Idiocracy has started.

Foe rilly doe! What RedzeesyTeezy communiforcated.

I, for one, welcome our Brawndo overlords.

They have what Platinum90 Craves...

1988RedT2 wrote: Slang is slang.

I do believe language evolves and am a fan of being descriptive rather than prescriptive, but I'm in the camp that these words are still slang. They're very pervasive and generally understood slang, but they're slang nonetheless. I don't think they've been around long enough to establish whether they will have real staying power or not.

Plus, I have a very hard time accepting acronyms as words. Is "RSVP" a word? Is "HTML" a word? Is "BYOB" a word? I think that only "RSVP" can maybe make that claim since most people recognize it as an abstract concept in itself and not as an acronym for "respondez s'il vous plait".

Radar, laser, scuba, okay? These are no longer capitalized. Most people don't even realize they started as acronyms. Admittedly with O.K. the periods are the correct way to spell the abbreviation that or okay as a separate word. I agree with Salanis on RSVP, I knew what it stood for. I couldn't have spelled it, but I'm horrible with French anyway.

I see what you're saying about how acronyms can be words. I'm going to stick with my guns that "TTYL", "LOL", and "BRB" have not crossed that threshold.

I can't spell "RSVP" either; I looked it up. My best guess would have been "responde si vou ples"

Interesting conversation..but IMO "Idiocracy" started long before any modern changes in our language became apparent. People have been wondering why "good" TV shows get canceled while stupid ones keep getting renewed for about forty years now..

I work in TV, but still can't "out myself" as to where, because my own Corporate Overlords say so (Hint: I live in Atlanta). They've forced the folks servicing our "Blue Collar" and "White Collar" networks to work at both places. They're also considering combining my own place (which once ran 100% animated content) with a little network they bought (that used to show legal cases and courtrooms live) and tried to turn into a Fox Network service we never would have considered creating ourselves, back when our founder still had some say-so. They don't show much legal stuff anymore.

I spent some time on the control board over there a couple o'months ago..most of their programming now seems to be drunk girls on Spring Break, and and people dying in high-speed police car chases. Breaks my heart that we're now trying to compete with Murdoch's garbage (which will eventually become "The Violence Channel"). I'm actively trying to keep from going over there again. I suggest to the HR thugs that they'd be sued if they tried to force a religious person to work at a (for the moment..hypothetical) pornographic network that we owned..and that it's not a misguided equation to my own potential behavior if they continue to force me to go watch people die at that insipid Fox-wannabe network we've made the mistake (although, not financially..the ratings are up over there! "Network" came true) of creating.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074958/

Ugh. Sometimes I hate myself for being in this business. Maybe after SWMBO and my daugher finish college, I should go work for PBS instead (they pay much less)? Use my powers for "good", instead of "evil"? Eh, maybe not. TV will be just as irrelevant in the next 5yrs as commercial FM radio is now.

I find m'self seriously wishing I'd learned how to weld. A nice job in a Britcar restoration shop sounds pretty good right now..especially since I'm hearing we got another round of layoffs coming, regardless of how well we did in the last financial quarter.

I've got a friend or two that will say LOL or BRB. I can't stand it either. Roommate of mine at the time was playing WoW. His group were in the middle of doing a raid. The pizza shows up and he says into the mike BRB. I asked him did you actually just say BRB when in the same number of syllables you could have actually said "Be right back". He at least looked a little embarassed. Or the people that say LOL. Really? You're not actually laughing. I'm here I can hear you. Yep, call me an old man of 34, but netspeak does annoy me.

ZOMFGSTFULMFAOWTFBBQSAUCE

what about other words? Do you go get a kleenex to blow your nose in? is it really a Kleenex or is it a tissue? What about styrofoam plates? Is it really styrofoam, or expanded poly beads? Did you run to Xerox some reports this morning or use a photocopier? if a word conveys meaning, its a word - used properly or not. Netspeak though is typically an abbreviation - different than an acronym. Abbreviations are shortened single words. An acronym conveys many words at once - but typically are nouns - LASER, SCUBA, RADAR - you say these words as a word - as an item, not L A S E R as you would LOL or WTF where you say the individual letters and convey an idea or action. Netspeak = not words

How do you pronounce STFU?

Seriously... many of the things on that list are written-only abbreviations regardless. How do you say WTF? You say "What the berkeley?".

Back when Secretary was a profession they took dictation (ROFLCOPTER, I said "take dick"-tation) in shorthand. My wife used to be a court stenographer when it still paid like it was a career choice. It required training, certification and the use of a magical keyboard with strokes for sounds rather than letters.

Neither of those forms of shorthand are in the dictionary. Why would nonsense specific for texting/typing be?

Salanis wrote: Plus, I have a very hard time accepting acronyms as words. Is "RSVP" a word? Is "HTML" a word? Is "BYOB" a word? I think that only "RSVP" can maybe make that claim since most people recognize it as an abstract concept in itself and not as an acronym for "respondez s'il vous plait".

