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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"!"

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

    01011001011011110111010100100000011011100110010101 10010101100100001000000111000001110011011110010110 00110110100001101001011000010111010001110010011010 01011000110010000001101000011001010110110001110000 00101110

    --
    Thanks to the internet, we can now all die alone together! -SomeWoman
  10. 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
  11. 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....
  12. Re:0110100001101001 by Kippesoep · · Score: 5, Funny

    How'd you get that past the lameness filter?