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Banned Words List Carries Its First Emoticon
DynaSoar writes "Lake Superior State University in Michigan's Upper Peninsula ('The land of four seasons: June, July, August and Winter') has just published its 34th annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness. Besides such unsurprising inclusions such as 'green' corporations being 'game changing' due to concern with their 'carbon foot print,' this year's list contains an emoticon for the first time — not a smiley face or variant, but the 'heart' symbol made from the characters 'less than' and 'three.' It's perhaps a sign of the evolution of language, or at least of this volunteer linguistic watchdog group, that a symbol compounded of two characters, neither of them a letter, is considered not only a word, but a particularly egregious one."
Let's celebrate.
\o/
http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current.php They appear to either hate political discourse or the sound-bite products of political discourse.
<3 is supposed to be a heart!? And all this time
I thought it was mammaries or butt-cheeks, depending
on the context.
The "cue the foo posts in 3, 2, 1..." posts will commence with no subsequent foo posts in 3, 2, 1...
Or maybe ban the losers who constantly spell lose as loose.
If I had an Ass, I'd call it Fanny Bottom, then I could slap my Ass; Fanny Bottom, on the Arse.
Cue a bunch of humor-impaired Slashdotters exploding in 5...4... Shit, too late.
8====D
Okay yes we can ban that one.
A long time ago my friend had a AIM screen name. It involved the "3", well it took me months to understand why it was in the screen name.....that helped to explain why people were using it on forums and such.
I mean WTF, a 3 plus is not a heart. Only people that think it looks like a heart would invent something so stupid.
Some no-name college makes a list of phrases that they think are stupid and they get on the news.
Someone sees '<3' and nerdgasms. The aftermath is left here on Slashdot.
This is not news, it's spam.
Move along please.
What's that one bash.org quote?
a: I love her with all my 3
b: You love her with all your less than three? Inches?
And all along I thought it <3 stood for Boobs on a cone.
I <3 monkeys and have set up a green organization so to achieve our directive and maintain a low carbon footprint, along with my wife to protect them. My wife is a bit of a Maverick and is trying to run for president but I am ok with being First Dude.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Americans leave out the "u" in colour, armour, neighbour, etc. We no longer pronounce "night" as [ni:xt] or [ni:t] (IPA). We could come up with a huge number of examples, but why bother? Language evolves over time, words lose or gain meaning. It's a natural process. You'd think an academic institution would understand this simple concept, but I guess grabbing headlines is more important than practicing proper academia.
Emoticons are just an evolution of a new language. It's actually quite extraordinary. We have now created symbols that can represent simple meanings cross-culturally and cross-linguistically, and these symbols are popularized in large part by the youth of the world. They are creating a whole new language right before our eyes. I wouldn't be surprised if we would soon be able to communicate simple messages between different cultures that speak different languages via symbols (some would argue we already can). It's a shame that institutions such as this one and the "get off my damn lawn" crowd are ridiculing such an extraordinary example of the human ability to adapt and break down communicative barriers.
Me: LSSU! <3 :( :D
LSSU: </3
Me:
LSSU: ( ^_^ )
LSSU: <(^_^<)
LSSU: (>^_^)>
LSSU: (o^_^)O
LSSU: O(^_^o)
Me:
LSSU: (>O<)
Me: D:
8======D I mean really! :D
Where's the ASCII Goatse guy when you need him?
We figured out a long time ago that it's easier to elect seven judges than to elect 132 legislators.
The KJV is in Early Modern English, not Old English. Old English is incomprehensible to modern speakers. u scealt witan over æm e u segest ær u spricst.
Variants include /3 for a broken heart, $ to convey a financial motive for love, and 4 as the superlative of 3.
Fuck you Slashdot and your inability to even handle Latin-1, to say nothing of Unicode. DIAF.
People define the language, the language doesn't define the people.
So, I take you haven't heard of the new edition of the newspeak dictionary?
DON'T PANIC.
