excessive stress or emphasis. It seems that among the youth that the term has very broad meaning. It appears that the term chou is in fact a dialect from Shizuoka prefecture, which was brought into Tokyo and spread throughout Japan.