Sorry for being a nit-picker, but an acronym is an abbreviation that spells a word. Those examples are just abbreviations, not acronyms. Other than that, I agree completely with your entire post.

Salanis wrote: I see what you're saying about how acronyms can be words.

They sort of have to be, by definition. Or at least pronounced as words. Example: NASA = acronym, SUV = abbreviation.

So then...we're agreed that Netspeak is goofy? And that acronymns stand a decent chance of showing up in decent everyday speech? What of the lowly semicolon, I ask? How then show he hold his head up? As an emoticon only?

There's lotsa stuff to worry about. My son can barely write coherently, and he managed to graduate high school. He has a pretty good handle on Netspeak, though.

The comment on reading Chaucer in the original is apopos. 400 years from now, our written speech will be incomprehensible to those then living, just as an un-updated Chaucer is to us.

And more's the pity, I say. We've lost a good deal, and we'll lose the lot. Too bad, too bad...

Mikey52_1 wrote: And more's the pity, I say. We've lost a good deal, and we'll lose the lot. Too bad, too bad...

TT, OMFG UHIOTH

Bawitdaba da bang a dang diggy diggy diggy said the boogy said up jump the boogy

1988RedT2 wrote: Slang is slang. Frankly, I don't understand most of the abbreviations that are the sub-human code that text-happy children use to communicate these days. If we don't uphold an "academic ideal", children will not learn the language and be functionally illiterate, as many are today. Let's see you land that great-paying job with the language skillz you learned on the interweb. Back to English class with the lot of you!

Last headline I saw about a study on the topic showed that using netspeak on teh interwebs had NO appreciable effect on a student's ability to write "properly".

now that most people have fast interweb connections and most new phones come with actual for realz qwerty (is that a word yet?) keyboards on them, i think chatspeak/netspeak/texspeak/whatever-you-want-to-call-it-speak will fade away into obscurity. at least i hope so.

facebook scrabble accepts qwerty as a word. Wait, nvm.

In reply to novaderrik:

I know too many people with QWERT keyboard phones utilizing net-speak. I send SWMBO "I love you" from the keypad, she responds "Love u 2" from the full keyboard...

Maybe I should be glad she typed out "love" instead of "luv"

friedgreencorrado wrote: Interesting conversation..but IMO "Idiocracy" started long before any modern changes in our language became apparent. People have been wondering why "good" TV shows get canceled while stupid ones keep getting renewed for about forty years now.. I work in TV, but still can't "out myself" as to where, because my own Corporate Overlords say so (Hint: I live in Atlanta). They've forced the folks servicing our "Blue Collar" and "White Collar" networks to work at *both* places. They're also considering combining my own place (which once ran 100% animated content) with a little network they bought (that used to show legal cases and courtrooms *live*) and tried to turn into a Fox Network service we never would have considered creating ourselves, back when our founder still had some say-so. They don't show much legal stuff anymore. I spent some time on the control board over there a couple o'months ago..most of their programming now seems to be drunk girls on Spring Break, and and people dying in high-speed police car chases. Breaks my heart that we're now trying to compete with Murdoch's garbage (which will eventually *become* "The Violence Channel"). I'm actively trying to keep from going over there again. I suggest to the HR thugs that they'd be sued if they tried to force a religious person to work at a (for the moment..hypothetical) pornographic network that we owned..and that it's not a misguided equation to my own potential behavior if they continue to force me to go watch people die at that insipid Fox-wannabe network we've made the mistake (although, not financially..the ratings are up over there! "Network" came true) of creating. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074958/ Ugh. Sometimes I hate myself for being in this business. Maybe after SWMBO and my daugher finish college, I should go work for PBS instead (they pay *much* less)? Use my powers for "good", instead of "evil"? Eh, maybe not. TV will be just as irrelevant in the next 5yrs as commercial FM radio is *now*. I find m'self seriously wishing I'd learned how to weld. A nice job in a Britcar restoration shop sounds pretty good right now..especially since I'm hearing we got another round of layoffs coming, regardless of how well we did in the last financial quarter.

I didn't realize that the network that only shows cartoons was based out of ATL.

In reply to friedgreencorrado:

FWIW, the night time line up went down hill when they decided to show "double episodes"

bludroptop wrote: Another example: ever felt nauseous? It used to mean 'sickening', as in making others sick. If you yourself were sick, you were 'nauseated'. Think of the meaning distinction between 'disgusting' vs. 'disgusted'. Circa 1965.

I still can't figure out if something is flammable or inflammable!

Languages evolve. Watch someone from France try to communicate with someone from Quebec sometime. French is still fairly "pure", wheras Quebecois is 18th century Norman that then got some english stuffed in.

There's always Esperanto:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto

Engrish is dead. In 20 years, all these rotten kids will learn cantonese via little boot kicks when they try to complain to their overseerers about how they can't pick any more grapes cause their carpal tunnel is acting up.

I guarantee this same argument happened when elizabethan english started to be replaced with the next more modern version.

But no, I have no faith in the future either