I'm always amused how people -- who will defend to the death the word "hacker" 's right to still today mean what it did for three weeks in 1994, despite over a decade of evolutionary use to the contrary -- insist that emoticons retain any value outside of of a fat-fingered person's text messaging.
There is an art and a skill and a subtlety to the written word, something we developed over thousands of years of evolution. When I see our species reverting to pixelated cave pictographs, it makes me wonder whether stone knives and bearskins are next.
Well at least they didn't ban four or two, without those, we wouldn't have the answer to life, the universe, and everything.
My bible is in Hebrew, you insensitive clod!
Actually, if you are referring to the bibles that the Gideon society leaves in hotel rooms, that is in modern English. You can tell it is in modern English because, as a native English speaker, you have little difficulty reading it. Also, "wife" is not spelled "wyf," as it would be in middle English, and it does not read like German or contain any "ash" (æ) characters, at it would if it were actually old English.
Palm trees and 8
(_)_)/////////////////////D OMG I got Filter error: Please use fewer 'junk' characters. I cant use fewer characters, then it wouldnt be to scale...
What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything?
2!
Well, you're only half right...
How about 3? Or maybe 3{.
My personal favorite ..!.
/\/\icro/\/\uncher
For some time now I've been using >=3 as an emoticon for "hate". Rarely do people seem to get it, though.
Armor, Armour, Armer all all pronounced the same way. Language relates to the spoken word, how it is spelled is up to the intellectuals and academicians. Spelling makes not difference in language. Which is why it surprises me that a symbol that has no unpronounceable is included in this tongue in cheek policing of the language.
I read Slashdot for the headlines, because the headlines, unlike the articles, are usually original and never duplicated
my day has been made. best O-T ever. and ben is my hero.
Well hell, how am I ever going to count properly again?
Today is red jello day - all workers must eat all of their red jello. Failure to comply will result in five demerits.
=O=
Language is whatever conveys meaning that is mutually understood between the speaker and the listener.
English, in particular, has no governing body that dictates the proper use of the language. I am fairly offended that these people have appointed themselves as some kind quasi-arbiter of our language.
2/3 of human communication is non-verbal. It conveys meaning and is mutually understood to some degree (culturally dependent). It is comprised of kinesics, proxemics and chronemics, and except for thew subest comprised of predetermined signs (sign language) is not language.
As for the rest, do yourself a favor and go look at the section this article is in, and see if you can't head off that impending valium deficiency.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
one of them is filtered as insightful +5
You speak London? I speak London very best.
That's because that's obviously the evil-cat-mouth smiley. Come on.
-- Lattyware (www.lattyware.co.uk)
"Less than three music" is a nice radio station
How can anything in Michigan be removed from the Queen's English?
Won't they have to tear up the declaration of independence (I think perhaps that should be in capitals:-) )
Even Her Majesty's own subjects don't speak whatever the Queen's English is. Just listen to the now invisible glottal stop in estuary English (cue Amy Winehouse album) "To'al" or the south's strange pronounciation of Wednesday as Wendsday.
If Michigan wants to rescue the Queen's English, I suggest they email an apology to Our Lizzie at Buck House, send a back payment for all that unpaid stamp duty, start drinking tea again, change all of their Boulevards back to streets, start driving on the wrong side of the road again, charge citizens over one hundred pounds per year to watch the telly, start making films at Hollywood, rename (American) football to armoured-rugby and then start playing (proper)football again and declare President Elect, Barack Obama King...
I could go on...
Posts, MyBio or Sig, may contain satire, sarcasm, bolded nouns be sardonic or even witty & be Church of SD
Seriously? Someone decided that an emoticon for the heart should be banned altogether?
Sounds to me like someone got dumped for the umpteenth time in a row, can't even get his mother to go to lunch with him, and is still carrying a grudge that the Valentine he made with crayons, construction paper, and glue and gave to his second grade teacher ended up in her trash basket by the end of the school day folded around a gray wad of chewed DoubleMint gum.
