Re: Like I mean: "Grammar Stinks."
Nor do I, but I worry that many people growing up in the AOL IM generation
may be less adept at standard usage, based on the lack of practice they're
getting. They may just have to (perish the thought) think harder when they
write in "legit" scenarios, to avoid falling into IM vernacular. Hope it's
not 2 hard 4 them...
My initial observation was partially tongue-in-cheek, but I do see
"today's generation" (God, I sound old saying that) developing a rather
cavalier attitude towards the written word.
A little perspective:
Many of the practices that people are decrying are simply abbreviations and variations in spelling.Both these practices are long-standing.
I personally know of abbreviations in tenth century manuscripts (for example, "Xmas" and ">" for "and"), and I suspect that abbreviations are as old as writing.
Similarly, standardized spelling is a fairly recent phenomenon. Much of the knowledge of English dialects up to the 18th century comes from the way that writers spelled, and if you've ever looked at 19th century popular writing, many people in the middle and working classes were extremely careless about spelling. Even today, some forms of non-standard spelling are widely recognized (for example, "gonna" and "y'all").
Bottom line: if the various practices are useful, they'll become the norm. If, on the other hand, they're simply part of the longstanding tendency for teenagers to communicate in their own vernacular, they'll disappear. No great matter either way - just part of the usually ebb and flow of a living language.
Still, I can't help suggesting that some of the spellings are more sensible than the conventional ones; English spelling badly needs rationalization.
--
Bruce Byfield bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com 604.421.7177
http://members.axion.net/~bbyfield
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