›Sermo iuvenilis‹

In Latin literature, young men cultivate a speech style that sets them apart from other characters. Analyses of texts from the second century BCE to the first century CE, as well s the discussions of adolescent language in Cicero and Quintilian, reveal that the speech style of young men (sermo iuvenilis) is characterized by extreme linguistic behavior and is visible diachronically and across genres, much like their deficient societal position.