Sleepyjack

I posted this thread, about the meaning of a symbol i saw. A few repsones there got me thinking about this.

Nowadays, a lot of communication is done via internet (chat sites, forums like this , email) and mobile phones. For the most part, it's generally informal nonsensical chatting, and in order to make it faster or more efficent, shortened/abbreviated words are used and also other symbols to mean something in a rather simple manner.

I was wondering if this could have any noticeable consequences in the future? One thing (probably going way too far) the a bit of irony that the internet and technology is meant to open the world to communication, but these new language trends sometimes make it hard ot understand anyone, anway?

I occasionaly use shorthand for things, like atm (at the moment) and lol (laugh out loud) but i usually try to write proper english. That to reduce stuff to wot r u doin? i'd write What are you doing?

theres also that leet haxor stuff or whatever it is? i really have no idea, but thought it had something to do with some new interent language thing? i am sorta naively posting about this, so if it's something else, i apologise?

Apart from the understanding barrier, being formed, there also may be consequences of just language development in the first place? and languague skills. Especailly all these young kids with their mobiles chirping about the place, is it good for them to be continually exposed to all these short hand terms and readily use them about the place?

Some of my friends, who have mobiles and write emails to me, always use shorthands. And it's pretty annoying. Sometimes i read it twice to understand it fully. Since the limitations of SMS (namely number of characters alowed) seem to have buried it self with similar forms of communication. Namely email.

Your thoughts on the matter?

ratbastid

I've heard that this is something that schoolteachers are having to deal with these days--lots of term papers handed in in chat shorthand. "Moby Dick z a gd book. a/s/l?"

The only concession I've made to online-speak (and code-speak) is my use of initial caps. When I begin a sentence with a word (or nickname) that isn't capitalized, I don't forcibly capitalize it. rastbastid is the name I chose when I registered, for instance. lurkette is my wife. It just seems most polite not to misspell people's names, and capitalization counts, right sleepyJack?

It also counts in a command-line or code world. "uptime" is what you type on the console to get the system uptime and current load. "Uptime" gives you a "command not found" error. What is the executable for the Perl language named? perl, of course!

"leet haxor" is spelled 1337 h4x0r, by the way.

goddfather40

I believe we need to try to keep these type of shorthand communications kept in the context to which they are meant for, i.e. SMS, instant messaging, etc.

Proper English should be used in emails, and other correspondences (like TFP), always. If I get an email or read a post from someone who uses these shortcuts, it tells me that they don't really care what they are writing about. Therefore, why should I care what they are saying?

In general, due to technological advances, I see language really becoming universal. Eventually, most people will assimilate themselves into a common language. One example that I have heard is that some people think that here in California English and Spanish will combine to form some sort of hybrid 'Spanglish'. Due to the reasons stated above, this will not happen, there is too much interaction with people around the world for 'new' languages to be isolated enough to develop into something big.

__________________
My name is goddfather40 and I approved this message.

I got ho's and I got bitches,
In C++ I branch with switches
-MC Plus+

ARTelevision

Good thoughts.
I think it's radical - more than is obviously apparent.
I figure technology has a total immersive effect on our perception and our conceptual apparatus - molding us to conform to its use parameters in all ways. Language/communication alteration/transformation ineluctably follow paradigmatic perceptual/conceptual shifts.

__________________
create evolution

Sleepyjack

wowsers ART, that reminded me of the arichtect talking at the end of the matrix reloaded Went over my head a bit, but i think i get what you mean, after reading it 3 or 4 times

and yes, ratBastid (2 can play ), i hear you on the capitalisation. I am a good boy and follow my coding standards , and try to use internalCapitalisation for variables, FULLCAPITALS for constants and Capitals for objects or structures. Generally i am using c, c++ or java though

Thats another thing though, i wonder if vast amounts of programming affects language as well?
You see a lot of != (not equal) and greater than signs ( < >) used. But i guess they're mathematical as well, and are much more convienent. Maybe, as it moves to even higher level languages, there may be some grey areas, but probably it's ok for the time being. Well i don't think it effects me?

postCount++;

Cynthetiq

from the old period....

technology always reproduces the thing it's trying to replace. so first cars looked like horseless carriages, first movies looked like plays, and so on.

The original reproduction of writing reproduced the scribbles of writing which from all historical accounts was SHORTHAND as it was since business didn't have time to write with the quill all that EXTRA stuff.

Shorthand and abbreviations are nothing new. Languages evolve. Old English is very similar to Icelandic, which is NOTHING like the Old English you'd think seem to be thinking of...

Because of limitations of printing press the "thorn" or þ and pronounced with a "th" sound, which was replaced by the Y, which was eventually replaced by the th, the 'æ' was also replaced due to typesetter limitations.

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

Pragma

I've noticed among the younger people (10-15) a great number of them no longer know how to properly spell words and only use the "abbreviated language" that Sleepyjack mentioned above. Even in a college environment, there is a distressing fraction of the populace who uses it regularily.

I don't know if it will have permanent effects on the language (I hope not) to have the new generation of English-speakers growing up using this shorthand - it drives me insane to read it.

As for using mathematical notation in writing, the worst was when I was talking to a (fellow geek) friend and said:
That's Mathematica notation - just for the record - and I end up speaking like that from time to time. So computers do change how we communicate.

__________________
Eat antimatter, Posleen-boy!