Why do people type in urban language style, when that is primarily a spoken language?

I was so expecting this question tonight…..

Guess it’s mandatory I drop you a GQ now, huh?

“Ebonics,” really? I must have missed something. Please, fill me in before I lend my opinion.

@Sakata i’ll get you next time…

@gimmedat in what sense?

I guess I am wondering what prompted this question, when another Flutherer eludes to another thread.

Dawg, I ain’t know nothin bout that shit.

@gimmedat well, spoken language is spoken language (lingua franca, vernacular,whatever) and is learned from hearing what other people are saying. but the written language is the written language.

Why do people type like they speak that instance? What incites them to write out their thoughts that way?

meh

As I type, I find myself sounding the words out in my head. In fact, I will sometimes spell them out phonetically if I am not paying attention. When you ‘say’ a sentence aloud in your head, you are not likely to switch your mode of thinking depending on whether that thought will eventually be sent to the vocal chords or your fingers. People who are not very comfortable with typing have to make a more conscious effort to ‘translate’ the mentally ‘spoken’ sentence, especially as they take longer to set down the words and therefore have more time to revise their phrasing, and so I would imagine that people who spend a lot of time texting (particularly on them newfangled QWERTY phones) are more inclined to a direct transcribing of their mental, colloquial model.

@Eambos “dat shit”, also possibly with a dollar sign for an “s” (as in “dat $hit”).

work on it!

@Blondesjon meh?!

It helps if you know how to spell.

@eponymoushipster Not everyone knows what prompted this question. Gimmedat is wondering.

@Jayne So you’re saying that technology has made it socially acceptable for people to be retarded?

If expressing yourself in an unrefined and perhaps inefficient manner is retarded, then I’m pretty sure it’s always been socially acceptable.

Well “retarded” has many definitions, this is just one example.

@jonsblond n @gimmedat this thread: http://www.fluther.com/disc/36264/who-is-the-worst-musicians-you-can-ever-possibly-name/

@eponymoushipster I witnessed it. I didn’t think that there could be more than 175 worst musicians. ;)

My kids abbreviate words when they text ( trust me they are pros) and that’s understandable. People talk and type the way other people around them do. I think there is a point of rediculousness though.

There is only one worst.

@eponymoushipster…meh

@Blondesjon you disappoint me, sir. you disappoint me.

Granted, I have had a cocktail (of two) tonight, but I am wondering why you are analyzing the structure of questions/answers. Is this question dealing with slang or with Ebonics? I think that inherently there is a difference.

more ebonics…slang is different. slang is “dude”, “word” even “pr0n”.

ebonics is “i no dat me she no like” or something like that. that can be found in that thead….

@jonsblond as I was following along I felt a mixture of annoyance (because I thought my head was going to explode) but also sadness because I don’t want anyone to think they are unwelcome here. I know that kids think “if so and so says they don’t like the way I talk, that means they don’t like me”. I knew at some point they would have their feelings hurt. The mom in me didn’t want to see that.

But, to a segment of society, that is life. That is slang.

@gimmedat does that make it ok?

@elijahsuicide I agree. No one should feel unwelcome here. The only thing wrong that they did was chat. They were not rude at all.

You all do realize that the only thing that those girls are doing wrong is using a Fluther thread as a chatroom, right? The last time I checked a person was allowed to express themselves in whatever manner they chose.

I only say this because I have heard you all cry when you’ve been censored for just being you.

somebody does need to tell those children to go to bed or MSN Live or wherever kids go anymore…the malt shop?

@Blondesjon myspace.

If it were grammar and/or spelling errors that can easily be overlooked, but the question is why would anyone go out of their way to type in any form of “slang” language? The question can be applied to anywhere (besides cell phones) not just Fluther.

@Sakata It’s not out of the way for them. That is how they have learned to communicate with each other.

@Sakata…Haven’t you ever read Huck Finn?

Slang, in formal writing, is not acceptable. However, slang is a part of literacy and communication and should not be dismissed. Ebonics, in my opinion, should not constitute a whole other dialect but should be part of a larger slang.

@jonsblond That’s what worries me.

@Blondesjon They wrote a book about that cartoon dog?

@Sakata that’s Huckleberry Hound. totally different.

You’re my huckleberry

@Sakata Me too

So I would really like to argue the relevancy of Ebonics, but Bacardi seems to have gotten in the way. DAMN.

