But especially the little fishes. I don’t think I can pull this one off, but here it is for your amusement:
All right, we’ve had Talk Like a Pirate Day… But tomorrow [today] is 10-1 – lol, or LOL… So tomorrow is LOLspeak Day!!!!
All kittehs and peepls mus talk lieks teh LOLcats an chzfriendz. Ur supozed to b reel adorabuhlz 2! ICHC rulz teh internetz!!!
LOLz!
In this context, I believe I can bend the Code of Blog-Chick Ethics, and give credit where it’s due for that idea.
I do not, however, imagine myself blogging in Leetspeak, much less LOLcats. (I did, however, during the third-from-final Sopranos season, come up with a dicussion of the show at the old blog; every second or third word was “fuck.” Sopranos-speak: very Anglo-Saxon, when one gets right down to it.)
Is language devolving, though? I mean, in some respects, it’s getting better. This might, for instance, be a time to press for spelling reform. It’s certainly a good time to push for a trans-Atlantic style sheet, and bring the best of American and Commonwealth usage to the masses. (Or at least to the “puter* leet.”)
But at the same time, the compulsive misspellings, the adding numbers to words, and other linguistic trends born of kids’ music and the web kind of worry me. I feel like English may be getting atomized, and perhaps a lot harder to learn for kids and non-native speakers. And I find myself corrupted, too: I engage in bad habits online that I swore I never. Would. Acquire. No matter. What.
* I’m using “puter” here in the traditional, Darleenesque, Riddley Walker-ish sense, meaning “computer,” rather than the Ace of Spades sense of “vagina.” (I assume that in turn was a variant on “poontang,” but who knows? Perhaps, for Ace, there isn’t a huge dif . . . let’s see. Where was I?)
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Ahem. It’s speller ‘pooter’. If you’re talking about Ace’s definition, that is.
In any event, does anybody truly wish a return to the standard British English, stiff-upper-lip diction of the 18th or 19th Century? Reading unabridged Mark Twain is a fun exercise, to be sure, but I would be stymied if I had to write and enunciate every word without a single sign of contractions, verbal and textual shortcuts as well as informal word constructions.
Clear, simple, concise. Any fool can string a few hundred words together – look at Obama! (Although he is helpless without a TelePrompter, true.)
Correct grammar is a prerequisite if for purely informational purposes and likewise add-hock grammar is purposefully used to express daily musings and a sense of freedom in my humble opinion.You have to remember Speller , that not all of us have your background in writing,spelling or even logical thought,nor are able to apply put those musings down in type or word. Some of just do what we can do and roll with the punches.Nail me nicely,because I fully know your capable.