1. Twentieth and Twenty-First
Century Language
Language in Society
• The term ‘Ms’ was conceived by Sheila Michaels in 1961, and was
deemed as non-sexist language in the 1970s. ‘Ms’ is acceptable today
in society when a woman wants to be called thus, or when her marital
status is unknown.
• Neologisms such as ‘womyn’ have been created for gender-
neutralisation.
• Professions such as the police, or businesses, use the suffix ‘person’
instead of ‘man’, e.g.: “businessperson”, “Policeperson”
• In the late 1800s and early 1900s, it was considered sinful or
unorthodox to swear, or mention bodily parts in a sexual way. In the
second half of the twentieth century, however, there was a freeing up in
attitudes towards sexuality, and the words “fuck” and “cunt” were used
in writing, and heard on film, radio, and television. Although they are
still regarded by most people as the most offensive words in the
language, their increasing public use - particularly a rise in females
using it- means that they are losing some of their power to shock.
• Over time, words often change their meaning and become less
offensive, such as “wanker” (literal meaning, masturbator) and “twat”
(literal meaning, vulva), which are used to describe a stupid person.
Yes, women do have balls!

2. Language in Technology
The early nineties saw the birth of the SMS, and the first text message was
sent in 1993, saying “Merry Christmas.”
‘Txt tlk’ language is often abbreviated, or words are deliberately excluded.
Often, letters or numbers are used instead of words, and neologisms are
included, mainly because of the limited amount of space, or the cost of the
message.
A fictional example of a text message:
“Hey, ows u? u cumn 2 da cinema l8a? fone me 2nyt 2 arrnge it.tb.ttylxx”
Internet Language
Internet language, primarily used on IM (instant message) sites, or programs
such as MSN messenger, is similar to txt tlk, but is more formal.
MSN messenger was created in 1999, and has over 226 users in China
alone.
Features of Internet language include, orthography change, blends, and
increasing number of acronyms, abbreviations, and emoticons.
Examples of orthography change commonly found on MySpace:
“How are you” – “How are yew?”
“I love it”” – “I luffs it!”
“That’s so gay”” – “That’s so ghey!”
“You are sexy” – “You are shmexy!”
“That is the sex!” (meaning, the best) – “That is teh sexsh!”
“Soz” (sorry) – “Serz”
Examples of blends commonly found on MySpace:
“Beautiful” and “Cute” – “Cutiful”
“Fuck” and “off” – “foff”
“Clash” and “catastrophe” – “Clashtrastrophe”
“Fuck” and “Ugly” – “Fugly”
Examples of acronyms commonly found on MySpace:
ROFL – Roll on the floor laughing
LMAO – Laughing my arse off
FTW – For the win
ILY – I love you
IRL – In real life
IDK – I don’t know
LOL – Laugh out loud
PMSL – Pissing myself laughing

3. KTHXBYE – Ok, thanks, bye.
OMG – Oh my God.
FOMG – Faye! Oh my God!
ZOMG – Zoe! Oh my God!
POS – Piece of shit
FOAD – Fuck off and die
FFS – For fucks sake!
WTF – What the fuck?!
STFU – Shut the fuck up!
JFGI – Just fucking Google it!
RTFM – Read the fucking manual
BMMAS – Bitch, make me a sandwich!
Examples of abbreviations commonly found on MySpace:
Obv. – Obviously (e.g. “Two plus two is four obv.”)
Blates – Blatantly (e.g. “We are blates better than you”)
Tote – Totally (e.g. “That is tote awesome”)
Amaze – Amazing (e.g. “That is really amaze”)
HTML (hypertext markup language) is the predominant markup language for
the creation of web pages, and was created by Tim Berners-Lee in the 1990s.
HTML is often used on profile sites, such as MySpace, to create drop-down
menus, comment boxes, scroll boxes, and layouts.
An example of some random poser's profile layout:

4. Example of comment box with code:
<center><p>
<form method=quot;postquot; action=quot;http://comments.myspace.com/index.cfm?
fuseaction=user.ConfirmCommentquot;><input name=quot;friendIDquot; value=quot;5867376quot;
type=quot;hiddenquot;><textarea name=quot;f_commentsquot; class=quot;Skem9boxquot;>Hey! This
is an example of a comment produced with this text
box.</textarea><br/><p><input type=quot;submitquot; value=quot;Click here.quot;
class=quot;Skem9subquot;><form></form> <p>
<style type=quot;text/cssquot;>
textarea.Skem9box {width:230px; height:130px; color:000066;font-
size:14pt;font-family:candara; background-color:white; border-
style:dashed;border-size:3pts; border-color:forestgreen;
text-align: center;
input.Skem9sub {color:000066;font-size:10pt;font-family:Georgia;background-
color:white;}
</style><br>
Example of drop-down menu with code:
<select style=quot;color:black; background-color:hotpink; font-family:Arial;
font-size:10px; width:150px;quot;>
</select>

5. Other features of net speak
L337
Otherwise known as ‘leet’, ‘leetspeek’ and ‘hakspeak’, is written slang or
code, which uses other letters/symbols/numbers to write words.
‘leet’ was derived in the late 1980s/early 1990s on message boards and
comes from the word ‘elite’ - as people who used it were allowed to gain
access to exclusive games, software, boards and chatrooms. It also allowed
people to hack into sites.
Common features of leet:
Replacement of letters with numbers: ‘l337’ (leet)
Transposition of letters: ‘teh’ (the), ‘yuo’ (you) etc.
Use of symbols for letters: ‘R’ = |2
CaPiTaLiSiNg Of EvErY oThEr LeTtEr
Overuse of exclamation marks: !!!!!!
111!!!!!!11
Advantages
Brings Internet geeks together.
Makes the people who understand it,
feel special, by being part of the ‘elite’
group.
It is good for privacy.
It is sometimes humorous.
Disadvantages
Hard to understand.
There is no one way of leet, different letters have different symbols or have
the same symbols/numbers as another letter. (The use of 7 for either L or T,
the use of 2 for either R or Z, the use of £ for either E or L, and the use of 1
for either I, L, or T.)
Used for hacking.
(tote clashtastrophe!)