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Subject: Re: Why Johnny can't spell ( 15 of 58 )
Posted by The GHP

Quite a lively discussion.
That's as long a post as I've ever seen DNA write, too.

I just would like to say that not everything that is posted on the Internet is similar to our speech patterns. Yes, the general pattern is leaning this direction, but typing words instead of saying them certainly frees us to say things that would not normally emerge in conversation. I have an entirely larger vocabulary when I write or type, than when I am speaking out loud. The entire subculture of chatting and Internet posting has evovled new terms that people do not even use in speech, such as the ubiquitous acronyms (BRB, LOL, TTFN, IMHO, etc...), and of course the emoticons, discriptive actions, and short personal codes. These allow anyone to communicate intent and content even more quickly than saying so out loud. I believe that the Internet itself is transforming language, and may need to be grouped under a third, entirely new category. There could be the spoken word, the written (literary) word, and now the online (Internet) word. One connection is this: speaking is the easiest to learn. You pick it up by listening. Writing is harder, since you have to learn how to form the words on paper. Then there's typing, which is a much faster way of writing, though with less emphasis on formation. You just press keys, and the letters appear on the screen. It doesn't matter what kind of order they're in, right? Also, one is so used to using spell-checkers that they forget to proofread thier own work when typing. This carries over to the Internet, since there are virtually no spell-checkers here (with the exception of some E-mail programs, but nobody uses that feature anyway).

This may be placing more emphasis on the word itself, since one doesn't care how word is pronounced once in print. The expression is carried, as DNA mentioned, more through the word order, not many suffixes. With online bulliten boards and chat rooms, new orders, sentence structure, and even added symbols can enhance the meaning. Text found here online, especially text that is typed and sent simultaneously (i.e. chat), show entirely new properties.

I see the language of the internet changing the language of everyday use. Ten years ago we didn't throw about URLs, and Yahoo! was an exclamation. Now we have billboards and advertisements that include a website address, and it seems that the whole world is online.

Quite stunning, really.

(this is my own opinion, and I also refuse to use such acronyms such as IMHO, timesavers though they be...)
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