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Thursday July 21, 2005 at 08:13 am

Linguistics: Things that amaze me

Today I’m taking a break from ethics (though I plan to have a further discussion on that in the future — your comments are positively intriguing) and taking a dip into linguistics.

———

So I was thinking the other day about the power of written communication. It’s amazing to me that with simply twenty-six letters and some auxiliary punctuation marks we can communicate to each other in such a full manner.

The most striking thing to me is that we do not even need to always use the ‘correct’ manner of spelling things to be able to communicate with each other because of the power of phonetics. (This, to me, is most evident in all of the teeny-bopper pages out there.)

For example:

“OMg! i

There are only two words in that sentence spelled correctly — one is a one letter word, and one is my name. Also, the word “you” is spelled incorrectly twice. However!! Amazingly enough, through the power of phoenetics and symbolism most of you will understand that sentence — and even more amazing, some will find it as easy to read our native English.

—–

Which started me thinking about how we are SO good at understanding multiple forms of our own language simply through sounds that we can even make entire sentences out of single letters.

So far, the ones that I’ve been able to come up with, or have seen are “O, I c” , “A! F u!” and the classic, “I O U”.

It totally amazes me every time, how malleable the human mind is.

What are your favorite methods of alternative spelling? … and how far do you think we can go, before it ceases to be communication?

(Go nuts guys, this is the one and only time I’ll accept people who ‘rItE LyKe diS!!’*~~!)

wutuwaitn4 said,

July 21, 2005 @ 8:17 am

we’re too smart for our own good.

wutuwaitn4 said,

July 21, 2005 @ 8:18 am

wuwu is the shizznitttttttttttttt! i ROXoRz!

guitar___riffs said,

July 21, 2005 @ 8:26 am

vut lyke zum of uz no vetter. z’know?[trying to sound like a polish dude]

deansterr said,

July 21, 2005 @ 8:32 am

your posts are very good, and thought provoking.  i subscribed.  i don’t have much to say on this entry cuz anything between two animals is a form of communication, so communicate however you will, but we are more comfortable with communicating with the similar.
but your last entry intrigues me.  when i was a kid, one day, out of curiosity, i reached into a pack of cigs lying around from my older brother.  he saw me do it, and said, if i ever caught you smoking, i’ll beat the shit out of you.  i thought it was hypocritical, how he can but i can’t.  the threat sounded hollow.  so, i’ve learned the only standards i hold up to are set by my conscience.  is it wrong if everyone else does it, and the harm is negligible?  only you can say.  i am talking the gray areas.

Izzy_Caraway said,

July 21, 2005 @ 8:47 am

Yo YO , chill chill chill

UCcowgirl23 said,

July 21, 2005 @ 8:53 am

out of laziness i always spell prolly instead of probably, but other than that the typical lol, bc, n, u… just abbreviations

loldavelol said,

July 21, 2005 @ 8:59 am

the internet created this new subset of the english language you described.  new vocabs like “lol,” “lmao,” “rotfl,” “brb,” and “bbl” are very much part of everyday language, and the phonetic phonomenon has made zoolander looked smarter than most teens today.  i watch my students type their essays sometimes, and they’d spell like how they chat online, almost by reflex.

shaolinLFE said,

July 21, 2005 @ 9:01 am

le kim est la bombe.

StoopidSavant said,

July 21, 2005 @ 9:15 am

I like to laugh at such people for their “creativity.”

niggachang said,

July 21, 2005 @ 9:24 am

LoL, rAnDuM pRoPs! HoLLa BaCK!

shaolinLFE said,

July 21, 2005 @ 9:24 am

i used “Le” cause you’re \/i3t|\|a|\/|Es3.  lol

lumpiablog said,

July 21, 2005 @ 9:28 am

i like spelling in international english. all those -ise and gaol and shit. my english TA’s are dumbasses and mark me off, though.

hugscookies83 said,

July 21, 2005 @ 9:30 am

We rarely write like that except when we’re really tired..we tend to write “u r d best..luv ya” =)
~Chris & Tika~

auracle said,

July 21, 2005 @ 9:33 am

kewl. ai laik hou arbatraree inglesh speleng ken bee, two.

