h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I won't admit that I read this column on a regular basis... But, well done once again...



loup

I read it - but then I read most of the Post...

Can't buy the theory that txtspk is some kind of misunderstood art form by the way. It's fair enough on a mobile phone, but on a computer, is it really asking too much to put some vowels in?

sprout

>is it really asking too much to put some vowels in?<

As far as I know [as it seems that I'm the only non-txtspeaker understanding txtspk on here] there are _some_ vowels put in it...

And, as I said before and I'm sure will say it again and again, people do tend to lose the habit after a while [or at least tone down the txtspk aspect of their postings] if properly encouraged...



loup

Sprout, I can send you my peice of A-Level coursework on it if you want, just to prove it is it's own language. Not an art form though....

I have no difficulty believing that txtspk is it's own language.

Which is why it shouldn't be allowed on h2g2, as the House Rules specify a preference for English.

Touche....

>Which is why it shouldn't be allowed on h2g2, as the House Rules specify a preference for English.<

Oh yeah, that's certainly what I meant by "properly encouraged"...

Of course, that would also mean that all those "IMHO", "IMO", "AFAIK", "BTW" etc [used by some of the anti-txtspkers themselves] would not be allowed either...

Yeah, but should you remove those, you'd have to remove other acronyms, such as BBC. The very website would have to become worldwideweb.britishbroadcastingcorporation.com/dna/h2g2

And that's without lengthening .com, dna, or h2g2...

Not all abreviations are txtspk. And I'm nopt saying that txtspk phrases which pass into common parlance (like, well, txtspk) shouldn't be allowed.

Look- if you want to post in french, then if you don't provide a translation, or it is not easily understandable, or is not a phrase also used in english (such as deja vu, which means already seen), then it might get hidden.

The *only* reason i cans ee that etxt speak isn't treated ina same way is that it is suppsoedly a variant of english. And yet some things bear very little semblence to the words they supposedly represent.

As Psycorps says, text speak is a language of it's own. So it shopuld be treated in a similar way to other non- English languages.

For example, I once asked someone who had posted in text speak if they'd mind reposting in plain English as I caouldn't understand what they had posted. I was acuused of being blind and stupid (whjeras I''m merely short-and-long sighted and silly).

Text speak ona site nsuch as this is a barrier to commmunication,a nd yet nowhere are people advised to avoid it (as they are on collective, a fact I brought up when i appeared in thios column)

A spellchecker might help too, as some typos are harder to decode than txtspk....

"ona site nsuch" for example....

Okay, looks like my hopes that there could be a serious debate on this matter have been wrecked then. I mean, when you're arguing against moronic points such as "if we don't have textspeak, we'll have to ban abbreviation ssuch as BBC", there's no real point attempting to engage is there?

He thought I was being serious?

Lighten up Egon....

"ac·ro·nym
Function: noun
Etymology: acr- + -onym
: a word (as NATO, radar, or snafu) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term; also : an abbreviation (as FBI) formed from initial letters."

Isn't it quite simple? You can find NATO, laser, or even IMHO in the dictionary but you can't find any of "hiya mte wots wit U LOL im ok" I find the fact that several of the "words" are the same length as the real language equivalent to be hilarious. I've mentioned elsewhere that someone who can capitalise some things and not their own first person pronoun is indicitive of bigger promblems.

I'm glad some of you have the patience to gently nudge some of our fellow researchers in the direction of cogent English. I don't.

*promblems*

Oh dear, I misspelled problems. Does this mean I can expect an attack by the PWAEAADL?

(People Who Accept English As A Defunct Language)

Hey, come on, I never said English was defunct. However, in 1770, there was a comittee set up for the preservation of the English Language.

Or more accurately 'a societye for the prefervation of the puritie of the Englife Tongue.'

The language is changing. That's because every second of every minute of every hour of every day, people are using it to communicate. Changing 'talk' to 'tlk' is no more bastardising, ruining or corrupting of the English language than when Shakespeare added hundreds of his own words to the language, when 'thee' and 'thou' became 'you' or when French phrases were incorperated with the Normans.

Change happens, it's no use trying to stop it. 'Txtspk' is no harder to understand than Chaucer or Shakespeare, in fact, less so as we are all in a way influencing this change.

I have no problem with change. As I said "laser" is no longer considered the acronym for Light Amplification (by) Stimulation Emission (of) Radiation. I don't have a problem with eventually seeing LOL become a "word". Those are words, not wholesale changes of the language. Latin contributed words, French contributed words, German contributed words, that's what makes English a living language and not a dead one. Changing the entire language all at once just makes it another language, IMHO. (Go ahead, laugh at IMHO)

That's what's so fascinating about it. Never in the history of the language has so much changed so fast. Admittedly I think that 'txtspk' will become a different version of the language such as the differing British Standard and American Standard as opposed to the standard form of the language.

Groovy baby, I hip to your jive. I gotta get hapnin' with the new lingo, cap'n'. It's outta sight!



Or perhaps you prefer Eubonics?

Sorry, been through this a few times now.

Exactly.....

Shall we scrap colloquialism and dialect too? I didn't understand that and it's a barrier to my communication.

I merely meant that wholesale changes of the language have been tried before, with mixed results. If anything you should be heartened by that fact. Trendy has it's root in the word trend after all.

As I said before, what is the purpose of typing *hiya* instead of the equally long *Hello*? I can see it being less formal, but the even shorter "Hi* does that as well. As to *i* instead of *I* what does that do other than save a short extra step and put one's self down? If you can endlessly post LOL, ROFL, LMFAO in caps, then why not take that tiny little step and give yourself some credit by capitalising yourself?

My biggest problem is that there are no rules and I mean that in a nonderogatory sense. Freedom of expression is one thing but to change just for change's sake and not for the original purpose of simplification seems rediculous. How much of this is just a way to be unique and not any kind of improvement on communication?