A conversation online with my cousin who is in his teens is sumtin like dis. It's a bit of time before I can fully gather what he is saying. Clearly, it's me that is passe.
Initially, I found it funny - when it was more like short conversations coz sure I use loads of abbreviations too as they can be very useful. The extent of my usage however is presumably much lesser than that of kids today!
When my cousin types up in three long sentence what has been going on at school, I just wish he'd use 'otherwise' or 'something' or 'that'. I feel like I'm grandma and I'm asking my grand daughter to read slowly to me so that I understand.
It seems to be the language of the generation, each one developing their own slang in a quest to be cool, in, exclusive, or doing it coz it's just plain fun! And I get it.
When we were younger (primary school level I'd say), apart from all the other efforts to be exclusive, one very simple way one was talking in 'p' language. It was our way of simple fun, perhaps some kind of exclusivity (but just for a short while, coz it is really quite an easy language to pick up). An example below:
The History of Cadavers
The-per
Hi-pis, ter-per, ry-pee
Oh-pof
Ca-pa, da-pa, ver-pers
My version of the p language may differ from yours, depending on where you place the 'p'. I'm not sure I know the intricacies of it, even though according to what you may read online it is often placed before a vowel. Mine, is just well, what I picked up from my sisters and friends around me, and this is how we use it till today.
Back to SMS english, I think its totally fine for kids to communicate as they please in social settings and even among themselves, but am not entirely convinced that dis talkin shld b used n replaced by trad englsh in prof settngs 2.
God forbid there will come a time when I'd open a beautifully crafted wedding invitation with a beige and yellow finish, and three pretty ribbons spilling over from the top left corner of the card. I open it up, and there:
"U r invitd 2 join us at der celebrtn of our wdng @ Royston Twrs, 8pm. V wld lv 2 hve u b a prt of sch an imp day n our lves - XX"
Our RSVP: V will b der.
Ugh. Imagine that.
Today I'm humming: Nobody by the Wondergirls
This is a song I heard performed by a group of thai girls at the end of a play during a event at Cambridge. It is one of those songs that is funny, but extremely catchy and will stay in your head. Go on, play it twice and I guarantee you will be cursing me soon after.
ha haha .. i remember using a version of the "p" language and "the" language when we were kids.. but yeah,even i have realised that the kids these days have a language that is quite often difficult to fathom and i routinely feel like a grandma
ReplyDeleteWe used the p language over here as well. But instead of p it's f. Perhaps it suits the Malay tongue better.
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