Is internet slang becoming its own language

[Anakso]

First time I saw someone use h8

This kind of thing is the worst. I hate it when people shorten words by eliminating vowels or replacing parts of words with numbers. Luckily I keep my self mostly to the part of the internet where that does not happen so I rarely see it. I have one person on my facebook that does it. She is only still on my facebook because I see her almost everyday at work but should that stop she won't be there much longer.

[GennGreymane]

lol omg forever alone.... yes yes it is

[Lord Pebbleton]

Maybe it will become a language on his own, but not in the square meter where i walk.

[miumiucat]

Dont think so. Real life > internet

[-Skye]

Same here.

My 5 year old cousins constantly use the word epic. The word makes me cringe now..

[Deleted]

Only time will tell.

[Deleted]

Please god no >.<

even though i have a feeling that there will be a strong influence on the English language :/ even nowadays you hear people use lol, rofl, yolo ect. in normal conversations... and it pisses me of, on a side note i don't live in an English speaking country and people still use these "words" in conversations.

[Wildtree]

I don't think so, widespread keyboards on phones are killing of a lot of the unnecessary abbreviations I think. A few still stay like lol, rofl, imo, fyi, btw and so on but I don't think we'll really be seeing more develop since the need for them has kind of been erased. I don't think they really originated online since we always had keyboards on computers, they more originated from texting when you would have to press a number 3 times to get a certain letter.

I have to correct that a little bit
They did in fact originate online. They existed long before phones were capable to send txt messages. As a long time "Onliner" I've been around since the times of BBS, before the internet as we know and use it today existed. Messages have been exchanged through networks like the famous FIDO Net, and the likes. Even back then, abbreviations became custom. They were basically born for a similar reason, like they are used on phones. To shorten the messages.
Back then all data transfer happened via dial up modems. It started as early as the usage of acoustic couplers have been the hardware requirement for data transfer. They've operated with 300baud. Transferring messages took forever. Several megabytes took hours. Hence the abbreviation lingo was born.
It remained that, during the times of IRC, and AOL chat rooms, which at that time have been the two largest platforms on the globe.
Real time chat also had a need for quick response. A busy chat room with 20+ people communicating in real time required a fast way to get a message through.
And that's why we have abbreviations, and internet lingo.
Over the years it persisted and evolved. That evolution tho isn't really that dramatic. In a way it became a bit dumber, since it lost it's initial purpose and meaning.
Much of what today's lingo consists of is also but a remaining of the gone days of software pirates. Those were the ones for example who started to change the spellings.... From Software - to Wares - to WaReZ, just to give one prime example.
All in all.... Today's internet community hasn't added too much new things. Most are around longer and older than the users who are using the lingo.

[Halabash]

I think it has more to do with it being popular.

Would you say "Jive talking" is a language? arguably you could make a case but it was just a popular thing that died out with the fad. Would you say urban slang is a language from city to city? again you could make a case but it won't be officially recognized. Some places have earned a language status after years of bastardizing one or two other languages.

How we speak on the internet is made up of many acronyms and a pseudo short hand, but we are still speaking English (arguably). If we deviate from that and use our own words that are not related to English words then I think you'll see the beginning of a new language.

Nerf, Bads, lulz,epeen,twink are just a few original words that i can think off the top of my head that are recognizable vernacular that do not relate directly to an English word but more to an expression or idea.

[Wildtree]

I think it has more to do with it being popular.

Would you say "Jive talking" is a language?

It's a cool Bee Gee's song

[Anakso]

*snip*

Well, you learn something new everyday never knew that at all.
Though I should point out if you did not know, MMOC actually still uses IRC. We have one set up for regular users that has many people in it. Information can be found in a sticky thread in the General Discussion forum.
A lot of places still use IRC actually

[Halabash]

It's a cool Bee Gee's song

and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0j2dVuhr6s

honestly one of my favorite clips

[Thatwsntmilk]

omg yolo? never heard that before. that's pretty retarded ;(

It is. According to Darwins law those people should be extinct by now but it seems there are still some left.

