“u” “r” “ur” “NE” “kewl” “plzz” “B” “2” “thanx” “sum1” and “B4” are not words, and no one thinks they’re cute but you. I’m about 99% sure you were taught each and every one of the words you’ve chosen to replace with these letter groupings (for lack of a better term) before you started the third grade. I’d wager that if you’re intelligent enough to operate a computer, the spellings of the appropriate words are not beyond your grasp. Therefore, I must ask, why do you want people to think that you’re illiterate?
Oh, I've heard the whines "It's not school" (and what a fine job your school seems to be doing, too. Dropped the English requirement, did they?) and "It's only a message board/e-mail/instant message." (fortunately Straight Dope has less than its fair share) Perhaps it only **is** a message board, but as with any community of this type you are being read by thousands of people, most of whom now think you're not bright enough to know the difference between "your" and "you're" and chose to use "ur" to cover up that fact. All your little messages have an audience, and wouldn't you prefer people think you're intelligent? I'm not saying that spelling correctly is a marker of intelligence, God knows my own spelling isn't the best, but an honest spelling error is far better than using non-words.
As for e-mail, please bear in mind if you insist on sending me the message “i cant get to don lode the trhings on hear can u e mail me?” I’m not likely to respond because 1. you can’t figure out that you need to click on the links that say “click to download” which should be self-explanatory 2. I doubt e-mailing you the file would help you figure it out… See? Because of how you wrote the message, I think you’re too dumb to understand my explanation. Is it true? I’m not e-mailing you to find out.
So, you're wondering what the hell is my problem, right? Part of it is that I love this language. I love to read and write, because through writing ideas are shared. The rest of my problem is that you make me sad and angry. I'm not sure if I'm more one than the other.
I'm sad to read crap like that because it makes me wonder where the education system went so wrong. If I eventually put my degree to use, will I be teaching students like you? I want to share great literature with kids, not teach them to spell the word "any." I'm also sad that you are so lazy that a half-assed attempt at writing is acceptable to you.
I'm angry because you make young people in general look stupid, and you're doing it on purpose. Not every kid is like you, I know several teens who write as well as adults, if not better. Why should my baby brother and all these other kids suffer from the same disregard that you're earned for yourself? For all the complaints of adults not taking kids seriously, you're not providing any evidence that they should reconsider their positions. You're feeding the mindset many older adults have about teens- lazy, not too bright, not willing to take the time to do things right- which could have far reaching affects you've never stopped to consider. You're also giving me a headache.
My beef with borderline-illiterate posts is that the message you want to convey is not clear when you do not spell/use words correctly. The purpose of language is communication, and when I’m not sure of the meaning of your message because of the simple mechanics of spelling/word usage, you’re basically wasting your time typing anything - your message isn’t getting through.
You know, I used to feel like you do, and then one day I realized that the kids who do this ought to be the ones we english types treasure. What they are doing is having fun with language, and to dismiss it as laziness misses the point–Kewl is as hard to type as cool, and phat has more leters than fat. What they are doing is playing with the written language, making substitutions, working in puns, paying attention to words. Sure, kids need to learn the “right” way to do things, and they need to learn that leet speech (or 733t speech) carries certain impressions that they may or may not want to make in different circumstances, but give me a kid who likes to play wiht the language and I can make him a writter alot faster than I can with a kid who has never once thought about the words he writes or speaks. Yeah, the stuff is irritating as hell to adults, but that is half the point-it is written slang, and part of what slang does is define a group and exclude outsiders. I don’t have to like it to be glad to see kids doing it. The trick is to teach them to use the same awareness of words (if not the same words!) outside the chatroom.
Manda, I agree with you to some extent, but there is a difference between fun and clever word-play, and unreadable, lazy nonsense.
The purpose of wordplay is also communication; it can be very subtle and effective and enjoyable to read. But substituting ‘4’ for ‘for’ is not clever, nor enjoyable, nor does it communicate anything.
Oh, I agree as well. There’s a difference between slang and just lazy shortcuts on spelling. I see “kewl” (though I would never use it myself) as more properly showing the pronunciation of “cool”. That “w” in there makes all the difference. Same with the “ph” as in “phat” thing - obviously something done deliberately, for fun. I actually can appreciate that kind of thing.
