2nd Post on Week 8

NETSPEAK

"What is Netspeak?" I'm sure that many of us wonder what it is even though we are actually really used with it in our daily lives, especially when it comes to writing. According to David Crystal (2006), netspeak is better known as written language which has been pulled somewhere in the direction of speech than spoken language which has been spoken down and that he calls it a "third medium", given that it is not simply a collective of spoken and written language.

Basically, netizens (citizens of the internet) make use of netspeak to write for non academical or informal texts, due to the fact that texts take longer to type than say. Besides, it is often very complicated to guess the tone of voice used by someone communicating through the text. Therefore, we need a new method that will be faster to type as well as the ability to include feeling to the words in order to manipulate the text, and this new medium is best referred to netspeak.

Netspeak, a sub-dialect of English uses abbreviations in replacement of words or syllables to speed up the typing of very common phrases or words, knowing that the abbreviations used are understandable. In addition, another aspect of netspeak is the use of graphic smiley faces. Emoticon, a short form of emotion and intention is frequently seen in the form of sideways smiles to denote feelings such like happiness, depression, anger and so on, or to express sarcasm and humor too.

However, netspeak needs to be done in moderation as we cannot assume that everyone has the same interpretation on the things that we are saying like we do. Here, I append several instances of individual's substitutions and abbreviations in netspeak language and their meanings.


1. lol - laughing out loud
2. bff - best friend(s) forever
3. idk - I don't know
4. pos - parent over shoulder
5. rae- raising / raises an eyebrow
6. afk - away from keyboard
7. brb - be right back / bathroom break
8. c - see
9. u - you
10. ur - your
11. l8r - later
12. cya - see ya
13. ltns - long time no see
14. a/s/l? - age/sex/location?
15. oic - oh, I see
16. btw - by the way
17. myob - mind your own business
18. jk - just kidding
19. jc - just checking
20. gtg - got to go
21. omg - oh my god
22. np - no problem
23. rotfl - rolling on the floor laughing
24. ttfn - ta ta for now
25. thx - thank you
26. ttyl - talk to you later
27. tmi - too much information
28. wth - what the hell

David Crystal in his book entitled Language and the Internet agrees that netspeak is non-standard, playful (which I can wishy-washy), highly deviant in bending the usual rules of language, tolerant of typographic and spelling errors and full of new words too. Nevertheless, he is fascinated by its variety and innovation, and devotes much space to describe its special character (Quinion).

Furthermore, David Crystal suggests that the phenomenon of netspeak is going to change the way we think about language in a fundamental way, because it is a linguistic singularity-a genuine new medium. Moreover, he also believes that netspeak provides a creative way to communicate faster.

To be brief, netspeak is the words, idioms and peculiarities of spelling and grammar that are characteristic of online documents and communication (McFedries). It is obvious that netspeak is booming the online society, but at the same time, promoting incomplete and inaccurate knowledge as a mean of convenience and saving time will most likely result in confusion among younger generations about proper English and the way it is instructed in the classroom.


References:

1. http://www.coursework.info/University/Mass_Communications_and_Documentation/Media Studies/Electronic_Media_Studies/What_is_NetSpeak_L95419.html

2. http://http//blog.joshtheaspie.com/2008/04/10/what-is-net-speak/ak/

3. http://http//blog.joshtheaspie.com/2008/04/10/what-is-net-speak/

4. http://http//www.lisamarieshaw.net/web%20impact%20report.pdf

5. http://http//linguistlist.org/issues/18/18-777.html

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Meow Meow, Bumi Kenyalang
Aramai tie... Let us learn English & IT. One for all, All for one.