The Power of the Written Word as we Step into 2014
Today the written word dominates most of our lives. It's everywhere we turn whether we choose to actively engage with it or not - on billboards, television ads, street signs, t-shirt logos, newspapers, magazines, and most significantly, on the Internet. Besides, the current prevalence of the Internet has placed the written word at the centre of everything we do.
Figure 1 - Shibuya by Manganite on Flickr
And while language has always been subject to change, the speed at which both the oral and written forms of languages are evolving because of the Internet's ubiquity is vertiginous, to say the least. Every single new platform, trend, concept or development seems to foster a new proliferation of terms. More and more, "onlinese" words and phrases creep into our day-to-day conversation:
We hi-five to "success!" when we manage to fix the tiniest domestic problem,
We feel depressed as a consequence of an "epic fail",
We laugh at inexperienced "newbs",
We distance ourselves from a situation when we feel they are giving us "TMI",
We urge others to enjoy the moment by convincing them that YOLO,
and we defiantly "troll" others and their opinions.
Lexicographers agree that the Internet is changing the way we talk.
Michael Agnes, executive editor of Webster's New World Dictionary, explains that "though much of the net-generated argot is "rarefied and technical," more and more Internet words and phrases are popping up in general discourse." David Crystal, Honorary Professor of linguistics at the University of Bangor, concurs. Crystal says that new colloquialisms in the English language are spreading like wildfire amongst groups on the net and that they are doing so by developing a curious mix of English varieties result of the fact that the majority of the young people who write in English on the internet are not native speakers of the language (source, the BBC). Spanglish, Konglish (Korean-English), Hinglish (Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu and English) and other creative varieties are becoming so widespread that apparently some of them are even taught to English diplomats to help them familiarise with the different modalities they'll face upon arrival to their posts!