Trinity86 said,

July 21, 2005 @ 9:41 am

wtfbbqlol

Acekiller said,

July 21, 2005 @ 9:46 am

compare simplified chinese and traditional chinese.

TenThousandPoetWarriors said,

July 21, 2005 @ 9:50 am

i learned what l33t means from you!

davidngo said,

July 21, 2005 @ 10:05 am

although i do find the interworkings of the human brain and its abilities to conceptualize things out of seemingly random patterns to be awesome….
i’m not really into the alternate spellings thing.  I’ve always inferred people who do that are either too lazy or too stupid to write properly.  Also, I see that mostly with younger asian teenagers who spend way too much time on the internet than they should.  They usually are trying to be rap gangsters too.
So I guess to distance myself from that culture and because I would like to remain on a more intelligent level of communication, I dont’ really use that many alternate spellings.  Although I believe some abbreviations are useful.  Like “brb” when you’re in a rush to leave.

s1ms said,

July 21, 2005 @ 10:38 am

im a fan of morse code and music.
heh..

i wonder how cavemen talked.

cantBfaded said,

July 21, 2005 @ 10:40 am

alpha q!!!!!!!!!!

franksabunch said,

July 21, 2005 @ 11:01 am

I try not to use alternative spelling too much (it’s the English major in me), but I do shorten words because I’m too lazy to type….like prob(ably) and def(initely).

shortfused said,

July 21, 2005 @ 11:03 am

my favorite is WTF!

everykissbeginswithmeeh said,

July 21, 2005 @ 11:04 am

i only spell like that if i’m online…it’s basically the shortcut. other then that i’ll write it all out..
less then threemeeh

ScorpionByBirth said,

July 21, 2005 @ 11:12 am

I may sound snobbish but I concur with davidngo‘s comment (last paragraph).  I myself prefer to write my posts in a mature way.  I use “wtf” a few times and when I’m pissed off about something and don’t want to verbalize it.  Also, “ttyl” appeared on a few posts and that is because I am not done with what I want to write down hence ttyl.  I have a 14 year old daughter who also has a xanga site and when I go and comment on hers I do it in the same manner I do on mine.  Same thing goes with the comments I left on her friends site.  I’m 42 yrs old so I should talk like a 42 yr old woman and not like some “wanna be.”
I also concur with what deansterr said – you do write a very good posts.  You have a way in writing that I envy and wish that I can have even just a fraction but what the heck, here’s a line I always say to my friends, “God made me beautiful and not rich or intelligent like others.”  :-D
P.S.:  Honestly though I wish there is a dictionary I can refer to to get a  translation to those “alternative spelling” you’re talking about.

AnnaBiara said,

July 21, 2005 @ 12:35 pm

My favorite has to be “rite” and “wtf”

shaolinLFE said,

July 21, 2005 @ 12:45 pm

hahahah Dicks of Hazzard!  good one!

Neojin said,

July 21, 2005 @ 1:40 pm

omg!1! wtf!!! pwnsauced!!11lolicopter!

onestyle said,

July 21, 2005 @ 2:16 pm

I haerd taht it deosnt mttar waht odrer the leterts are in as lnog as the fsirt and lsat ltteers are in palce.

projectblogsphere said,

July 21, 2005 @ 2:29 pm

Here’s my favorite example:
Person 1:  Jeet?Person 2:  Na Jew?
Translation:
Person 1:  Did you eat?Person 2:  No, did you?

Ssweet_dreemzZ said,

July 21, 2005 @ 4:03 pm

Lol. It is pretty amazing. I think anything other than writing like this:
today i went somewhere with my friends. it was pretty cool.
(and things like btw and wtf)
…is stupid.

seksae said,

July 21, 2005 @ 4:16 pm

well…i’m guilt of using “tru tru”…i can easily add the “E” but i just cant!

