I get confused these days reading many of the posts on social
media, and text messages sent through cell phones, because
of the kind of new English that young people now write. The
English language is without doubt quite dynamic. In the last
200 years, it has lent itself to many innovations, as cultural,
religious, and situational codes have transformed the
language and extended the dictionary, with new words and
idioms.
The kind of new English being written by twitter and what’s
app users, particularly young people is however so frightening
and lamentable, because it is beginning to creep into regular
writing. Texting and tweeting is producing a generation of
users of English, (it is worse that they are using English as a
second language), who cannot write grammatically successful
sentences. I was privileged to go through some applications
that some young graduates submitted for job openings
recently and I was scared.
This new group of English users does not know the difference
between a comma and a colon. They have no regard for
punctuation. They mix up pronouns, cannibalize verbs and
adverbs, ignore punctuation; and violate all rules of lexis and
syntax. They seem to rely more on sound rather than formal
meaning. My fear is that a generation being brought on twitter,
Facebook, instagram and what’s app English is showing a lack
of capacity to write meaningful prose, or communicate
properly or even think correctly.
To an older generation who had to go through the rigour of
being told to write proper English, and getting punished
severely for speaking pidgin or vernacular or for making
careless mistakes of grammar and punctuation, the kind of
meta-English now being written by young people can be utterly
confusing. The irony is that it makes sense to the young ones,
and they can conduct long conversations in this strange
version of the English language. I’d not be surprised if
someday a novel gets written in this new English, which seems
like a complete bastardization.
You may have come across the meta-English that I am trying
to describe. It is English in sound, but in appearance it has
been subjected to the punishment of excessive abbreviation,
compression and modification. Hence, in place of the word
“for”, you are likely to see “4”, and so the word “forget”
becomes “4get”, or “4git”, “fortune” is written as “4tune”,
“forever” as “4eva”. The word “see” has been pruned down to
a single alphabet “C”, same with “you” now rendered as “u”. In
effect, you are likely to read such strange things as “cu” or
“cya” meaning “see you.”
Some other words have suffered similar fate: “straight” is now
written as “Str8”, “first” as “fess”; “will” as “wee” (I can’t figure
out why), “house” is now “haus”; “help” has been reduced to
“epp”; (“who have you epped?”) instead of the phrase “kind
of”, what you get is “kinda”, “money” is simply “moni.”, the
computer sign ”@” has effectively replaced the word “at”;
“come” is now “cum”, the conjunction “and” is represented
with an “n” or the sign &, “that” is now “dat”, “temporary” is
likely to be written as “temp”, “are” as “r”, “your” as “ur” “to” as
“2”, “take” as “tk.” In place of “thank you”, you are likely to find
“tank u”, “with” is now “wit” or “wif”, and “sorry” is commonly
written as “sowie”. I have also seen such expressions as
“Hawayu?” (“How are you?”), or “Wia r d u?” (“where are the
you?”). The you? The me? The us?
By the time these new words get combined in what is
supposed to be a sentence, you’d have a hard time looking for
the sense beyond the sound. On many occasions, I have had
to call the sender of such messages to explain what he or she
is trying to communicate in simple English, and if it is on
social media, I still often call for help. In recent times, I have
encountered such messages as “This kidney gist is giving me
heddik. I wee hold ya hand if you need kidney love you till we
find a miraku. It kent happun pass dat.” Try and help translate
that into correct English. And how about this: “As fuel don add
moni, everybody don park dem moto for haus.” Pidgin English?
Well, may be. Or this: “B/c we d p’pl thought # fuelscarcity was
temp. with the fuel hike policy, high cost of living is now a
perm cond’n in Ng.”
Oftentimes, this special prose arrives amidst a number of
other confusing symbols, emoticons, memes, acronyms and
abbreviations, looking like a photographic combination of
English and hieroglyphics. Some of the more popular
abbreviations include Lmao (“laughing my ass off”) lol
(“laughing out loud”), lwkmd (“laughter wan kill man die”), stfu
(“shut the Bleep up”), omg (“Oh my God”), rofl (“Rolling on the
floor with laughter”), uwc (“you are welcome”), smh (“shaking
my head”) brb (“be right back”), # tbt (“throw-back Thursday”),
# WCW (“Woman Crush Wednesday”), and such new words as
“bae”, “boo”, “finz”, “famzing”, “Yaaay”. Not to talk of such
expressions as “You should mute me now”; “get wifed-up”,
“birthday loading”, “you hammer”, “kwakwakwakwa.”
This paring down of language gets really worse when it is
further reduced to mere jargon that is understood only by the
young people who are adepts at it. You can take a look at your
child’s text messages or BB or what’s app and not be able to
make any sense out of the jumble of incorrect English,
graphics, memes and pure lingo. The danger is that sexually
suggestive conversations can be carried out by two young
persons, texting each other, and a dinosaur-parent would have
no idea.
What can any parent make out of the following for example:
“10Q” (it means, thank you), “1174” (this means nude club),
“121” (one to one), “143” (I love you), “182” (I hate you),
“1daful” (Wonderful), “2BZ4UQT” (Too busy for you, cutey),
“420” (Marijuana), “53X” (Sex); “9” (Parent is watching),
“PAW” (Parents are watching); “99” (Parent is no longer
watching), “ADIDAS” (All Day I Dream About Sex); “aight” (all
