the progression of Net speak and the Bastardization of the-

-English Language.

EDIT:Added bitching about e-motes

To start off, let me just say I hate any form of net speak, Not for it actual attributes, the misconceptions and widely accepted wrongs. I hate Net speak for what it has done to us as a group, have you heard what atrocities are let slip from the tongues of our youth? "Oh Eem Gee! I was totally loling." what happened to us? when did J/K replace sike? Lets discuss the idiocy of the youth.

Now everyone, please don't take offence. If you are IMing and you're using shortened words or initials(I'll explain acronyms in a sec) I have no problem, but if you are typing something and posting on a site, You should damn well be able to write full sentences, and hopefully know how to use the spellchecker. Unless you have less then a minute to post what you wrote, piss, put your shoes on and go to work, you have no excuse, and even then just don't post.

As for acronyms, lol, rofl and such, are not fucking acronyms! and acronym is an actual word formed by the initials of a group or phrase (lol is not a word, shut up.) Its terrible how we have perverted so many words to align with what we want want them to mean. Although the misuse of the term acronym is a major milestone in the road to the internet, the true rape of the English language is the overuse of these so called "acronyms".

I will admit, when I need to piss like a racehorse while on Irc, ill throw a "brb pissin" in and go take a leak, but dear god, if you have been sitting there for an hour, and ever other word is an "acronym" or something spelt along the lines of "srs", you should step away from your computer and violently assault your genitals with the keyboard. Joking is fine, but unless you're multitasking, writing a term paper and having sex with sandra bullock, type full sentences and words, please.

And what of e-motes, emotacons and the like, at what point did the our emotions devolve to such an extent that a combination of two letters can sum up our emotional standing?

And for everyone who plans to post about how Im a grammar nazi and such, shove it up your ass.
I want YOUR opinion on what the internet has done to your language English or otherwise.

So discuss mofo.

It is a system of life. Teenagers will always bastardize the language in every generation.

Although only 12-20 year olds mostly bastardize the language, it seems to be spreading to adults..

(Adults meaning 30 year olds.)

Some netspeak language is kind of dumb, like srs, and rly, and words that take a second to write out, but others are very useful, like lol,rofl,and lmao. I'm not writing out "Im laughing my ass of right now" and in such a case typing lmao is saves time and effort, and is 100% understandable.

As far as the "Bastardization" of the english language, I think its relatively fun to use slang, as well as being easy to say.

I think people do that because of the convinience? Doesnt really happen only on the NET, in my country, which is multiracial, English, CHinese and Malay language are bastardized to the limit.

Maybe as long as the message gets thru, it doesnt matter?

@coco, Hohoho, meta-humour is hilarious, not. But yeah, same here, I wind up taking forever to text because I write out all that Im saying, usually 4-5 sentences.

@Zeronum2, O know, but the decay of our language is much more rapid then others, I feel like im living in the movie "Idiocracy" whenever I go to the mall or a shopping center.

Nice analogy. Well I guess you'll have to deal with it. It's the same as having a Jazz fan in a pop concert. Uh....

But nine times out of ten its being misused, Laughed out loud? that was a chuckle. Rolling on the floor laughing? It was a smirk. If something is so funny that you are actually laughing hard enough to warrant a "LMAO" you should be willing to type it out. doing something genuinely funny and seeing a half dozen "lol"s just makes it feel cheap to me.

But don't you know? Most people view vowels as "unnecessary" and thus you end up with most net speak now adays.

Also, What the fuck is up the word "like"? I hear people using it ten times every 2 sentences, and it bugs the hell out of me. Thus I reply "like (insert word here)?"

Oh god why did you bring that up? I respond with "Like, REALLY?"

Well, it is not part of the bastardization of the english language?

A few other things that bothers me: Pre-board, pre-heat, and pre-recorded. They make no sense, you're going to board before you board? On that, I'd rather get in the plane, not on it.

If you guys want to get technical and even more anal, try writing in E-prime. It does not use any of the "to be" verbs in sentences and basically it forces users from using the passive voice to the action voice. The problems do not end there either. Slang and netspeak exemplify the degradation of the English language, but stopping that seems impossible as trying to stop the ebb of time. Understand that people are lazy, and the internet provides a wall of anonmity - anybody can express anything they want because of internet privacy. I emphasize with you, Schellinkhout, but the situation can't be changed. However, by having correct syntax and grammatically correct sentences with proper spelling, you earn more respect in my eyes than others who do not.

I'm enthused that you and I share the same Ideals. Its saddening how often I am met with looks of reproach if I dare utter a word with more than two syllables, and how often it is used against me, as though it were a undesirable trait.