But I don’t find anything indearing about “U” for “you”. Believe it or not, my supervisor (and I work for a state institution) uses “u” on some of the memos that are sent to everyone. Ack! I want to say, “what is this, an AOL chatroom?” Sheesh! (This same supervisor also uses all caps in some of these memos. I really think she is spending too much time in the AOL chat room, or is picking this up from her kids. It’s just not “kewl” for her to do that.)
it depends. some of the variants in writing that one sees on a message board or in a chat room could be considered written slang. the two you mention would be, yes. but note that “phat” and “fat” are not even the same word. they have different meanings despite the similar spelling and pronunciation.
i have a reason for the way i write (using no caps). a poster asked me about it in another thread, but i didn’t answer because i felt it was too far off-topic. i may as well share here.
i am an avid fan of the book love story. i’ve read it about three million times, and my copy is falling apart. one of my favourite passages from the book occurs when oliver and jennifer first meet, and he takes notice of her handwriting:
it’s not something that would strike most people, but i have an obsession with my handwriting. i only wish i could find a commonly used font for my site that i felt accurately captures how i perceive her writing.
so, yes, i can understand how typing in a certain (albeit incorrect) manner could be more of an expression of oneself than an act of laziness.
but that is only valid to a point. there comes a point when one’s writing is so incomprehensible, or so over emphasized (all caps, excessive use of exclamation points), or so uselessly encoded (“733t” writing had a purpose at one point, now it does little more than mark the writer as a poser, a phony, a sript kiddie) that the very essence of what was written is totally lost. and that is fucking annoying.
Couple things about “phat” and “fat”–phat is derived from “fat”–which has been used to denote “rich” by various groups for decades. The f->ph transformation is pretty common in urban slang. The acronym thing was retroactivly added. In fact, the first acronym associated with it was Pretty Hips and Tits.
Yes, it is annoying, and i would say that the all caps thing is in a catagory all on it’s on–that is so universially annoying that I think it stands as a marker that the user is either new to the net or totally oblivious. But as far as leet speech being “uselessly encoded”–I don’t think it is useless, at least not in many cases. It is supposed to be a pain in the ass for us to figure out, because we aren’t the people being spoken too-half the fun of adolecent slang is watching adults throw up thier hands in disgust and frustration. I won’t bother to read shit written like that, but I am not going to sneer at the impulse that leads people to do it. Furthermore, most people can learn that there is a time and a place for different types of language, written or spoken. These kids are no exception.
Swift, Joyce, Rushdie . . .
English would be lesser for the likes of them, for they played with the language, and introduced their cultures into their word play.
When is a child a poor communicator, and when is a child mastering the ongoing creation of language? It all depends on the context.
Here is an e-mail I received from the President of our local Harley Owners Group, for which I am the webmistress.
This is the typical format that e-mails from this woman come in. Enjoy!
HI THANKS TO ALLEN FOR REJOINING H.O.G. ALSO IT WAS GOOD TO SEE HIMM. HOPE YOU CAN MAKE SOME OF THE RIDES WITH HIM.. ALSO I WILL BE EE MAILING SOME INFO SOON ON UP COMING RIDES AND PHOTOS FOR WEB SITE.. WHEN IS SCHOOL OVER ??
Here’s another:
sthd is having a free pancake breakfast and bike blessing in the morning then a short ride ten a fashion show… also ababte is having a kids lid run sign ups 10-1 sat.
BCTSB is on the corner of ( broome cunty traffic)
Front and Clinton in ****where the old Great American was.
What the fuck?? This is a well spoken, intelligent woman. Why the cryptic e-mails?
The former President was even worse- he went to the eecummings school of writing.
My boss is a well spoken woman. For reasons known only to her, she has decided that, even though I work the Graveyard shift at the hospital and I hardly ever see anyone else from our department, (Supply) I am not allowed access to the e-mail system even though I have an address set up there. (All employees were given an e-mail address. ) This means that if I need to communicate with our buyers, our warehouse manager, or even her, I must do so via hand written notes left on their desks. This also means that they must do the same in order to communicate with me.
Other than a deep seated resentment on my part, this has not been a real problem.
Except…
My well-spoken boss seems to be unable to write in english. I mean, the words are english, but the sentance structure seems to be taken from sanscrit or something. It’s as if she is too busy to write an entire sentance. Her notes consist of random word groupings, the your/you’re mistake, and a seemingly random lack of nouns, verbs and ajectives. It drives me up a wall, and has lead to several misunderstandings.
Here’s something to try - as a response to her note, take the words that she used, put them in some other random order, and jot them down (probably work better if you can make your handwriting seem hurried and frantic). See if your return note is taken as gibberish or as insightful commentary.
If for some reason this works, you’re all set for any future situation. Use the random word grouping strategy for each message. Then, whatever goes wrong, simply state that the problem was clearly outlined in your last sticky note.
One of the basic problems here is understanding that different media allow and require different writing styles. I will admit to using alphanumeric abbreviations in text messaging, where I want to send a long message quickly and have a limited number of characters. The same style in a printed/handwritten medium just looks sloppy, in the same way that using a telegram style (does anyone send telegrams anymore?) in a letter would be overly clipped and terse.
Similarly, I use a different style in e-mails and message board writing than I do in letters and business writing, in part because I don’t mind using smileys and…
[sub]what? This is the Pit? Oh…[/sub]