*** *** You're just jealous 'cause the voices talk to me... ***
Americans don't "leave out" the 'u' in 'colour'. Americans simply don't know it is supposed to be there in the first place. The agnorant "leave out" theory is nothing more than a primitive way to cover up their embarrassment when they finally discover that it is actually spelled with 'u'.
The word 'evolution', when used in the contexts like this one, is supposed to mean the progressive developments in the language, not just any arbitrary change. The distortions of English language introduced by virtually illiterate Americans don't qualify as evolution.
=O=
(I wonder if he makes the list next time ?)
Americans don't "leave out" the 'u' in 'colour'. Americans simply don't know it is supposed to be there in the first place. The agnorant "leave out" theory is nothing more than a primitive way to cover up their embarrassment when they finally discover that it is actually spelled with 'u'.
I think Americans will be better off not taking spelling lessons from someone who cannot properly spell ignorant.
It's a lion - quick, get in the car !
>:3
There's a Russian joke about emoticons (I'm sure totally made up).
During his first orbit, Yuri Gagarin was asked if he was enjoying the view, to which he responded "the view is three equals eight."
3=8 ("zayebis!" or rough equivalent of "fucking awesome!")
You kinda have to have you mind in the gutter to see this one (but I'm sure most slashdotters will do just fine ;)).
If you open yourself to the foo, You and foo become one.
Hah-ha! You've fallen into GP's trap -- he's redefined "old" to mean "early modern." Because languages change over time, and early modern definitions are forced to give way to frobble glorkle prabulax.
$META_SIG_JOKE
If :) is a smile then the bottom is to the right. 3 would be a ball sack then.
Why would people assume that all the other emoticons have the bottom on the right then switch it up for 3? Is there any other emoticon that the bottom is on the left?
Simply use "one, one, one..."
Same method as "ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten, ten..."
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Your "ae" ligatures appear to have come out correctly (on IE 6 on XP - I'm at work and can't install Firefox). Were there other Old English characters that should have been in there that got filtered out? I doubt Slashdot would handle thorn, eth, yogh, or long S characters properly.
Loose things are easy to lose. You're getting your hair cut. They're going there to see their aunt.
They appear to either hate political discourse or the sound-bite products of political discourse.
They clearly love irony though. A US university trying to ban words from the Queen's English?
The "u" was removed by Noah Webster. There were some other intentional changes, like "aluminium" -> "aluminum". The purpose was, among other things, to differentiate the language from British. Of course, this all happened at a time when spelling wasn't fully standardized, so neither British nor the Americans were had the "correct" spelling for the other side to bastardize.
As for language evolution: its sole purpose is not to progress in a positive direction, but to progress in such a way that the speakers are able to express what they want and need to express. If that means simplification in syntax or morphology or whatever, then so be it. Any other standard for language evolution is groundless. The rest of your rant is just ignorant and hateful BS.
I think English was a German variant until the Normans took over. Then we got just enough of both to completely confuse everyone who's ever tried to speak (or spell) it.
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
Interesting - that appears to be closer to modern German (my native language) than modern English.
It's cause we stole it from you long ago. Most of English's "base" is German derived. It's just we're also very loose about adding words stolen from other languages. Making a faux pas at a rodeo is strictly verboten - you say this to an English speaker, and most of us will know what you're talking about, even though "faux pas", "rodeo", and "verboten" have all entered the English lexicon in the past 150 years or less. German, plus this stuff, plus 1300 years, equals modern English.
This is, consequently, why I think English has ended up being a global language - because it's so absurdly flexible. When's the last time French decided it was ok to add a word? I hear all the time about cultural purists in France being against adding simple words that the rest of us have been using for years, just because "that's English, so we don't want it" or whatever.
~X
sig?
Butchery...or an evolution for more effective communication over a limited channel? As for rap and R&B, there's no butchery there at all, it's just based on a different dialect of English.
I don't understand where these "decline of civilization" people come from and how they so ironically prove the point they are making by being complete and utter idiots who make groundless and ignorant claims without any qualification whatsoever.
