JAY JOSHI
The internet may be a virtual world, but it’s a world in itself, and it has its own language-generally known as slang. This language is continuously evolving, and as social media’s impact on our lives deepens, slangs are gradually entering everyday conversations. Such kind of change may be a subject of debate for some, but there are some interesting jewels out there in the world of slangs that enable netizens to express themselves in short and efficient manner.
While words such as LoL (laugh out loud) or BTW (by the way)came around and became popular in early 2000 via SMS, high speed Internet and social media has not only created new slangs, but also given a certain meaning to the old ones. For instance, when you say LoL, it means you are laughing at a joke. If the joke is even funnier, you could say ROFL (rolling on the floor laughing), but if you are laughing sarcastically, then use ‘lel’
There have been a lot of memes and jokes about some older people misunderstanding LoL to mean ‘lots of love’. On that note, when it comes to love, you might think of the terms ‘girlfriend’ or ‘boyfriend’ or ‘crush’ even, but netizens have come up with just one word to describe one’s ‘significant other: ‘Bae’. There is a debate surrounding what exactly the word stands for. Some say it is short for ‘baby’, other say it stands for ‘Before Anyone Else.’. There have also been instances where it has been juxtaposed with the Danish word for ‘poop’ but that is wrong.
Many of today’s youth value the awareness about major political or social debates and issues, and have a term to describe people who are knowledgeable about the world: Woke. If you are a woke person, who is working for a good cause and driving social change, you could be described as ‘rad’-that is to say radical, cool. On that note, another term that is used to describe something cool is ‘lit’.
Secondly, social media is free on any kind of censorship, which means trading abuse is quite normal here, and as a result, a number of cuss words have become a part of slang. This should explain to you the rise of abbreviations such as FML, which is used to express frustration and dissatisfaction with life, STFU and GTFO which urge someone to shut up and get out respectively, and the oft used WTF, which we believe needs no explanation.
But while slangs are making it easier for people to communicate, a number of linguists and teachers of languages as well as other subjects have voiced concerns about the rise of slang. “I feel that this is a cause of grave concern,” says Sandra Da Cunha, English teacher at Perpetual Succor Cinvent High School, Navelim. “The rise of slang and short forms is deeply affecting the writing of students today. They are writing Internet slangs and short forms in their examination papers, even in Board exams.” One of the questions that is asked often is, no one complained when English evolved from ‘thou art’ to ‘you are’. Languages tend to evolve with time. so , why voice a concern about slang? Here, Da Cunha stands by her point. “The matter is serious because it is affecting the writing of things like formal letters. The decorum of the language is being affected.” She also adds that this situation has come about because of lack of reading among today’s students.
Professor Subhash Kamalkar from Dnyanprasarak Mandal’s College and Research Centre, Assagao, takes a different view. “English has lately become a great example of phonemic orthography in india. We write as we speak which is the case of most of the Indian languages (in case of Goa, marathi and konkani)”, explains Kamalkar. “There was a fear amongst the lovers of the language that the so called sms revolution will finish the language but even though the semantics have been affected, the usage of script has increased. As a teacher, yes, definitely it’s affecting the way we perceive certain aspect of language usage but you never know, today’s slang could be tomorrow’s language and English has been evolving since its origin.” he concludes.
But Shraddha Desai from Damodar VIdyalaya, Canacona however warns that negative developments are brewing within English language. “My concern is that it is affecting the dialect and basic structure of the language.” she says. “It is almost as if there is entirely new dialect emerging.”
International studies suggest that Desia may be right. According to reports on the BBC, a new ‘multicultural English’ does seem to be emerging. The youth are not using the slang to fit in with peers, but are using tit to speak to everyone. And the main concern is that they are losing any sense of “appropriacy” - the important skill of turning slang-speak on and off in different situations. Tbh ( to be honest), every group and community has had its own set of peculiar words-soldiers, sailors, corporates, etc. but it never entered the mainstream. Now, with the Internet, it has. Also, experts say that the newspapers and media never printed slang when it was popular among groups such as Hippie community. Now, a large section of the media too is accepting it.
Perhaps English language will undergo an evolution from the churning between slang and Queen’s English. At this point in time, those in favour of Queen’s English are prevailing, but slang-speakers are on the rise.
