Quote:
Originally Posted by bhartman36
1) Snafu isn't shorthand. It's an initialism. That's very distinct from abominations like "c u l8r". I'll happily stipulate that there are many such initialisms in the English language.
2) Something being in the dictionary doesn't make it a word. "D'oh" is in Webster's:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/d%27oh
"Thru" is listed in Webster's as a variant spelling of "through". I find that unfortunate, but it has to do with the general, and growing, illiteracy of the American public.
Literacy is more than the ability to read at a 5th grade level. It also implies being able to string two words together without hurting yourself. This is becoming very rare. My girlfriend is a professor teaching graduate students, and is horrified by their lack of writing skills.
"Texting" spelling represents more than just trying to save a few keystrokes on a phone. If that was all it was, it wouldn't be leaking into undergraduate papers. Instead, texting spelling represents a general inability to communicate using written English. Unless we want an illiterate population, these trends need to be extinguished with extreme prejudice. |
OK .... here's one for you and it's a corker, because it doesn't really stand for anything. It's not an initialism, it's not a word, it's not anything more than a translation from code. A code originally created by Samuel Morse, although this particular code sequence was created by the Germans in 1905.
I'm talking about SOS. A better "spelling" of which would be ---...--- Just for your information, the "initialisms" involved in that code translation came well after it was created. And, it was created as such because pretty much any moron could remember it in code.
Texting spelling represents small keyboards and for some people a limited number of characters one can send without incurring additional fees. It has become part of the language out of habit. Most of the new words one finds start out as a habitual usage.
Thru didn't used to be an "alternative spelling" it became so because people were either illiterate or lazy and didn't want to remember how to type the actual word. Really tough that you find that unfortunate.
So, give us some more examples of what you clearly don't understand. I'm interested in hearing them, if only because I need a good chuckle. My mother was an English professr at the university level (before she gave it up to teach elsewhere), but she didn't have a huge stick up her ass. She had the good sense to teach me that English is a living language.
If you can't evolve along with the language, it is you and your girlfriend who will become illiterate and unable to communicate. Let me guess, you two don't even allow your participles to dangle in everyday conversation.