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"English" Not Threatened By Webspeak

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the but-it-is-threatened-by-my-inability-to-discern-then-and-than dept.

MudButt writes "Linguists say not to worry too much about Netspeak, otherwise known as the language of choice in chat rooms and IM clients. According to this Yahoo! article, linguists say that terms like "cya", "brb", "afk" are a healthy way of exploring the power of the written language. They went on to say "FYI, RTFA"!"

21 of 695 comments (clear)

  1. "English" by daniil · · Score: 4, Funny

    What's up with these quotation marks? Are you being ironic, and if, then why? English is a real language, you know...

    --
    Man is a slave because freedom is difficult, whereas slavery is easy.
    1. Re:"English" by MudButt · · Score: 5, Funny

      What's up with these quotation marks?

      We shouldn't get "hung up" with things like the "misuse" of "punctuation". We're "geeks" and as such we should be "allowed" to "misuse" the English "language".

    2. Re:"English" by ackthpt · · Score: 3, Funny
      It could be an overuse of quotation marks, or it could be a sarcastic reference to the false concept of "English" as a monolithic, standardised language.

      Like French...

      Z95 Rocks Paris! (actually heard on Paris, FR FM radio)

      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    3. Re:"English" by prockcore · · Score: 3, Funny


      Ah well, at least they didnt use the blink tag.

      I prefer the bling tag, which causes words to become jewel encrusted.

  2. Re:When are we getting machine code natural langua by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    YAF,R?

  3. lest we forget Microsoft's take on this by drunken+dash · · Score: 5, Funny

    And let's not forget Microsoft's take on l33t sp34k =)

    --
    Enjoy an e-piphany
  4. I disagree by Jhon · · Score: 5, Funny
    "English" Not Threatened By Webspeak
    They obviously haven't IM'd my 16 year old niece. "OMG! LMAO!!! Every1 nos that! lol! ttfn! cya!"

    Sadly, that is a direct cut-paste from my IM window this morning.
  5. Hmmmm... by Seoulstriker · · Score: 5, Funny

    That is, encoding English like we encode with a compiler?

    OMFG. Liek nevar, j00 n00b. lololol. j/k.

    --
    I am defenseless. Use your button. Mod me down with all of your hatred.
  6. WTF by mrtroy · · Score: 5, Funny

    1999. ROFL.

    2000. 4LL j00r n3tsp34k is w34k

    2001. eye r owns0r joo all!

    Then we all realized it was easier to communicate with normal english, and having both hands on the keyboard is a huge factor ;)

    --
    [I can picture a world without war, without hate. I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it]
    1. Re:WTF by rowanxmas · · Score: 5, Funny

      So many of us play World of Warcraft these days, needless to say, where your primary communication is through the chat window. In my guild we have members ranging from 16-40+. The only young ones who are able to stay in the guild succesfully are those who can write using "normal" english.

      If they don't, we mock them, example:
      young'en: can neone help me?
      olde 'en: I don't know, "Neone" does not seem to be on right now.
      young'en: what?
      olde 'en: There is no player named "Neone" in our guild.
      young'en: no, i mean i want ANYONE to help me!
      olde 'en: oh! you should have said so in the first place.
      (I make an alt named "Neone" )
      Neone: I can help you! But I am only a level 1 druid...

      And so we teach and encourage proper written communication.

  7. I'll bet by 2names · · Score: 4, Funny
    he's not referring to the version of English that allows the speaker to end a sentence with "to."

    Or IS he?!?!?!

    --
    "I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
  8. Yes. by 2names · · Score: 4, Funny
    Misplaced quotation marks, misplaced commas, the whole "your you're" problem, the "there their they're" fiasco...these are all huge problems on which we must focus our efforts.

    Now, get you're ass back to work. We don't, want to piss you're boss off their do, we now?

