Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

OMG, when did we start talking like txt msgs?
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20110208/D9L8T17G0.html ^

Posted on 02/09/2011 8:35:25 AM PST by MNDude

NEW YORK (AP) - "ILY!" Susan Maushart's 16-year-old daughter often calls out over her shoulder as she leaves the house. Sure, actual words would be better. But Mom knows not to complain.

"A mother of teenagers is pathetically grateful for an 'I love you' no matter what form it takes," she observes.

Then there are the various forms of "LOL" that her teens use in regular parlance - it's become a conjugable verb by now. And of course, there's the saltier acronym used by son Bill: "WTF, Mom?!" But before you judge, note that former VP candidate Sarah Palin just used that one in a TV interview. And CNN's Anderson Cooper used it on his show the other night.

Acronyms have been around for years. But with the advent of text and Twitter-language, it certainly feels like we're speaking in groups of capital letters a lot more. It's a question that intrigues linguists and other language aficionados - even though they'll tell you they have absolutely no concrete research on it.

"It's fascinating," says Scott Kiesling, a socio-linguist and professor at the University of Pittsburgh. "What's interesting to me as a linguist is figuring out which words get picked up, and why. What is it that makes OMG and WTF and LOL so useful that they spread from the written to the spoken form?"

(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: news; sourcetitlenoturl
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last
To: MNDude

L8R Dude..............


21 posted on 02/09/2011 8:57:13 AM PST by Red Badger (Whenever these vermin call you an 'idiot', you can be sure that you are doing something right.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JRandomFreeper

Ebonics? Pidgin English?.....


22 posted on 02/09/2011 8:57:50 AM PST by himno hero
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: MNDude

OMGLOLWTFBBQ!!!!!!!!1111one

;)


23 posted on 02/09/2011 8:57:53 AM PST by ZirconEncrustedTweezers (Regulation without representation is tyranny.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek

PMSL


24 posted on 02/09/2011 8:58:26 AM PST by ZirconEncrustedTweezers (Regulation without representation is tyranny.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: caver

One could argue that much of the English Language is a result of the butchering of other languages.


25 posted on 02/09/2011 8:58:26 AM PST by AFreeBird
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: annieokie

IDK, IDC, SIUYA.


26 posted on 02/09/2011 8:59:27 AM PST by Waco (From Seward to Sara)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Cicero

“I suspect that Win the Future is now defunct.”

Maybe now Obama will start an organization calles Save The Future United.


27 posted on 02/09/2011 9:00:14 AM PST by ZirconEncrustedTweezers (Regulation without representation is tyranny.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: MNDude

I thought ILY meant “i like yogurt”.


28 posted on 02/09/2011 9:00:49 AM PST by freedomfiter2 (Brutal acts of commission and yawning acts of omission both strengthen the hand of the devil.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MNDude
I think some of the devolution in culture actually takes a lot more energy than being normal.

ever talk to a welfare momma? eventually you'll hear that they often put more work into not working than they would if they had a normal job.
29 posted on 02/09/2011 9:01:52 AM PST by absolootezer0 (2x divorced tattooed pierced harley hatin meghan mccain luvin' REAL beer drinkin' smoker ..what?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: AFreeBird
One could argue that much of the English Language is a result of the butchering of other languages.

A better argument is that every army that ever conquered Britain integrated their own vocabulary into what was already there. It wasn't an act of butchering by the natives.

English is a mongrel language, but it became so through acts of violence.

30 posted on 02/09/2011 9:03:56 AM PST by Constitutionalist Conservative (Two blogs for the price of none!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: PetroniusMaximus

“Laziness is at the root of all changes in language.”

Not true:

“WTF?” — Five syllables

“What The F***?” — Three syllables

“Huh?” — One


31 posted on 02/09/2011 9:04:59 AM PST by Hunton Peck (I am required to warn you that this metaphor is registered as a deadly weapon in 32 states.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: MNDude

Back in the late 70’s I was big into CB radio. I would always get a chuckle when some of the people I would meet would talk in the same slang as they did on the air - “Got that, good buddy?” or “that’s a big 10-4.”

I guess txt talking is the successor to that.


32 posted on 02/09/2011 9:05:03 AM PST by reagan_fanatic (A communist is just a liberal in a hurry)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MNDude

By the way, many of you would probably enjoy this Facebook group:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Correct-Spelling-Punctuation-and-Apostrophe-Use/74280614587


33 posted on 02/09/2011 9:05:10 AM PST by Constitutionalist Conservative (Two blogs for the price of none!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Think free or die
I must be living in a cocoon. We have two teenage sons, both of whom text. I’ve never heard them or their friends talk in ‘text’. They write it, which saves them keystrokes, but they don’t say it.

Exactly, we expect our grandchildren to speak properly, they're not allowed to sit there and text while visiting, they are to DO things and visit, to MAKE things with their hands instead of mindless texting and computer nonsense.

I have a shop and my wife gets them sewing things for their parents on special occasions, it has worked out well and has been fun.

34 posted on 02/09/2011 9:05:32 AM PST by brushcop (CW4 Matthew Lourey CW2 Joshua Scott/ Kiowa pilots KIA Iraq '05. Thank you for our son's life.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: MNDude

IDK but we’ve had FUBAR far longer than txtg.


35 posted on 02/09/2011 9:07:25 AM PST by SE Mom (Proud mom of an Iraq war combat vet)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MNDude

AJNTSA!


36 posted on 02/09/2011 9:08:07 AM PST by Fresh Wind (TOTUS knows how to give a speech. Obama knows how to read.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MindBender26

GMTA.


37 posted on 02/09/2011 9:08:17 AM PST by sauropod (The truth shall make you free but first it will make you miserable.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: brushcop
...to MAKE things with their hands instead of mindless texting and computer nonsense.

I mean this in no confrontational way, but I found this comment ironic and funny.

38 posted on 02/09/2011 9:09:14 AM PST by justice14 ("stand up defend or lay down and die")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: Jolla

“I ask people to write in complete sentences, it appears to be a lost form.”

For sure!

;)


39 posted on 02/09/2011 9:09:45 AM PST by Frank_2001
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: MNDude

Some of us used some of the misnamed “text message” abbreviations 20-30 years ago on email, usenet, and BBS.


40 posted on 02/09/2011 9:10:57 AM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson