Are we killing the language, or creating a new one?
by Amanda Rivera 
May 17th 2007 at 3:41PM
As I've said before, we have a rule in our guild prohibiting leet speak and excessive abbreviation in guild chat. That being said, I've thought a lot about the use of abbreviations in WoW and how they are affecting the language.
This might come from my days as an English teacher, but I think of the language as a fluid, breathing thing. The formality that people used when speaking 100 years ago doesn't exist now, and I doubt we would ever hear in game "pardon me, good sir, could you wait a moment?" instead of "one sec AFK" unless we were on an RP server or feeling particularly silly.
In some ways I think the shortening of the language is a bad thing, at least for the survival of English as it currently stands. We don't type out our words, heck a lot of times we don't even use vowels anymore. Players don't seem to try to actually use words anymore. "You" becomes "u," "okay cool," has become "kk." And I have seen the abbreviation used by French players as well, so I can see that the trend toward a shorthand language in game as international.
It appears, at least from what I can see, that online communities such as WoW are affecting the course of written language, if not spoken as well. You can look at it and say the language is dying, that we're slaughtering it, or you can see it another way. I think of it in terms of dialect. There are dozens of dialects in , variations on an original language. I think what we are building is an Internet dialect, and one that I expect will push into mainstream language in the years to come. We are 8 million strong, and we have the potential for a strong influence on society as such.
Think of it less as a death, but more as a birth of something new.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Social Conventions, Virtual selves
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Samala May 17th 2007 12:12PM
English teacher, huh?
"... and I doubt we would ever here in game ..."
That should be hear and not here.
Plus, you don't actually hear it, you would see it.
Mel May 17th 2007 12:12PM
I understand using abbreviations in chat while being occupied with something more important, like, beating that mob into a bloody pulp.
When you have the time to spell and write correctly you should do so. Leetspeak is retarded and tells more about your microscopic little e-peen than a openly posted snapshot of yourself masturbating with the help of tweezers.
Axillaii May 17th 2007 12:18PM
I doubt WoW is having any sort of widespread impact on the language, but I am certain that the text messaging phenomenan. I must be just on the edge of the generation gap that seperates people who text from people who loathe/fear/are-confused-and-scared-by texting. While I fall into the second category, many of my friends who are close to my age (both under and over) fall into the first one. If someone sends me a text message, and if I am able to actually open it, I am almost never able to decipher it. In fact, thank you for explaining what "kk" means. I have been too embarassed to ask in game (it feels really REALLY strange to be called a "noob" at my age), and I wouldn't even know where to start to look it up.
Arturis May 17th 2007 12:59PM
@Samala
Yes, because we all know that English Teachers are perfect beyond the rest of humanity and never make mistakes.
And "hear" is acceptably used in that situation, as virtual communication insinuates implied "hearing".
sirotrax May 17th 2007 1:04PM
Personally, I am inclined to type everything out fully, I have fast enough wpm to do this without it being a hindrance. I tolerate it in others, and rarely, if ever, try to correct it. I do, however, show open disdain for those who not only refuse to type anything out fully, but who also butcher their grammar to the point that it becomes indecipherable. When I'm in a group and I ask a question and get a response that makes no sense, it really grates my nerves -- I wonder if they're really THAT stupid or if they just don't care.
Shawn May 17th 2007 1:14PM
I can handle some abbreviations. What pains me is when people seem to go to great lengths to use nothing but.
For example: I see people saying "neone" alot which is only one friggin' letter shorter than "anyone."
But there is even a bigger problem: hearing people talk about WoW in real life and saying abbreviations. There's a certain WoW podcast where the hosts always says "G" instead of "gold." I find it so annoying!
And saying "LOL" in person is dumb.
Brendan May 17th 2007 1:33PM
This article is rubbish.
"Think of it less as a death, but more as a birth of something new." To me, that just reeks of pretentiousness.
How long has this "l337" hyper-punctuated subculture been around, now? Implying that players of online games are building a new dialect of language is silly. People have been typing like that almost as long as the internet has been around--and I can't even agree that online gaming makes it any more accessible, particularly when you consider how popular online communication in all its forms has been since, well, forever.
This strange movement isn't gaining any more steam than it ever had, and I doubt we'll be feeling its presence in the mainstream more than we already do.
