How is language evolving on the net ? In this series on internet linguistics , Gretchen McCullochbreaks down the latest innovations in online communication .
You ’ve seen them : Legit . Jealz . Rad . Totes . Def . Obvs . Probs . Whatevs . Proj . Tomorrs . Ridics . Fav . Dece .
But you may not have known that there ’s a word for them : abbrevs . ( Andabbrevis itself an abbrev , obvs . ) LinguistRebecca Starrpoints out that while there are some other abbrevs , likecommish(from commissioner ) from 1910 anddelishfrom 1920 , the current abbrev trend has been increasing since the mid-2000s .
The interesting thing about abbrevs is that they ’re based on sound , not on spelling . Just think about how we have to respell sure words when make them into abbrevs , such asdelish , presh , profesh , unfortch , andsitch . And with give-and-take likefunksh(function),relash(relationship),fuche(future),natch(naturally ) , orsosh(sociology ) , you might not even be able to tell from the abbrev what the original word was .
But the worst one for spelling is the abbrev ofusual . Try it :
You know how to say it , but thesound that the " su " constitute inusualnormally comes from is n’t one that we ’ve bring a good room of write in English . Same goes for the abbrevs ofcasualorpleasurewhich finish in the same auditory sensation . Caj?Plezh ?
What all these respelled abbrevs have in coarse is that they bear a " sh " or " ch " or " zh " sound that was n’t earlier there in the history of the news — as we can still see in the spelling . But when generation of hoi polloi pronounce ator ansor azsound right before aysound very quickly , the two of them stuck together into that sh / ch / zh — just like how " set about you " becomes " gotcha " or " did you " becomes " didja . " Which would be fine , except that the second one-half of the word that ’s contributing the " y " sound gets cut off when you abbrev it , hence the spelling modification . ( And Lane Greene atThe Economistsuggests thatthis weird sound change is part of the solicitation for many abbrevs . )
But how do you decide what to cut off in the first position ? After all , a lot of abbrevs are one syllable , likejeals , rad , totes , def , obvs — but some of them are two syllable , likedelish , legit , profesh , andabbrevitself . And you ca n’t just swap them : radics , amount , definjust sound weird , whileprof , abs , dels , legmight be abbrevs of something , but they sure do n’t check todelicious , logical , professional , orabbreviation .
It has to do with emphasis . Think about how you say the word of honor " totally"—TO - tal - LY , not to - TAL - ly — it becomes " totes " by clipping off that first , stressed , syllable . But when you say " licit , " you say lupus erythematosus - GI - tammy - ATE , not LE - Gb - TAM - ate . Clipping off the unstressed syllable at the beginning just is n’t enough — you need something that ’s stressed too , so the second syllable comes along to make " legit . "
The focus affair explains why some words just do n’t abbrev : " interesting " should trim back off at " int " but that ’s just not different enough from " acute " or " internet " or a whole caboodle of other give-and-take that set about with int- , so we do n’t even try any of them . And it also tells us why there are n’t any three - syllable abbrevs : English words get some kind of stressevery other syllable , even if it ’s justsecondary stress .
Perhaps the best part of abbrevs is how they intersect with other slang , like acronyms . Most of the time , you just add ansor azto the ending of the acronym without actually abbreving it at all , as inlolsandomgz , but acronyms withware particular . The best known areBTdubs(from " by the way of life " via BTW),dubsTF(from WTF ) , andFTdubs(from " for the win " via FTW ) , but I also found people on Twitter usingOMdubs(“on my way " via OMW),BMdubs(BMW , as in the car ) , and evenone guywho usesFWIdubs(“for what it ’s deserving " ) .
The " dub " abbrevs really put the lie to the idea that citizenry abbrev just because it ’s gentle , since all thewacronyms are actually shorter than their " dub " reading . It ’s more about the fun of creash , natch .
