LESS IS MORE ‘Language elitist’ India McDonough comes to terms with the rise of text speak.
Language is changing, and has been for as long as we’ve been speaking. But for the first time it’s happening quickly enough for us to notice it, and rebel against it if we want to. Which in some ways is a good thing, I don’t really want to live in a world where people say LOL instead of laughing. But at what point is it fruitless or unnecessaryor even counter-productive to an emerging culture- to rebel against this new way of communicating? Although I cringed at hearing a pre-teen farewell her friends on a train recently by saying TTYL, I was secretly impressed by how naturally it was said and accepted. When did Internet abbreviations become accepted in speech? How has this so quickly become normal? As someone who doesn’t blog and only rarely uses Facebook chat (and still uses proper punctuation in texts, I cant help it!) this phenomenon might seem stranger to me than to others. I understand the convenience of acronyms when typing, it’s when they make their way into spoken language that it becomes interesting, and yes, a little perplexing. Especially when it seems harder to say TTYL than ‘talk to you later’. Obviously it isn’t just the Hannah Montana generation who abuse language in this way. I have friends who do this in texts and emails (thus my understanding of the overheard conversation). But it’s when people can have entire conversations of abbreviations and understand each other that it’s no longer a passing trend but a permanent change in the way we use and view the English language. If kids are talking this way now they’re going to continue to do so, and so is every generation to follow. There’s a reason we say ‘tomorrow’ instead of ‘on the morrow’. It’s
- thanks to the Internet the world is a lot smaller and changes can come about a lot faster. Not to mention the changes weren’t quite so annoying before. That many people don’t realise just how many words have changed and evolved is proof of the malleability of language. This is one of the reasons words are so great. So why do I automatically put on my judging face when I hear people using language in a new way? And I’m hearing it more and more. As a lover of language who has often been called a Grammar Nazi, my natural inclination is to resist this trend at all costs, turn my nose up at it and continue to speak ‘properly’. But when you think about it, if you’re understood by those you’re speaking to, then language is serving its function. By closing myself off from this emerging culture of speech, the risk of misunderstanding comes from my own stubbornness in sticking to a pre-conceived idea of what ‘proper’ means. Language is adaptable, fluid and changeable. I try to be open-minded about everything else, so why not what I’m passionate about? If things like language were set in stone creative freedom would be impossible and nothing new would ever be able to emerge. Although using abbreviations instead of words may initially seem like the dumbing down of language - and maybe it is - surely there is something to be said for originality? We should be creative with language, and the fact that this is even possible is one of the most amazing things about it. And as they say (although it may be somewhat dramatic in this context), evolve or die. So while you’ll probably never hear me utter TTYL myself, I fully intend to stifle my gag reflex the next time I hear someone else say it.
only alarming now because for the first time we can see it happening
I may even LOL.
16 | THE SPIT PRESS | www.spitpress.com | ISSUE 5