This blog is simply a random set of observations on some of the things I've seen on my favourite medium: Twitter. I'm essentially fascinated to see how language adapts to new situations and how in some cases it can actually overcome ambiguity with the use of playful new spelling or vocabulary.
140 characters
The first obvious challenge of Twitter is brevity: everything has to be packed into 140 characters. There is a real art form to doing this: broadly speaking the shorter the tweet, the more likely it is to grab the attention of a reader in a rapidly moving timeline. I gather the skills involved in writing tweets are similar to those used in telegram messages: the imperative there was cost; now it is about conveying information in a way that is most likely to be read.
Thrift with words and being punchy are clearly key. When people resort to Twitlonger I personally have to be really interested in the particular author, or the contents of the first part of the tweet, to open up the link. My timeline is racing by: there are other things to read and I will skip quickly pass a link. If there is a complex idea to get across people often instead do this by multiple tweets, one following the other in quick succession. I've seen people label these as "1/3, 2/3, 3/3" to make it clear they're part of a set. That way they are more likely to be read than using Twitlonger, where the body of the tweet is obscured. Tweet 3 might catch your eye, so you go back and read tweets 1 and 2 accordingly. Twitlonger works fine, however, in a one-on-one conversation where you have a particular reader's attention.
The first thing to go in tweets are often the words "the" and "a/an" - in 140 characters there is little room for a definite or indefinite article - you simply drop them out, even if you're not hard up against the character limit. The language of Twitter is much less formal than you'd use in an email or letter - but what is interesting is noticing that if you tweet a lot, it's actually an effort not to write texts, instant messages or emails in this same shorthand style. It's all about the speed. This is a bit beside the point, but I also find myself wanting to use hashtags in all of these contexts. That will definitely only work if the other person spends time on Twitter...
Abbreviations
There's a whole range of abbreviations used on Twitter that take some getting used to. Some originate in "text speak" others are unique to the forum. We are well familiar with "LOL" for "laugh out loud" (love it, or hate it - personally I think it's great) and its relatives ROFL (roll on floor laughing) and "LMAO" (laugh my arse off). If something is off the scale funny we may even see a "LOLOLOLO" - as observed several times this week on my timeline about the departure of Frankie Cokeupthenozza from X-Factor.
There are things like RT, HT, MT, which are unique to Twitter and have been created entirely by users of the medium - check out point 13 in my earlier post on "How to use Twitter" if you're unsure what they mean.
We also have FTFY (fixed that for you) - you take something someone tweeted and amend it as retweet, basically to take the piss out of them by changing a small but important detail. The tweet then goes out to all their followers and says something entirely different to what you intended to say - but the FTFY makes it clear this is a joke.
The Playfulness of Language
What I like most about Twitter though is the sheer playfulness of the language used. In the last few days I've seen the following examples:
Time for a screenbreak.. Moar coffee!
That's the best pic EVAR
That's the best pic EVAR
Oooh we're spending Boxing Day in Snowdonia. I am tres excited!
A-MAY-ZING: That Kelly/Cocozza vid
The reenactment of Dambusters on BBC2 is acecakes
No question: this is tres amaze You might well think, Jesus, these people need to learn some English. In fact three of the above are from highly literate and intelligent lawyers. "Acecakes" is from an outstanding writer on a well known daily paper. "Tres Amaze" is from someone who works in Westminster. If you write "That's tres amaze" in an email to your MP boss, he might think you're quite odd and/or illiterate- on Twitter it just seems to work. It also indicates something - a warmth and kindly acceptance that is different to the plain "that is amazing."
What is going on here is a whole new fun creative language is being created. The speed of adoption is breathtaking: I saw the use of "Klaxon" a few weeks ago (hardly a common word, though "Klaxonner" remains my favourite verb in French) - suddenly everyone is using it on my timeline. Twitter is all about words... and here words are picked up rapidly, played with and used.
I exchange "Lolz" with an English teacher - and if something is really funny we use "Lolkatz". I'm sure if one of her kids tried this in an essay they wouldn't exactly get top marks: we're using it almost ironically, between the two of us, because it's so "wrong". The "Z" is *so* much fun in my opinion - you use "OMG" (oh my god) to express surprise - shove a Z on the front (ZOMG) and it becomes "zoooo my god" which really ups the excitement of what you're saying.
The examples I've given above really demonstrably aren't from people who confuse their "you're and your" or "who's and whose": they are just playing with English. I've seen how new completely ungrammatical constructions: "Son, I am disappoint". "I am much excite": those both from a student of creative writing who is perfectly capable of getting his grammar correct in other contexts. I learned ZOMG from an almost scarily bright young guy who has a degree in Chinese and is currently learning Korean. Illiterate he is not.
The misspelling of words can soften their meaning. I received the above tweet that said "it's just bubbles, silleh". That's actually fascinating: had Dan (a graduate journo himself) written "silly" I could have taken it as a bit patronising - it's notoriously difficult to get tone across in written language and in so few characters. Instead "silleh" (which I'd never seen before) came across as sweet and really very cute. How is that for actually overcoming ambiguity?
We also of course have the whole language of the "Tw". People on Twitter are "tweeps"; when they arrange to meet it's a "tweet-up"; I even attended a "twitnic" last summer. I'm a "twaddict" for being on Twitter so often. A new way of forming a noun has been created that indicates a link with Twitter. These aren't in the dictionary, but everyone is quite clear what they mean.
Misuse of English?
Where does this all get us? Well nowhere in particular. It's just a random set of observations. You might be "totes snooty" about what you see as the misuse of English. I'm not. Language evolves constantly and rapidly: it has always done so and will always continue to do so. We are seeing it happen here on Twitter and I'm fascinated by it and love it.
Whilst I'm perfectly capable of being a grammar fascist and explaining why (for example) in a formal letter you should use a possessive pronoun with a gerund - and more to the point believing that is a sensible rule - I really enjoy coming on to Twitter, letting my hair down and using a completely different linguistic register. There is no compulsion to do so: many people form "correct" and full sentences; but I actually really enjoy seeing one of the most talented barrister bloggers I know asking for "Moar coffee". It even got a little lulz from me :)
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