Geeks will wear l337 on their t-shirts and lazy people will continue to type like they've never seen a keyboard--the lines are drawn in the same way ebonics presides over rap lyrics and the vernacular of youth and popular culture.
That being said, I'd wager a guess that we'll never hear a congressman say, "h4y guyz v370 7h47 n0i53."
Cursetain May 17th 2007 1:34PM
For me, it is not the "in-game" language. It is when it bleeds into our everyday usage.
Last night, my wife informed me that my daughter wanted "creamy chicken" for her birthday dinner. I turned around and asked her, "Do you have the mats for it?" The look that I got let me know that I had just spoken WoW instead of english. Took me a while to figure out the "ingredients" should have been the appropriate word for that instance.
I am going to have to update my resume and change it from Bilingual to Trilingual.
*English
*French
*WoWglish
brent May 17th 2007 2:00PM
no comment on the topic being good bad or ugly, but i have found that in quick work emails i have used gaming terms for example:
doc INC, or omw to meeting
Boy do i feel silly in those moments.
At the same time i get a fuzzy feeling when i catch another person doing it and have a MMOment.
Genius Jones May 17th 2007 2:16PM
This has been studied and covered. A tenth of a second of google searching will get you to the relevant study showing that text messaging and SMSing is not affecting the language adversely at all, and yes, people are still literate. Why does everyone assume that using abbreviated SMS and IM speech makes you stupid? Do you really think that just because someone says 'ttyl bro in game atm' that they don't know how to make a complete sentence?
Frogs May 17th 2007 3:50PM
I agree, it is like a dialect. I don't really understand how one could say that the emergence of a new way of spelling (and talking, though that's less prevalent) signals the destruction of the english language, especially when it's limited for the most part to online chatting and gaming. It does annoy me when people use unnecessary contractions in game, but I don't feel it's threatening the way I talk and spell.
Rabbid May 17th 2007 3:55PM
lawl @ wordsmiths
bluedew May 17th 2007 3:58PM
If you don't know when to use internet slang and when not to then you must be mentally ill....
Floppiar May 17th 2007 4:04PM
When my daughter started playing the game she would ask me what all the abbreviations meant and of course I would tell her. She started using them in game and then started using the same things outside the game in letters and emails. I had to put a stop to that quickly.
kirrathjehrain May 17th 2007 4:06PM
I actually wrote a term paper on this subject a couple years ago. Dialects are simply any variety which is shared by a group of speakers. One thing that most dialects had in common prior to the current age is that they were spoken first and written down later. Netspeak, however, was written first and spoken second. How it's evolved since its inception is only indicative of the very nature of instant written communication between people.
kirrathjehrain May 17th 2007 4:08PM
*any variety of a language which is shared by a group of speakers. Not sure how that got missed.
Kyle May 17th 2007 5:57PM
Has anybody seen that commercial with the girl who has her cellphone taken away and is taking leet and w/ abbreviations. It's kinda like that...really really reatarded and annoying.
BloodySkull May 17th 2007 4:31PM
Samala = whiny nitpicker
James May 17th 2007 4:33PM
The big pet peeve for me is abbreviations that are nearly as long as the original, sometimes only one or two letters away. In addition, the more annoying versions of "leet-speak" simply because to 90% of the people out there, it actually is a struggle to translate. It took me about 3 minutes to figure out that stupid comic alone. The "n"s were particularly irritating. I see no problem with using some of the more obvious or well known abbreviations, though, like "kk" "omw" "inc" , etc. As long as most people understand it, I don't have a problem with it.
And for some reason, saying "lol" out loud bugs the crap out of me, but "pwnd" is hilarious. Dunno. :)
thundercougarfalconbird May 17th 2007 4:34PM
I wrote a paper about this back in college.
Language changes rapidly when new technology enters common use. The printing press standardized how many people spelled words for the first time, the telegraph helped to reduce the number of words many people used to transact business, and television, radio, and e-mail all had similar effects.
Text messaging/l337 speek is probably just another evolution in this vein. I like to think of it like a different set of "rules" in communication, where the style of speech you would use at a job interview or a funeral would be different from hanging out with friends or speaking to children. I type out everything properly at work, but in WoW, I'd probably be lazier.