Isabela State University-Cauayan Campus

Prepared by: Kevin L. Dela Calzada

Instructor
 Critique popular, folk linguistic
concerns about ‘netlingo’ and
‘netspeak’.
Establish the relative status of English
and other languages on the internet.
Examine the ways language and
discourse are changing on the
internet.
Consider how internet jargon and
styles are spreading into mainstream
use.
 Weblish, netlingo, e-talk, tech-
speak, wired-style, geek-speak
and netspeak
Internet language is so different
from other kinds of language that
it warrants a new, special label.
It destroys ‘proper’ language.
Language is a symbolic system for
creating meaning and is made up of
sounds, letters, and words.
Even if you know the correct rules of
grammar, there’s no guarantee that
you’ll be understood.
Meaning is negotiated between
speakers.
Language is actually multifunctional.
Language-in-use- what
people actually do with
language in their
everyday encounters,
Social interaction
 Sociolinguistics
History, politics and power
French- the language of
romance
German- the language of
science and technology
English- the ideal global
language
 Different people have
different ways of speaking
Speech communities
Languages don’t have
perfect boundaries and are
never ‘pure’.
 Most Common Languages Used
on the Internet
30
25
25.9
20
15 19.4
10
5 7.9
5.2
0
English Chinese Spanish Arabic
Languages
 Netspeak is a
development of millennial
significance.
Internet language is a
‘fourth medium’
 Language is changing all the
time.
Standard English is the agreed
norm for writing a college essay
or a business letter.
No one really speaks like they
write.
Most English spoken these days is
a kind of ‘fusion English’.
The emphasis in netlingo is almost
always on speed and informality.
Language relies on creative
typology and many of the
traditional rules of grammar and
style are sometimes broken.
 word compounds and
blends (e.g. weblish,
netiquette)
abbreviations and
acronyms (e.g. THX ‘thanks’,
IRL ‘in real life’)
 minimal use of capitalization,
punctuation and hyphenation – or
none at all (e.g. email);
generally less regard for accurate
spelling and/or typing errors;
less or no use of traditional
openings and closures (e.g. use Hi
or Hello instead of Dear . . .).
letter homophones (e.g. RU ‘are you’, acronyms (e.g.
LOL ‘laugh out loud’) and a mixture of both (e.g.
CYL8R ‘see you all later’);
creative use of punctuation (e.g. multiple periods . . .
exclamation marks !!!!);
capitalization or other symbols for EMPHASIS
and *stress*;
onomatopoeic and/or stylized spelling (e.g.
coooool, hahahaha, vewy intewestin ‘very
interesting’)
keyboard-generated emoticons or smileys (e.g. : -)
‘smiling face’ ,-)
direct requests (e.g. ASL ‘age, sex, location?)
interactional indicators (e.g. BBL ‘be back later’,
WDYm ‘what do you mean?’)
with more elaborate programming, colored text,
emotes (e.g. *{Sender} eyes you up and down*,
*{Sender} cries on your shoulder*) and other
graphic symbols (e.g. images of gifts and
accessories in Virtual Worlds).
Type of channel being used (e.g.
email or instant message)
The participants (e.g. teen
chatters or business colleagues)
The topic and purpose (e.g. love
letter or customer complaint)
 Young people are losing the
ability to spell and write
‘correctly’
Linguistic diffusion – when one
way of speaking starts to seep
into another.
Young people are losing the ability to
spell and write ‘correctly’
Linguistic diffusion – when one way of
speaking starts to seep into another.
New ways of communicating and using
language are emerging all the time as a
result of technological and social
changes.
Linguistic puritans’ – people
who are very strict, have very
rigid principles and who
disapprove of anything they
regard as frivolous and
inappropriate
Baron, N. (1998). Letters by phone or speech by
other means: the linguistics of email.
Language and Communication, 18, 133–70.
Herring, S. (2001). Computer-mediated discourse.
In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen and H.E. Hamilton
(eds), The handbook of discourse analysis
(pp. 612–34). Oxford: Blackwell.
Thurlow, C. and Brown, A. (2003). Generation Txt?
The sociolinguistics of young people’s text
messaging. Discourse Analysis Online.
http://www.shu.ac.uk/daol/
Warschauer, M., El Said, G. R. and Zohry, A. (2002).
Language choice online: Globalization and
identity in Egypt. Journal of Computer-
Mediated Communication, 7 (4).
Hanover and Tyke High School