OMG, this is def. a story about abbrevs. It’s obvi. going to be totes legit. Some peeps think it’s ridic. to use these awk. words, while others think it’s NBD.
Translation: Oh my God, this is definitely a story about abbreviations. It’s obviously going to be totally legitimate. Some people think it’s ridiculous to use these awkward words in everyday language, but others think it’s no big deal.
College students across the country are increasing their use of abbreviations in everyday speech, shortening words like legitimate to legit, obviously to obvi. and totally to totes. Jessica Derrick, a speech pathology major at Stephen F. Austin University has seen the trend on her campus.
“It has been a fad that has seemed to have swept into the lives of many college students. It does come from the increase in text messaging but also from the simple fact that our language is a live language that continues to change with the everyday culture,” Derrick said.
While there may not be any prominent studies showing the growth of abbreviations, linguists and language researchers say that the trend is not only growing on college campuses–it’s even seeping into the speech of the general public.
“Recent, relatively new forms that I see being used even by grown men are howevs and whatevs,” said Lars Hinrichs, an English Professor at the University of Texas, in an e-mail interview. “It is likely that these originated and spread on the Internet and only then came to be used in speech.”
David Crystal, a linguist and author of many books on the subject, says that abbreviations were used in original Anglo-Saxon society. Language has been changing since it was created.
“Language changes because society changes,” Crystal said in an e-mail interview. “A new technology offers new opportunities for expression.”
Text messaging has opened the door for many new expressions. People are finding creative ways of putting words and letters together, and ways to be faster and more efficient. There is no doubt that this rising trend in “text talk” has evolved out of the increased use of text messaging.
“The technology has motivated new styles of discourse, some new punctuation conventions and promises to have an impact on spelling,” Crystal said.
A Cingular commercial that aired in 2007, featuring a mother-daughter conversation about the daughter’s texting bill, gives a good example of this development. During the conversation the daughter responds with phrases like “omg, inbd!” and “idk, my bff Jill.” This “text talk” may have sounded far-fetched in the commercial, but today teenagers are using language in a similar fashion.
“I think it’s just become a habit unintentionally,” SMU junior Sarah Bennett said. “It comes from a couple of good friends of mine who speak in text and before I know it I’m speaking in text.”
Though students use this language in conversations with friends and through technological outlets, most students understand that it is not appropriate in every situation like term papers and e-mails to professors.
“There is a difference between writing a paper and having a conversation with friends,” SMU senior Courtney Guenard said.
Crystal, in his book “Txtng: The GR8 DB8,” writes that texters had an instinct about the value of shortening words to speed up telecommunication. He points out that when texting was invented no one told consumers to use abbreviation–they just did it.
This is even evident when referring to buildings around the SMU campus. One will often hear students refer to the dining hall as “Umph” or the student center as “HT.” Residence halls also have their own abbreviations. VS, Smerkins, MoMac, Cockintosh,and BigMac are all used frequently around campus.
The SMU community is in love with acronyms as well. SAMSA (Student Activities & Multicultural Student Affairs), RLSH (Residence Life and Student Housing), PC (Program Council) and SF (Student Foundations) are all organizations that naturally look to shorten their names. The fraternities and sororities that dominate SMU social life are even abbreviated. Very rarely do students say Delta Delta Delta or Pi Kappa Alpha; they use titles like Tri-Delt or Pike.
Some students say they only use abbreviations when joking around with friends and realize that their use isn’t appropriate in all mediums of communication. Others say they use abbreviations to converse faster and more efficiently.
“I don’t think it’s about efficiency, it’s about being funny or cute,” Guenard said.
In his DCblog, Crystal responded to a reader who noticed that teenagers in the U.S. are using text message shorthand in everyday talk.
“There’s nothing intrinsically new about the process. I remember my Uncle Bill saying TTFN (‘ta-ta-for-now’) when he went off to work – and that was in the 1940s,” Crystal writes.
“Abbreviations of this kind have been in English for ages – some for decades. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the first recorded reference to ASAP as 1955.”
Hinrichs recognizes this transformation in the English language, but also said that the process is nothing new.
“In most cases, clippings come, get used for a while and then fade away,” Hinrichs said. “In rare cases, the clippings stay as new words. For example, ‘legit’ is quite stable, but others come and go.”
This trend has even caused a debate among English teachers and linguists. Some say the increased use of text talk in our society is destroying the English language. Some proponents against text talk say that in the future English users won’t be able to spell correctly and that many words will be forgotten and replaced by abbreviated forms.
While other people believe that the use of text messaging increases spelling as users need to know the actual spelling of the word to create the abbreviation. Others say that it increases problem solving skills to determine the meaning of an abbreviated phrase. Though the issue is a continuous debate, many linguists aren’t concerned for the English language.
“People will always complain about the ‘young people these days’ who don’t use language ‘properly.’ And yet, I don’t see Standard English going anywhere – it is in perfect health,” Hinrichs said.
