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Why are acronyms so popular?
With millions of people texting and instant messaging every day, it's no wonder you've seen this cryptic looking code. Acronyms are an integral part of computer culture and grew rapidly on the Internet. Abbreviations make it easy to say a lot in a little space, and they're fun to use when you know the lingo. Now, along with an alphabet soup of numbers and symbolic messages, all of this online jargon has become a language of its own.
So what are acronyms? Abbreviations? Leetspeak? How do you begin to understand this new language?
Start with the basics: An acronym is derived from the first letters of a phrase and is pronounced as a new word, for example POTATO stands for “People Over Thirty Acting Twenty One” and is pronounced "potato." Hah!
An abbreviation refers to shorthand, or an initialism, that is pronounced by saying the letters one-by-one, for example FYI is pronounced "F-Y-I" and BRB is pronounced "B-R-B". There are, of course, exceptions. Some acronyms can be said both ways, such as FAQ, which can be pronounced "fak" or "F-A-Q".
In the past acronyms were generally typed in ALL CAPS (not to be confused with SHOUTING) but this changed with the advent of smartphones, and now typing in lowercase is more often used. Either way, both CAPS and lowercase are interchangeable and accepted.
Now to mix things up: Sometimes the shorthand isn't shorter than the original phrase, for example "dewd" means "dude" and "kewl" means "cool" and :::poof::: means "I'm gone".
Leetspeak is the name of the symbolic jargon in which you replace regular letters with other keyboard characters to form words, for example:
• backward and forward slashes create this shape "//" to stand for the letter M;
• numbers and symbols often replace the letters they resemble (for example the term "leetspeak" is written as "!337$p34k");
• letters can be substituted for other letters that sound alike (such as "ph" is transposed with "f" so "phear" is used instead of "fear"); and
• common typing errors such as "teh" instead of "the" and “pwn” instead of “own” are left uncorrected.
The result is a dynamic written language that eludes conformity or consistency. In fact, the culture of online jargon encourages new forms of expression and users will reward each other's individual creativity.
Think it’s tough to understand? Try this test:
Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can. i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghi t pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh?!
“Start improving your cyber vocabulary with the NetLingo list of abbreviations.” - Real Simple
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