The asc shows up correctly for me on Firefox on Linux, but the thorns (both capital and regular) do not show up at all. I didn't use any other characters and I'm glad I didn't.
Samuel L Jackson was in that, right?
Confusing. Yes the original composition of the Bible is a bit of a mix, with a pinch of Aramaic (although mostly Hebrew and Greek), but what do you mean it's "already [...] badly translated"? I've met people who think that the oldest Biblical manuscripts (such as Codex Vaticanus) are themselves translations of some lost original. There's no evidence for this view, and I think it's a silly notion.
The main objection is that there would be no need to translate to Hebrew/Aramaic/Greek because the original language of composition would have been the same language. All three of those languages represent common language of their day. That is, archaeology tells us that Isaiah would have composed his original in Hebrew, so there was no need to translate it into Hebrew. Daniel and Ezra are biglot books, but they must have been composed that way: what translator would take the original and translate it into a mix of two languages?
If you are saying that the Authorized Version is a bad translation, well that's debatable. They did a pretty good job for that era, but it does have its weak spots.
Maybe you are referring to the fact that the Gospels record conversations that were originally held in Aramaic -- but then it's misleading to call the Gospels "translations" (bad or good) from Aramaic. They are obviously new compositions, composed in Greek, and (with the exception of 2 Peter) written very skilfully.
$META_SIG_JOKE
oops, s/diglot/biglot/
$META_SIG_JOKE
All this time I thought it was an elite club that I wasn't a part of. I had hoped people mistakingly believed I was already part of the gang and could skip the initiation.
"I guess I'm gonna fade into Bolivian."
The Normans didn't change the language as much as people like to think. The Viking invasion and the Renaissance had greater effects than the Norman invasion did. The main by-products of the Norman invasion were a new/modified spelling system and some new vocabulary (but still a lot of native English vocabulary hung around until the Renaissance or at least the late Middle English period). The grammar changes, such as the loss of inflections and the change in word order were already underway during the late Old English period and may have been spurred/hastened by interaction with the Vikings.
The spelling problems arose later, with the Great Vowel Shift and a lot of refusal to fix spelling back when we had the chance.
they must be mavericks for banning all those words. That's the change our language needs.
In celebration of the end of 2008, let me take a bullet for all /. Grammar Nazis by condemning The F******* Summary for this linguistic turd:
particularly egregious
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
I expect it's closer to the third theory (not listed in your post), which is that it's inspired by animals of some sort. for example, mating swans make something quite close to a heart shape. same thing with dragonflies
It's not stupid. It's Advanced.
They missed "intertubes" and "looser" used as a noun (as in "your a looser").
I'm a Programmer. That's one level above Software Engineer and one level below Engineer.
just a really long nose.
You've got to be lying.
Count in base 3 (0, 1, 2). You could never tell anyone what counting system you were using but that just makes working out what you're saying that much more fun!
Actually Hebrew manuscripts of Matthew, several of the epistles, and other writings from the New Testament/B'rit Chadashah have been discovered, and likely came before the greek and aramaic versions. It would make sense, after all, the entire "church" of the time was composed of Jews, and although they used Aramaic and Greek for conducting business, communications between synogogues/congregations would have been Hebrew.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Nah. Americans are just more efficient. We don't need those extra letters. The "u" in Armour is probably the boss's relative so that's why it's there. Kinda like that extra union worker who's always leaning on the broom but never sweeping.
Now we see the violence inherent in the system.
and try to reduce your cesium footprint. I know I'll do my part. Happy New Year.
i\hbar\dot{\psi}=\hat{H}\psi
I was almost expelled from junior high over ASCII art and this one brought back some memories. There plenty of emoticons banned after that at that school. Funny how the principal even declared that computers were evil arcade machines that would never be useful in the 'real world'. }=)
(o)
o >
(o)
i<3 ny
i^2 < 3^2
-1 < 9
i<3 ny? ==> y(es)
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Clearly we need a government agency to enforce this list, or at least part of it. At the very least, politicians need to be fined thousands of dollars for use of the word "Maverick."
