Britain's Prince Philip is no chav

Sep 28, 2005, 13:06 GMT

Britain's Prince Philip has been learning teenage slang so he can understand young people.

The 84-year-old royal - head of the Duke of Edinburgh scheme for young people across the country - had admitted he had lost touch with youngsters' vernacular, and was mystified by new words such as "booty" (butt) and "chav" (poor people trying to look rich by wearing fake designer clothes and cheap 'bling' jewellery).

He also confessed to his aides that he didn't understand the teen way of abbreviating words.

When the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme's bosses opted to update the organisation's outmoded image, the prince decided he would also like to be brought up to date.

Changes to be implemented include designing a graffiti-style logo for the scheme - which is almost 50 years old - and dropping Philip's name from everything but the letterheads.

Notes written in the style of mobile phone text messages are also being tested on the scheme's website.

An insider is quoted in Britain's The Sun newspaper as saying: "To his credit, the prince is the first to admit he is a bit old-fashioned.

"But he refuses to be out of touch. He took advice and learnt some current teen slang and what the text message abbreviations that kids use these days are all about."

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