dannoofthedead
12-Dec-2007, 05:02 AM
...or, The Degredation and Bastardization of the remainder of the English language.
Okay, as a writer and a fan of literature I feel it is important that language evolve and continue to grow as time passes on. The ye olde English is confusing as hell for many of us (especially Americans like myself) just as the various dialects spoken between the UK, USA and Australia (sorry, I don't know any clever acronyms or abbreviations for the land down under). But when internet short hand, text message formats and "words" like w00t become and official part of our language I feel that we have a problem. I think that education systems that deal in children who can barely comprehend the fundamentals of breathing oxygen and walking at the same time have their hands full without trying to sift through the papers of students who know how to use the language they speak fluently in its proper form as opposed to those who want to be brief and type with their thumbs.
I've long since come to live with slang like "bling" being categorized and filed away into the collective languages of mankind. But w00t over woot, why not just spell the word?! You'll find fiction from some really talented, gifted, insightful minds on this website. But give it another ten years of adding words like w00t to the English language. Then you'll have z0mbeez kilin fuls lft + rite.
Sorry folks, it was a long night for me and I don't really think I should be allowed to read the news for this very reason. Still, I'm concerned about the state of literature (and the human culture so dependant on it) that seems to be looming ahead for my son and all those other kiddies who might spend the rest of their lives as slack jawed tube jockies hooked on reality t.v. and reruns of The Real World.
Again, I'm sorry because this is more than likely just me blowing a gasket over something that's a passing fancy and won't be so detromental to the course of human history.
-Danno
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071211/ap_on_re_us/word_of_the_yearhttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071211/ap_on_re_us/word_of_the_yearMerriam-Webster's word of '07: 'w00t' By STEPHANIE REITZ, Associated Press Writer
Tue Dec 11, 5:55 PM ET
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Expect cheers among hardcore online game enthusiasts when they learn Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year. Or, more accurately, expect them to "w00t."
"W00t," a hybrid of letters and numbers used by gamers as an exclamation of happiness or triumph, topped all other terms in the Springfield-based dictionary publisher's online poll for the word that best sums up 2007.
Merriam-Webster's president, John Morse, said "w00t" was an ideal choice because it blends whimsy and new technology.
"It shows a really interesting thing that's going on in language. It's a term that's arrived only because we're now communicating electronically with each other," Morse said.
Gamers commonly substitute numbers and symbols for the letters they resemble, Morse says, creating what they call "l33t speak" — that's "leet" when spoken, short for "elite" to the rest of the world.
For technophobes, the word also is familiar from the 1990 movie "Pretty Woman," in which Julia Roberts startles her date's upper-crust friends with a hearty "Woot, woot, woot!" at a polo match.
Purists of "l33t speak" often substitute a "7" for the final "t," expressing a "w007" of victory — an "in your face" of sorts — when they defeat an online gaming opponent.
"W00t" was among 20 nominees in a list of the most-searched words in Merriam-Webster's online dictionary and most frequently submitted terms from users of its "open dictionary."
The choice did not make Allan Metcalf, executive secretary of the American Dialect Society, say "w00t."
"It's amusing, but it's limited to a small community and unlikely to spread and unlikely to last," said Metcalf, an English professor at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Ill.
The 2006 pick, "truthiness," also has its roots in pop culture. It was popularized by Comedy Central satirical political commentator Stephen Colbert.
Some also-rans in the 2007 list: the use of "facebook" as a verb to signify using the Web site by that name; nuanced terms such as "quixotic," "hypocrite" and "conundrum"; and "blamestorm," a meeting in which mistakes are aired, fingers are pointed and much discomfort is had by all.
Okay, as a writer and a fan of literature I feel it is important that language evolve and continue to grow as time passes on. The ye olde English is confusing as hell for many of us (especially Americans like myself) just as the various dialects spoken between the UK, USA and Australia (sorry, I don't know any clever acronyms or abbreviations for the land down under). But when internet short hand, text message formats and "words" like w00t become and official part of our language I feel that we have a problem. I think that education systems that deal in children who can barely comprehend the fundamentals of breathing oxygen and walking at the same time have their hands full without trying to sift through the papers of students who know how to use the language they speak fluently in its proper form as opposed to those who want to be brief and type with their thumbs.
I've long since come to live with slang like "bling" being categorized and filed away into the collective languages of mankind. But w00t over woot, why not just spell the word?! You'll find fiction from some really talented, gifted, insightful minds on this website. But give it another ten years of adding words like w00t to the English language. Then you'll have z0mbeez kilin fuls lft + rite.
Sorry folks, it was a long night for me and I don't really think I should be allowed to read the news for this very reason. Still, I'm concerned about the state of literature (and the human culture so dependant on it) that seems to be looming ahead for my son and all those other kiddies who might spend the rest of their lives as slack jawed tube jockies hooked on reality t.v. and reruns of The Real World.
Again, I'm sorry because this is more than likely just me blowing a gasket over something that's a passing fancy and won't be so detromental to the course of human history.
-Danno
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071211/ap_on_re_us/word_of_the_yearhttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071211/ap_on_re_us/word_of_the_yearMerriam-Webster's word of '07: 'w00t' By STEPHANIE REITZ, Associated Press Writer
Tue Dec 11, 5:55 PM ET
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Expect cheers among hardcore online game enthusiasts when they learn Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year. Or, more accurately, expect them to "w00t."
"W00t," a hybrid of letters and numbers used by gamers as an exclamation of happiness or triumph, topped all other terms in the Springfield-based dictionary publisher's online poll for the word that best sums up 2007.
Merriam-Webster's president, John Morse, said "w00t" was an ideal choice because it blends whimsy and new technology.
"It shows a really interesting thing that's going on in language. It's a term that's arrived only because we're now communicating electronically with each other," Morse said.
Gamers commonly substitute numbers and symbols for the letters they resemble, Morse says, creating what they call "l33t speak" — that's "leet" when spoken, short for "elite" to the rest of the world.
For technophobes, the word also is familiar from the 1990 movie "Pretty Woman," in which Julia Roberts startles her date's upper-crust friends with a hearty "Woot, woot, woot!" at a polo match.
Purists of "l33t speak" often substitute a "7" for the final "t," expressing a "w007" of victory — an "in your face" of sorts — when they defeat an online gaming opponent.
"W00t" was among 20 nominees in a list of the most-searched words in Merriam-Webster's online dictionary and most frequently submitted terms from users of its "open dictionary."
The choice did not make Allan Metcalf, executive secretary of the American Dialect Society, say "w00t."
"It's amusing, but it's limited to a small community and unlikely to spread and unlikely to last," said Metcalf, an English professor at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Ill.
The 2006 pick, "truthiness," also has its roots in pop culture. It was popularized by Comedy Central satirical political commentator Stephen Colbert.
Some also-rans in the 2007 list: the use of "facebook" as a verb to signify using the Web site by that name; nuanced terms such as "quixotic," "hypocrite" and "conundrum"; and "blamestorm," a meeting in which mistakes are aired, fingers are pointed and much discomfort is had by all.