Kevin72 said,

July 21, 2005 @ 5:25 pm

Call me old-fashioned, but I just like using proper English. Having taught English in Japan and Taiwan during most of the 1990s probably had some influence, but I think I was like that anyway….. sometimes my students asked me to teach them some slang, and I was like blank. Email liberalized me a bit, like I started writing ‘kinda’ instead of ‘kind of’. Recently, I enjoy the common ones like “WTF”, “OMG”, and “OMFG”.

weed_is_kool said,

July 21, 2005 @ 5:32 pm

“wtf” “stfu” “lol” “lmao” “lmfao” “rotfl” “omg” “omfg” “omgzz” “omfgzz” “myob”
Actually, alot of people in my class use this “computer talk” when they hand write. Which I think is totally stupid. But, they still do it and think that they’re cool. Okay. Bye now.

HersheysKiss said,

July 21, 2005 @ 5:32 pm

0|-|3|\/|633|=|=|=|=|=|=|=3333 7|-|15 15|-| 1`/|

O_2627 said,

July 21, 2005 @ 6:18 pm

colour & favourite.

lemonytwist said,

July 21, 2005 @ 8:28 pm

i’m trying to get rid of spelling shortcuts from my writing just b/c while it may be endearing for a 13 year old girl to write like that, people judge you more harshly when you’re 23.  i’ve removed “u” from my writing thank god, but i’m having a lot of trouble purging out “cuz” “omg” and “gonna” and his cousin “wanna”. 

YourPerfectMistake_x said,

July 21, 2005 @ 8:32 pm

Cool site :P

SecksyRx3 said,

July 21, 2005 @ 11:53 pm

well i love all the acronyms we come up with. LOL, WTF, ROFL, and the like.. but i also enjoy the new shortened versions of long words or names, such as WaMu for washington mutual, bofa for bank of america, wf for wells fargo, and so forth. my friend and i made up our own acronyms that are probably used anyway outside our circle of friends: WUD for what you doin? for instance. hehe.

KenjiOta said,

July 22, 2005 @ 12:04 am

your cartoons have inpsired me to take art class. Thank you very much.

shrek_real said,

July 22, 2005 @ 3:22 am

I C
U 2
I L U
NY
By the way, r ur name is “SHI”? as in LISHI in Chinese?

thatyellowbastid said,

July 22, 2005 @ 5:15 am

hawts3xbbq

havenlush said,

July 22, 2005 @ 6:17 am

WRU –> Where Are You?
CBB –> Can’t Be Bothered
 and well some others like “c u”, “wtf” etc are pretty common for me!!!
great blog u have up there! ;)

Sullie123123 said,

July 22, 2005 @ 6:51 am

haha, you have got to be kidding me.

Azian_Gangsta_1905 said,

July 22, 2005 @ 6:55 am

kute pix

neuroticcowgirl said,

July 22, 2005 @ 7:21 am

It’s amazing how our brains do work, but I typically cannot stand “alternative” spellings. There’s something so downright anal retentive about me that anything that’s not proper makes me cringe. Yes, I need to loosen up :)

waTheeCONheO said,

July 22, 2005 @ 8:35 am

hey random propz..cute page =]

joiz said,

July 22, 2005 @ 9:21 am

haha thats some really interesting insights! cool blogg

Magnificent_Night said,

July 22, 2005 @ 9:51 am

I hate alternative spelling. Obsessive compulsive? Maybe. I like things to be spelled right. It’s a weirdness I have. If something’s spelled wrong it annoys me a lot.

jerryeightyone said,

July 22, 2005 @ 10:08 am

those lips. damn.OMEGA = omg = oh my god

Brown_sugar_08 said,

July 22, 2005 @ 1:18 pm

You’re really pretty! Love the drawing!

cj_loves_john said,

July 22, 2005 @ 5:33 pm

yeah it gets on my nerves when people write like that although i use it when im updating on my xanga..wierd..

teahree said,

July 22, 2005 @ 5:46 pm

my favorite: WTF! your drawing is cute!

XOGRINDONMEGIRL said,

July 22, 2005 @ 6:06 pm

hey waz up? nice website! ttyl
                 ~~~jackie~~~~

plzzzzzzzzzzz come back… thx

addictabLe said,

July 22, 2005 @ 6:50 pm

OMFG I ROFLMAO WTF LOLo.o

Frankace1 said,

July 22, 2005 @ 9:50 pm

hello

MZxLEE said,

July 25, 2005 @ 9:30 am

omagaw, ttyl, brb, yo’, dee, yee, Lol

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