With the exception perhaps of one.
Posted on 02/09/2011 8:35:25 AM PST by MNDude
NEW YORK (AP) - "ILY!" Susan Maushart's 16-year-old daughter often calls out over her shoulder as she leaves the house. Sure, actual words would be better. But Mom knows not to complain.
"A mother of teenagers is pathetically grateful for an 'I love you' no matter what form it takes," she observes.
Then there are the various forms of "LOL" that her teens use in regular parlance - it's become a conjugable verb by now. And of course, there's the saltier acronym used by son Bill: "WTF, Mom?!" But before you judge, note that former VP candidate Sarah Palin just used that one in a TV interview. And CNN's Anderson Cooper used it on his show the other night.
Acronyms have been around for years. But with the advent of text and Twitter-language, it certainly feels like we're speaking in groups of capital letters a lot more. It's a question that intrigues linguists and other language aficionados - even though they'll tell you they have absolutely no concrete research on it.
"It's fascinating," says Scott Kiesling, a socio-linguist and professor at the University of Pittsburgh. "What's interesting to me as a linguist is figuring out which words get picked up, and why. What is it that makes OMG and WTF and LOL so useful that they spread from the written to the spoken form?"
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
EIEIO...
Good point!
“Wearing pants down to your knees means you’ll have to walk around like a penguin all day to keep your pants up, as well as constantly pulling them up. I don’t get it.”
That’s not as difficult as you might think, and is offset by other advantages. For instance, more room means more comfort. Also, it’s a lot easier not to bother learning your actual size.
I <3 TXT speak.
Well, England did it’s fair share of conquering too, so it would be safe to assume that they also picked up verbiage from the conquered and integrated into their own, and/or the conquered picked up some of the English and butchered it some more.
But yea, were all mongrels and mutts.
Whaaaat? lol
I wonder if text message “language” would have been so prevelant if smart phones or texting phones with keyboards (virtual or otherwise) became popular before (or is it b4?) text messaging did.
I have to think the difficulty of typing messages on a phone keypad (which requires 1 to 3 keystokes per letter) was a big contributor to the creation of and popularity text message abbreviations.
One of the favorites as a tactical radar controller was FIO...Figure it Out...and the other when a fighter wanted to argue with my suggested vector, was KMAC YOYO. Kiss My . Charlie, Your On Your Own.
“I’ve believed for some time this was going to ultimately destroy the English language”
There are all sorts of dangers, texting being merely one. There’s also general cultural decline, the official abandonment of the value of standard grammar by linguistic authorities, illeteracy, community and family dissolution (thereby reducing opportunities for extended conversation), the obsession with youth, the “poetry” of popular music, television, and especially the internet. My personal bette noir is the common currency of new words deriving from typos, e.g. “pwned” and “teh.” They make me think I’m living in as Dark Age.
illeteracy = illiteracy
Please ignore the irony of this simple mistake.
The Torah was originally written without vowels, as the earliest writings were (I believe) written on tablets and the latter parts on extremely expensive papyrus. They left out the vowels because of the cost and difficulty of obtaining materials. So, this isn’t a new trend.
“OMG like when did events on TV change the standards by which we should judge?”
Circa 1948.
Me I tell people the limits of my texting capabilities are like "yes", "no" and "ok".
“’Laziness is at the root of all changes in language.’
Not true:
‘WTF?’ — Five syllables
‘What The F***?’ — Three syllables
‘Huh?’ — One”
Firstly, “Huh?” is widely used, and though I don’t have any data to back me up, I assume it is in no danger of being replaced by “WFT?” Secondly, the spoken “WFT” is an offshoot of the written “WTF,” which undeniably is lazy. This, I’m sure, is what the previous poster meant by saying “Laziness is at the root of all changes in language.” “Language,” not necessarily speech. Even if it’s not lazy to say “WTF,” it is lazy to write it.
Yep, Right-on IMHO from one old fogey usenet user to another. Most of the abbreviations started there way before the web or the internet (and “smileys” as well). Just wasn’t as well known. OBfact - most of the old usenet posts are available on Google. Look up kremvax for fun or just your own old posts.
“IDK but we’ve had FUBAR far longer than txtg”
No one’s suggesting text messaging predates abbreviation and acronyms.
“Just wasn’t as well known.”
Yeah, but that’s kinda the point of the current discussion. Them being well known and well used.
“Just wasn’t as well known.”
“Yeah, but that’s kinda the point of the current discussion. Them being well known and well used.”
Yes, but also where they come from. Only a few expression such as “he’s 404” are truly new.
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