Alternatively, they could just fine news organizations for using catch-phrases more than 20 times a day.
</3
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
That is, archaeology tells us that Isaiah would have composed his original in Hebrew, so there was no need to translate it into Hebrew.
Actually, I thought that Isaiah was a collection of writers using that name over time, and that this was a not-unheard-of practice.
Was I misinformed?
(Not nit-picking your otherwise excellent comment, just thinking you may be well-informed enough to answer.)
Pathological kinda promises Path + Logical - but instead, you get stuck with pathetic.
Nah - from your comment history, your karma dropped like a rock a while ago.
I think you have a unique sense of humor and may be modded a bit harshly by people that don't get you, from what I see of your recent history.
I'd suggest keeping the same name and just hanging in there until things fit.
Worked for me.
Worry only about expressing yourself well and karma will follow. The more you think about karma, the more it drops.
Pathological kinda promises Path + Logical - but instead, you get stuck with pathetic.
ummm, lets see.
0000
0001
0010
0011
0100
0101
0110
0111
1000
1001
1010
1011
1100
1101
1110
1111
then keep on continuing from 15, all the way up to infinite
I am not stubborn. I am right!
LSU might be in the UP but it's not made up of yoopers. If it was, they would know that the four seasons in the UP are thus:
1. Early winter
2. Mid winter
3. Late winter
4. Next winter
No, actually, we leave it out because it's pointless. Nice try though.
All we have to do now is !(/3)
I <3 that emoticon!
Don't put advice in your sig.
You're not the only guy who noticed this. Now get on your knees.
Wait... they banned <3 but not the one that looks like a middle finger?
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Brenda would be the sovereign, only a few places like Tonga got to keep their indigenous monarchies. Obama would have to settle for being Prime Minister, or rather Premier, which was the usual term for the chief minister of a self-governing colony. You see, having been in rebellion for 233 years, I don't think we'd trust the Americans with full Dominion status right from the start.
Agree with the rest of your post, but...
It has more to do with the military and economic dominance of the US. In the 1800 and up to WWII French had the role of English. Being flexible is no advantage at all for a learner, who has to learn what is the difference between "forbidden" and "verboten", or between "royal", "regal" and "kingly", whereas other languages have just one word. In my experience (I speak Italian as a mother language, English, Norwegian and German) the kind of flexibility you talk about is actually a major hindrance (or an obstacle?). In any case, get ready to learn Mandarin.
I think it was 2003, and the word was courriel.
Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y
Ahem, the Chinese have been using that for millennia now. The Japanese Kanji and the Korean Hanja are ripoffs of the Chinese Hanzi, and, whereas pronunciation and even syntax are different, the meanings are retained, just like in the case of smileys. I'll let you into a secret: in foreign countries we actually do the same for numbers: e.g. "Rocky V" is pronounced "Rocky fem/fuenf/cinque", not always "Rocky five", depending on language, because our digits work just like Hanzi ideograms, or smileys. So it's hardly something new.
Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y
I'm no expert, but I think you are right, and I probably shouldn't have picked Isaiah as an example. The composition is disputed: some say three authors, some two, some one. I don't think anyone claims to know for sure.
$META_SIG_JOKE
No worries, this is just typical /. give-and-take. And, the NIV is a decent translation FWIW. Happy new year.
$META_SIG_JOKE
Oh great, another usage Nazi... ;-)
Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
Those cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys will be happy to see fewer words in the English language.
"I just can't sit while people are saying nonsense in a meeting without saying it's nonsense" J Watson, Sci Am 288:(4)51
:-)(-:
guess what these smileys are doing....?
Ask Me About... The 80's!
I always thought 3 was a kiss. Gahhh ! Why do I always misunderstand emoticons ?
I'd pay money to see "perfect storm" go away. People currently use it to represent any situation which contains two or more variables. I literally scream in their faces when they do that.