    --
    "I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
  9. 0110100001101001 by i41Overlord · · Score: 3, Funny

    01001001001000000111010001101000011010010110111001 10101100100000011010010111010000100111011100110010 00000110011001100001011100110110100001101001011011 11011011100110000101100010011011000110010100100000 01110100011011110010000001110100011000010110110001 10101100100000011011000110100101101011011001010010 00000111010001101000011010010111001100101110001000 00010101110110100001100101011011100010000001001001 00100000011011110111000001100101011011100010000001 10110101111001001000000110110101101111011101010111 01000110100000101100001000000100100100100000011100 11011011110111010101101110011001000010000001101100 01101001011010110110010100100000011000010010000001 10110101101111011001000110010101101101001011100010 00000101010001101000011001010010000001101101011011 11011100110111010000100000011010010110111001110100 01100101011100100110010101110011011101000110100101 10111001100111001000000111000001100001011100100111 01000010000001101111011001100010000001110100011010 00011001010010000001100011011011110110111001110110 01100101011100100111001101100001011101000110100101 10111101101110001000000110100101110011001000000111 01000110100001100101001000000110100001100001011011 10011001000111001101101000011000010110101101100101 00101110

    1. Re:0110100001101001 by StalinsNotDead · · Score: 5, Funny

      01011001011011110111010100100000011011100110010101 10010101100100001000000111000001110011011110010110 00110110100001101001011000010111010001110010011010 01011000110010000001101000011001010110110001110000 00101110

      --
      Thanks to the internet, we can now all die alone together! -SomeWoman
    2. Re:0110100001101001 by Kippesoep · · Score: 5, Funny

      How'd you get that past the lameness filter?

    3. Re:0110100001101001 by WasteOfAmmo · · Score: 3, Funny

      01010111011010000110000101110100001000000110100101 11001100100000011011010110111101110011011101000010 00000110011001110101011011100110111001111001001000 00011000010110001001101111011101010111010000100000 01110100011010000110100101110011001000000110100101 11001100100000011011100110111101110111001000000110 10000110000101101100011001100010000001101111011001 10001000000111010001101000011001010010000001100010 01101001011011100110000101110010011110010010000001 10001101101111011011100111011001100101011100100111 00110110100101101111011011100010000001110011011010 01011101000110010101110011001000000010100001101001 01101110011000110110110001110101011001000110100101 10111001100111001000000111010001101000011001010010 00000111010001101111011100000010000001110010011000 01011011100110101101100101011001000010000001100111 01101111011011110110011101101100011001010010000001 11001001100101011100110111010101101100011101000010 10010010000001101001011100110010000000101111001011 10001001110110010101100100001011100010000000100000 01010111011001010010000001100001011100100110010100 10000001100111011001010110010101101011011100110010 00000110000101110010011001010010000001110111011001 010010000001101110011011110111010000100001
      --
      for some reason "preview" didn't help catch my spelling/grammar mistakes this time?

  10. Re:hi by Storlek · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think it's fashionable to talk like this. When I open my mouth, I sound like a modem. The most interesting part of the conversation is the handshake.

    Quite true.

    --
    Bears don't normally eat things that talk and move backwards.
  11. Recalls a witticism: by smittyoneeach · · Score: 3, Funny

    If a male sheep is a ram,
    and a wild horse is an ass,
    Why is a ram in the ass a goose?
    The question is all the more compelling during tax season.

    --
    Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
  12. Famous quote by Viadd · · Score: 4, Funny
    The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle their pockets for new vocabulary.
    --James Nicoll
  13. Re:|\|eTZP3@K by AntEater · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wow! You managed to post with netspeak and produce valid Perl code all in the same posting.

    --
    Alex, I'll take keybindings not used by Emacs for $400....
  14. damn you kids! by robochan · · Score: 3, Funny

    g3t 0ff |\/|y l4\/\/n!!!~!!111oneone!!tilde!!!!omgwtfbbq!!

    --
    ...Rob
    The American Dream isn't an SUV and a house in the suburbs; it's Don't Tread On Me.