right), “AITR” (Adult In The Room); “AML” (All My Love);
“B4N” (Bye for now), “BF” (Best Friend) and “BFF” (Best Friend
Forever). This resort to abbreviations, lingo and special English
reveals certain things about the growing up generation. There
is a fascination with speed- when they get on their phones and
other appliances, they want to get the message out of the way
as quickly as possible, and they have a lot to say. There is
emphasis on secrecy and privacy: that’s why there is so much
concern about third party presence.
Many of the children who have become socialized into this
new mode of communication are not always able to
differentiate between correct and incorrect English, and this is
why parents and teachers must be concerned. It is possible to
assume that the teaching of morphology and syntax in our
various schools is no longer as rigorous as it used to be.
Anyone who was brought up in those days on a compulsory
diet of Brighter Grammar By Ogundipe, Eckersley and
Macaulay and Practical English by Ogundipe and Tregdigo)
would find it difficult to write this new English being made
popular on social media. It would feel like an act of murder.
Teachers and parents have a responsibility to ensure that their
children are able to learn the very minimum of skills: the ability
to communicate in decent prose. Some persons may well
argue that this may not be the most important of skills
required to live in a modern age, or that it doesn’t really
matter in the long run, but I really doubt if a time will ever
come when the business of communication will be reduced to
a mastery of abbreviations and lingo.
The ability to write clearly strengthens a person’s ability to
think clearly and to communicate effectively. It should not be
surprising that many young persons these days, seem more at
home in the world of gadgets and electronic appliances. They
are forever texting or playing computer games and trapped in
the electronic, virtual, space. They live both online and offline,
spending a better part of their day on websites, thus, their
emotional development is tied to this reality. Most parents
lack the knowledge of what happens in the social media, and
while some parents are trying to learn very fast, a knowledge
gap still exists between them and their more digitally savvy
children. But this should not result in the abdication of
responsibility.
The abuse of the English language, and the inability to write
well, is certainly not the only risk that an obsession with social
media poses for young people. Parents also need to worry
about addictiveness, exposure to inappropriate content and
liaisons: all kinds of paedophiles and sexual predators operate
online looking for innocent victims and luring them with sweet
lingo. There are bullies too, harassing and stalking their
targets. Under ordinary circumstances, parents have a duty to
teach their children basic etiquette: this is even more required
as they relate with others and navigate both online and offline
spaces.
Back to the issue of language, our despair is slightly
moderated by the fact that the interface between man and
technology through the social media has also resulted in
much useful creativity. New words have been invented through
the social media, which are now gradually finding their way
into mainstream English and the dictionary. In 2013, the word
“selfie”- referring to a photograph taken by oneself with a
smartphone, or Ipad- was declared the Oxford Dictionary Word
of The Year.
Similarly, such words as textspeak, texting, sexting, twitter
troll, tweeps and emoticons, are becoming common words in
regular, daily communication. Words like “friend”, “timeline”,
block” and “like” have also assumed new meanings and
recognition, the same with such other words as: “unfriend”,
“unlook” “twitter status”, “profile”, “trending”, “timeline”,
“twitterati”, “blogging”, “bloggers”, “tweet”, “retweet”,
“hashtag”: all of which have caught the attention of
lexicographers as clear evidence of the living and evolving
nature of the English language. If this is all that there is to
social media and the English language, there probably would
have been no cause for alarm, but the emergence of a
generation of young Nigerians who cannot spell well,
punctuate properly, or get their tenses right, because they now
write social media English may have far-reaching implications
for the use of English as a foreign language in our society.

source: https://mobile.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=969931216456016&id=378813272234483&refid=7&_ft_=qid.6284846480538034658%3Amf_story_key.7811196572477848378

cc: lalasticlala

Well said. I totally agree with the writer. We can help by making it a habit to write proper English on social media. Although a platform like twitter makes it extremely difficult to express oneself with 140 characters, I still believe we can save English grammar. People like Ruben Abati should also organize essay writing competitions for school children yo encourage them.

I totally agree on what Reuben Abati said.

This is so appalling and becoming more rampant in the society.Well, other countries also write like this not only Nigerians.

Assuming you want to send a text message to a friend or any person, and you don't have more than #8 on your phone as airtime.There's no way you won't use shortcut to save your airtime usage.

But some people overdo it that makes them fail in their Examinations especially during Essay writing.

Imagine a student that want to write 'I Went To See Her Yesterday" writing "I went 2 c ha yestaday".

I noticed Nairaland's rule that said "Type in correct English and don't make use of abbreviations".But you will still see people not obeying this law.

I guess Seun has to do something about that.Let the "Change" start here sir.Believe me, other social media will do the same sir.

I have lots to write but let me stop here for now.