Dec 17 2008
Making Up Words
Yeah, Shakespeare did it. I did it in my last post. People do it in conversation all the time because they lack the legitimate vocabulary to express themselves. Words are powerful symbols and can be even if they aren’t universally recognized. We like to exercise our power over others by using these scribbles and sometimes it just gets rediculous. With the emergence of texting and finger typography, a whole new language has emerged. SMS or “‘Leet,” as I’ve heard it called, is a language that I’ve seen emerge in the past decade, with the advent and abundance of cell phones. It bugs the crap out of me, not because I’m old at heart and I hate new things, but because it bleeds into standard English and causes it to go septic. I can understand using it when you have to express something quickly with a fiddly little key pad, but using it in speech or, God forbid, to write a novel just fills me with bile and subsequent vomit inducing disgust. It’s sad that I saw a book already written in SMS. We don’t need that. We have the words to express ourselves already in place. Lewis Carroll be damned. People just have to learn their language. I’m looking at you America.