[Kendrel]

I'm not sure I agree. The fact that a great deal of the netspeak lexis can be readily identified as being Netspeak suggests that its own identity is already forming, albeit in the very early stages. Television adverts and billboards use these internet associated speech patterns to tap into the national awareness of Netspeak. It's entirely possible, and likely, that these changes will remain internet only based varieties and won't make the transition into daily verbal phonology on a large scale.

Netspeak is a bit of a misnomer to begin with. Syntactical and Lexical changes associated with these are found in any technologically based medial conversations. If it isn't on a phone, social media account, internet or (in the case of a 1930s telegram from an Admiral to Winston Churchill) Telegrams, you don't see them. I agree it isn't going to become a separate language, but its definitely going to be a variety that will build and stick around for quite some time.

[Christan]

what do the poll options mean? rly? short for yearly? as in yearly more internet slang will make it into our language?
OP indicated an either or though, will it become it's own language or be adopted into our own, which the poll doesn't reflect with its...yearly(?) yes / no.
okay i'm really done teasing lol

a recent new one i've been seeing is wuu2 (what you up to) but shouldn't that one even be wauu2? what are* you up to?..
slang isn't proper, and improper slang is even worse...but whatever.


to lazy to un-capitalize everything so putting in this note

[Waaldo]

I feel like if I pick no, I'm really saying yes.

[Deleted]

You'll notice internet slang is used far less now than it used to be. How often do you even see people use short hand like "u" any more?

[Kendrel]

I have to correct that a little bit
They did in fact originate online. They existed long before phones were capable to send txt messages. As a long time "Onliner" I've been around since the times of BBS, before the internet as we know and use it today existed. Messages have been exchanged through networks like the famous FIDO Net, and the likes. Even back then, abbreviations became custom. They were basically born for a similar reason, like they are used on phones. To shorten the messages.
Back then all data transfer happened via dial up modems. It started as early as the usage of acoustic couplers have been the hardware requirement for data transfer. They've operated with 300baud. Transferring messages took forever. Several megabytes took hours. Hence the abbreviation lingo was born.
It remained that, during the times of IRC, and AOL chat rooms, which at that time have been the two largest platforms on the globe.
Real time chat also had a need for quick response. A busy chat room with 20+ people communicating in real time required a fast way to get a message through.
And that's why we have abbreviations, and internet lingo.
Over the years it persisted and evolved. That evolution tho isn't really that dramatic. In a way it became a bit dumber, since it lost it's initial purpose and meaning.
Much of what today's lingo consists of is also but a remaining of the gone days of software pirates. Those were the ones for example who started to change the spellings.... From Software - to Wares - to WaReZ, just to give one prime example.
All in all.... Today's internet community hasn't added too much new things. Most are around longer and older than the users who are using the lingo.

Er, have to disagree with you there dude! Abbreviations, such as OMG, were in use waaaaaay before the internet and were involved in telegraphic communications in the early 20th century, due to similar limitations on text size as a result of correlative charges. So long as there has been a required increase in efficiency to to keystroke limitations, these abbreviations have existed. The fact that these methods of communication are now open to everyone multiple times on a daily basis has seen the use of these explode over a period of only a few short years.

---------- Post added 2013-01-26 at 03:23 PM ----------

You'll notice internet slang is used far less now than it used to be. How often do you even see people use short hand like "u" any more?

Language is the great divider between social class and impression. Standard British English is still identified as the form of English with the highest prestige in English speaking countries (survey completed in 2011). When people communicate in a public forum in a form of English that isn't grammatically correct, with with a syntax that greatly diverges from what are considered normal, they aren't taken quite as seriously. A sad but true fact. This has pushed many that may have dabbled with abbreviations of various verbs and nouns to reverse this trend.

[Powerogue]

I doubt it, it'll likely stay a dialect, a subdivision, a spinoff, slang. It's mostly made up of abbreviations anyway.

[Deleted]

I'm English so I prefer "I shall return shortly after I deal with the unfortunate event that has, sadly, upended my current gaming/life experience" but nobody even bothers with "ISRSAIDWTUETH,S,UMCG/LE" anymore.

Made my day.