It has more to do with the military and economic dominance of the US.
or the fact that the british empire was the largest in the world at one point, spreading many a colony everywhere, which all spoke english.
Yeah, and how long until...
8===D
Gets the boot?
Lake Superior State University has nothing but >3 for 3. :(
Property is theft.
I would caution you against pointing out the arbitrarity of language on a site populated mostly by anal-retentive nerds. We're people who grew up convinced of our superiority to the other kids because we were too smart to say "ain't".
In fact, it would appear you've already felt out wrath.
Property is theft.
I know you're just a troll, but still... "ignorant". Are you saying that, in reality, language walked up to humans one day and taught them how to speak it correctly?
Property is theft.
Obviously I don't hang with the cool kids who use "monkey" as an affix, so are there any examples of this? Or did somebody just make it up and submit it?
>:3
Issa lion! Get in da car!
All rites reversed 2010
if by "a different dialect" you mean illiterate mispronunciation and the inability to use proper diction, then sure.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
jesus christ it's a lion get in the car!!1
What is "proper diction"? You mean the diction used by standard written English. Well, that's all well and good, but that's just one possible set of words. There's nothing inherently "proper" about it except that it is the current accepted standard for writing this particular language. God did not come down and bequeath unto us mortal humans standard written English. From a linguistic standpoint, it's no more proper than any other dialect's set of words. Now, if you are writing a book, then you definitely need to follow the rules of standard written English and not use dialectical or colloquial words, idioms and grammatical rules. I agree with you there. But in general, it's not "inferior". If you want inferior, try looking at a pidgin, which is actually a true subset language with incomplete rules and minimalist vocabulary and is, of course, illiterate by nature.
Many spoken dialects other than AA ones pronounce words differently from the standard. Often, their pronunciations predate the ones developed by the standard, so they are, from a historical standpoint, more "correct". Yes, dialects are usually inherently illiterate (as the written standard dialect is preferred in modern times when writing, for obvious reasons), but that doesn't make them "mispronunciations" or inferior, in and of themselves. Using them in the wrong situations or with the wrong groups of people is a problem, obviously. But it's a very different problem.
after it goes 8===D- - - .. ..
In some contexts, 3 is a furry with a pointed hat.
there is no god but truth, and reality is its prophet
> Interesting - that [Old English] appears to be closer to modern German... than modern English.
Yes, it is.
Modern English is a mixture of Greek, Latin, French, Middle English, and assorted other tidbits.
Middle English was a mixture of various languages, chiefly French, Old English, Gaelic, French, Latin, and French.
Old English was a mixture of Old German, Danish, Gaelic, Latin, Old Norse, and I'm not sure what all else.
If you look at it another way, the vocabulary of modern English is about 30% Greek, 30% Latin, 30% French, 5% Germanic, and 10% Other. (Neologisms are mostly built on Greek and/or Latin roots, but a few of them fall into the Other category, e.g., "cromulent". Foreign words from other languages are also included in that 5% Other. Oh, and the reason it adds up to 105% is because some French roots are also Latin roots with the same meaning, and the corresponding English words can be seen as coming from either or both. There are also a few cases of similar overlap between Latin and Greek, e.g., "duo".)
Now, granted, the 5% of our words that come from Germanic languages account for a disproportionately large percentage of word *occurances*, because the extremely common words like "from" and "of" and "have" are almost all of Germanic origin, as well as a high percentage of the more-common-than-average words like "man" and "throw" and "talk". Less common words mostly come from the other languages, though. "Scoliosis" and "sarcophagus" are from Greek. "Rendezvous" and "rouge" are from French. "Annual" and "pulchrous" are from Latin.
A lot of the basic grammar also comes from the Germanic side of things, but with significant influence from Latin, and a good deal of "drift" has occurred over the years.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
Well, shit.
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
He he he. Apparently, you are unaware of the fact that "agnorant" is a perfectly cromulent word these days. (Welcome to America...)