I dOn’T kNoW bUt I hAtE pEoPlE tHaT tYpE LiKe ThIssss!!!

@steve6…I’m your huckleberry.

Doc Holliday in that movie (Tombstone)

I looked at my last post, and yeH.

Tombstone is my favorite movie!

It was awesome.

There’s a lot of younger people who only communicate with people their own age, and are not held accountable by peers for having or conveying intelligence. It’s like talking pig latin when you’re a kid. You learn how to do it, and for a brief period, you do it all the time because you can because you feel smugly cool about knowing how to do it. Then your parents get tired of hearing it, and you stop doing it with such frequency, eventually stopping altogether when you realize it makes you sound immature.

@AlfredaPrufrock nice comment. i think you’re right on the mark.

I think the questions that prompted this question were aimed by the posters at a very specific audience, their group of friends that recently joined Fluther.

@SuperMouse and more recently got banned

I’m with Alfreda on this one. I think it just has a lot to do with certain groups speaking that way to differentiate themselves (same thing happens with people using leetspeak). They do it to fit in with their social group. Because the group encourages and lauds the behavior, it makes them feel cool and accepted. It’s only natural to try carrying over a rewarded behavior into another situation. It isn’t until they get a bit older and/or start trying to branch out into new or expanded social groups that they begin to realize that it just makes them sound immature and unintelligent and that it hinders communication rather than facilitating it.

Basically, I think they are speaking that way on here because that is how they are accustomed to speaking with their friends online. They have not yet realized that this isn’t really an appropriate place for that kind of chatting.

Phonetic spelling systems are designed to represent the sound of words, not just the ideas. Think of a langauge, like Chinese, that uses a separate symbol for every word. Do you have a clue about how the word is supposed to sound? I doubt it.

We, on the other hand, use alphabets, which are phonetic, and which are supposed to give us help in sounding the word. If the existing spelling does not represent the sound of the word, as well as indicating which word we mean, we are using the alphabet at less than its full capability.

Now, a common spelling of various words is helpful to people who are trained in such systems. It can make it easier to understand which words we mean. However, vocal language changes over time, and if you keep standard spelling, then the spelling of words will gradually depart from the sound, and then we have a system like the Chinese.

Folks who use new spelling, are, in many cases, trying to represent the current sound of the vocal word. In other cases, they are trying to indicate a newness; a difference that is a cultural indicator. It says we are different from the older folks. Older folks complain, because they want to work from the system they are used to. They usually don’t want to learn new language.

Both goals are important. Using standard spelling really helps people be sure they are meaning the same thing. Using invented spelling helps the words become closer to the actual sound. There is a tension between these needs, and thus, we have these arguments. I, btw, am on the side of invented spelling. I do not find it very difficult to understand. Perhaps more importantly, my efforts to learn a new language keeps my brain sharper, compared to remaining mired in the safety of what I know.

You dawg, I heard you like Flutherin’ so we put a Fluther in your Fluther so you could Fluther while you’re Flutherin’.

If you put a fluther in my fluther so I can fluther while I fluther (or at least photoshop it) I will love you forever.

Heh, it was either that or making homework. Though I don’t think that’s the Fluther in your Fluther you were thinking of :P

OMG<333 Like, a fluther in my, like, fluther!! OMGOMGOMG das sooo kewl!!!

Lurve

Cough, cough. [waves hand about in attempt to clear air] Why did so many people put fluther in their pipes, and fluther it? I’m going out for fresh air!

@daloon wanna get a piece of my sticky fluther? it’s the stickiest of the ickiest…

MUCH LURVE MY FLUTHAS! Ain’t nothin’ butta jelly thang…

for shizzle my flutha jizzles…..

jizzles…heehee.

African American Vernacular English
http://www.une.edu.au/langnet/definitions/aave.html

a lot of people talk how they speak.
i don’t think there’s much else to it.
not to say that it doesn’t get annoying, but i don’t think that’s just limited to “urban” type of talking haha.

Not me! I don’t talk how I speak. No way. Nor do I speak how I think. Neither do I write. Not myself, anyway. I’m channeling an entity known as Raz. Raz is an ancient spirit of the dong dong frizzle. Long may he waver!

[daloon genuflects vaguely in the direction of dong dong’s evanescences, grimaces in pain, as he landed hard on his hip today, while attempting a waltz jump—and they say he’s not crazy! Hah!]