Fantastic. You have the "Great Vowel Shift" in the 15th century and now the "Great Vowel Removal" in the 21st. Truly, the end times are near. Kidding. Although I too cringe at the use of 99% of "netspeak" and instantly disregard anyone that can not find the 5 (sometimes 6) vowels on their keyboard, I'm not sure if we can really fault it for "the Bastardization of the English Language" as you say (and I know this is going to be an argument of semantics, but bear with me here) since the English Language has been perpetually bastardized since its conception. It's kind of the downside of use. Call it morbid curiosity but I'm kind of fascinated to see where it takes us. Does anyone else remember 10 or so years ago when (maybe it was only here in the northeast USA) Ebonics was the big thing that people were trying to have taught in schools (or rather, that it was to be a second language option to have your classes taught in). Look at how well that ended up. Same thing with Esperanto in Europe... well, that situation is a bit different. Or better yet, let's use an example provided by Schellinkhout himself

"what happened to us? when did J/K replace sike?"

Sike derived from the idiom "psych someone out"
Below explanation taken from Etymology online (because I'm lazy. Yay copy and paste)
short for psychology in various senses; as an academic study, in student slang by 1895. The verb is generally negative when used transitively, positive when intransitive; first attested (also psych out) 1934 as "to outsmart," from 1963 as "to unnerve." However to psych (oneself) up is from 1972; to be psyched up is attested from 1968.

So psych or sike must have replaced something else and its popularity undoubtedly garnered its share of negativity. And though someone's grandmother might have called you an uncouth lout, Schellinkhout I certainly do not think of you in such a manner.

But I digress. Or do I. I don't remember anymore... brb dood, I gots ta piss like a mofo.

HUR HUR WRONG GRAMMER!
I agree with you Schellinkhout and blahdeblah, and im a filipino damn! kids nowadays always use net speak and text language some retards use it even in answering tests especially the essay part...

how about we speak in MACHINE LANGUAGE? like this:
11100001101010110
10101011111010000
10000011110101010
01010110111100000
11010101010101010
10101000110101011
01110111010101011
11100011100000111

Net-Speak isn't spoiling the English language imo (<- there i used it!). It's just another dialect.

What is killing English is the fact that kids are using it everywhere. My friend (an English major) teaches kids as a part time job and he was telling me how net-speak/SMS speak IS the new dictionary that kids like to follow. Kids should be grilled when to and when not to use E-speak.

Net-speak is what adds flavour to the internet forums. What is a forum without some lolcats thrown in, or maybe 'i accidentally the whole thing' ?

We should draw lines as to when and how to use it. We don't go saying "hey Dude" to our parents/grandparents. Similarly we should learn to not go "LOL" in essays.

The net-speak has increased manyfolds due to the increasing forum culture and more kids getting easier access to the net. Give it a few years and i believe it will pass.

I despise net speak and the text speak. Absolute insult to the English language. Why the hell would you replace "are" with "r". Yes haha they're said the same way blah blah blah. But why ruin a perfectly good word with just a simple fucking letter.

Are kids these days really that lazy to not even bother writing out a full word? Is it that hard to put together a god damn sentence instead of broken fragments of what could've been a decent sentence if they had bothered to put in a few extra grammer points here and there?

Everyone have their way of expression, NET speak is one of them. I believe NET speak was started as a "unique" way of expressing then turned in to a popular culture. People who want to express themselves as a easy going carefree image may use words as mentions above. While some may express themselves as cute by saying deformed baby like language. Some people want to be unique, some want to follow the crowds.

I think there are places for serious writing and other places for blabling. Writing an essay, review, report even on the internet obviously does not contain NET speak but proper english, while chatrooms and forums are flooded with net speaks. As long as people distinguish them properly, I think there isnt any problem. Children often used un-usable language in their essays because they are still in the stage of education, they are taught to proper write a essay with english before they can enter the society and inflict damage.

I personally think that different ways of speaking and typing actually shows how each individual wants to express themselves. Proper english is usually seen on serious dicussion of facts while common net speaks are around chattings that arent so important. Constantly typing only in full proper english on the internet may show that you are a very serious person or expressing yourself as one, while some others prefer to let loose in the internet. I highly doubt an educated individual graduate would put netspeak on their reports, as they can differ the two worlds. Kids tend to like to be different, catch attention and following the crowd, they are still in educational stages and will soon recognize places to use proper english.

IMO, netspeak are sometimes fun to read about jokes and common stuffs, but if one is talking serious matter, proper easy english is best for me.

I find lazy/"phonetic" spellers ("I wood of liekd to go threw thare"), weeaboos and gangsta-blathering much worse than net speak, to be frank.
Oh, and so-called "memes". Damn, those things are as annoying as hemorrhoids.
And smileys. Especially graphical ones. Make me retch.

BEHOLD:
:D :P 8) :o ;)
Fucking sickening.

People who resort to any of those in excess, as well as net speak, I just file immediately under "cretin".

From a linguistic perspective, there is no degradation of language. One code is no better than the other, and you needn't worry about language being changed much by passing fads.
That doesn't stop me, however, from recognizing idiots by their choice of slang, and treating them accordingly.

Aye, it is true that it never is the case that someone lituarally laughs like that but... What can you do about it, if i let out air in a laughing meaning i say lol, if i really find it funny and let out a "hehehe" i say rofl. And if i actually LAUGH i say lmao.

The meaning of these words has simply degraded over prolonged usage.



True yet not true. People use a LMAO to show they thought it was funny, so the joke maker doesn't say something stupid/gets killed by the silence during typing.
I always explain my lmao later on.