A plea for full words

[tst]

Ah, Craig, I see that for some reason I didn't notice your original post which linked to the rhyming slang site.

Anyway, this will almost be considered heresy in this place, but I was never a huge fan of the Python movies. Yes, they all have their moments, but on the whole, the circus was considerably better.

P.S.

Alt text: I went to a dinner where there was a full 10 minutes of Holy Grail quotes exchanged, with no context, in lieu of conversation.  It depressed me badly.

[Intaris]

I like to play a bit of counterstrike source from time to time and I was also quite surprised to hear people actually saying "LOL" on teamspeak. 

It took me a while to work out what they were saying.  I recognised the word "LOL" but I thought I had misheard because no-one would be sad enough to actually say that instead of just laughing......  I was wrong.

Of course my response was WTF?

Shane.

I remember when I first joined this forum I had trouble understanding IIRC, FWIW, BTW and so on.  Took me a while to grasp them, and then I felt all warm and fuzzy.

[smercurio_fc]

Let me be clear: I was never referring to acronyms. LOL, IIRC, etc. are acronyms. I don't care about acronyms. So all this talk about acronyms is entertaining, but not germane to my original point. My original point was about the butchery of the language that occurs when people use "u" for "you", "grt" for "great", "r" for "are", etc.

If you want to fill your posts with acronyms, be my guest. Heck, I do it all the time.

[johnsold]

Given the world wide nature of participation in this Forum, I try to stick with standard English as much as possible except for certain abbreviations or acronyms which are specific to the topics covered here. LV for LabVIEW, DAQ, A/D, and so on. If I am responding to someone who is new to the Forum or who obviously has limited skills with English, I will avoid even those or introduce them. My ability to speak or read any other language is very limited, so I try to use plain language out of respect for those who are trying to learn something about LV in a language which is foreign to them.

I also have a great deal of respect for those of you who contribute regularly in English when it is not your native language.

Lynn

[Britoa]

smercurio: I agree completely, and like some others, I tend to just not reply when people wont even put the effort into typing out their question.  How I see it, why should I put in effort when they wont?

btw: u r grt 4 pstng ths  (Who needs vowels, anyway?)

[craigc]

Although in defence isnt there that study that says the human mind does not read every letter in any given word but rather identifies the word by a series of patterns?  I had a quick look on the internet but could not find an example with which to illustrate.  However it went something along the lines of "The Qvick Brawn fox....." and most people read it without noticing the intended spelling mistakes in the sentance.

If you like MP's flying circus then you will enjoy MP's "And now for something completely different" which is essentially a DVD of there best sketches.

[RavensFan]

I remember getting an e-mail a long time ago about mixed up words.  I googled and came up with this link.  It looks like the text I remember reading.

http://www.jeorgethedodo.com/huh_jumble.asp

One of the problems with reading the posts with text-messaging-like abbreviations is that the posters are often people whose native language isn't English.  So not only do I have to mentally convert the abbreviations to words,  I have to convert it from their version of English with awkward words and phrases to real English.

[craigc]

Thanks Ravens Fan,  That had been bugging me for a while and you found it in seconds!

I agree I find all the phone "txt" generation words to be highly annoying, unneccassary and just plain ugly.  I can only imagine how difficult it is for someone who does not natively speak the language.  I mean i can just about order a cheese sandwich in Spanish, however if the Menu had abbreviated it,  I would definitely not be able to understand it!

I can sort of understand it in a text message to save yourself all of 10 pence just so you dont send two text messages.  However the mind boggles why someone would want to use it to clearly explain an engineering problem.

[corys]

That is pretty interesting. I remember seeing studies about it before, but that was a nice link for a refresher. Interesting note, though, is that when they jumble the letters the first letter always remains correct; not always the case with the butchering of spelling that occurs on the internet (i.e. 'u' instead of 'you').

What bothers me about typing such as 'grt' and acronyms such as 'lol' (especially when they are verbalized) is they begin to diminish the personal connection that language provides between two people. The personal nuances of speech and writing are lost to token phrases which, while they may provide faster communication in some cases, diminish its value.

Maybe I'm being a tad harsh.

[craigc]

Someone mentioned ain't at the start of the thread and i wondered if it was actually a word even though it was listed in wikipedia.

So from the Oxford English Dictionary

http://www.askoxford.com/results/?view=dict&freesearch=ain%27t&branch=13842570&textsearchtype=exact

ain't

  • contraction informal 1 am not; are not; is not. 2 has not; have not.

  — USAGE In modern English the use of ain’t is non-standard and should not be used in formal or written contexts, despite being widespread in many dialects and in informal speech.

Craig

Message Edited by craigc on 08-07-2008 06:59 AM