The study combines linguistic and socio-psychological research results to show that the widespread conviction that juvenile sociolects serve to assure group integrity against outsiders is only true to a certain degree. Youth 'jargon' fulfills a number of different functions. The study commences by examining dialogues between young people and adults to illustrate the theoretical issues addressed by a concern with the functional aspect of language. Subsequently, the use of juvenile sociolects by young people in verbal exchanges with adults is subjected to a number of systematic empirical analyses. Finally, an analysis of youth jargon/sociolectal features adopted and emulated by adults provides insight into a field hitherto unexplored: attempted imitation by outsiders.