How Technology Is Shaping Language 173
An anonymous reader writes "This is an interesting article about how technology is shaping the English language, which touches on the fate of the current crop of (sometimes silly) tech-inspired words, and anticipates an increased blurring of the line between the written and spoken word. Professor David Crystal, honorary professor at the School of Linguistics and English Studies at the University of Bangor, says, 'This kind of ludicity [linguistic playfulness] is very attractive for a while. People keep it going and then it sort of falls out of use. Exactly how long it will go on for is unclear but it's like any game, any novelty, any linguistic novelty — I can't see it lasting. If you look back 10 years ago to the kind of clever-clever things that were going on in the 1990s — MUDs and MOOs — all the early game strategies and lots of very interesting language features coming up as people tried to develop a style of language that would suit the technology. Well, that technology's history now and the language has gone with it.'"
lusers (Score:5, Funny)
funy (Score:5, Funny)
i alwys thot tht tech had a negggative impakt on engrish... silly mee :) lolzorz
Re:The Jargon File (Score:5, Funny)
Waitwaitwaitwaitwait
You read the article, but not the summary?
Everything I know about /. is now a lie.
Re:No editors == linguistic variation (Score:5, Funny)
I named my last kid Kevin8992 so he could get his actual name on his email.
Re:Texting (Score:4, Funny)
Had you lived 150 years ago, you would have said the same about telegraphese
*dot* *dash* *dot* *dot*
*dash* *dash* *dash*
*dot* *dash* *dot* *dot*
You've totally misunderstood him. Full stop.
*dot* *dash* *dot* *dot* = L
*dash* *dash* *dash* = O
*dot* *dash* *dot* *dot* = L
Not that I've heard of it being used in Morse much. But it's funny when my (older) ham radio friends send text messages to their kids asking"QTH? QRX 1 HR" and get "????" in response.