#LOL
#SMH
#LIT
Who Dat?
And the list goes on as to new language waves that have hit our society kin to a tsunami. In all seriousness, as a budding 38 year old I have witnessed at least three decades of language evolution that’s sometimes too much. #SMH
During the 80s we all wanted to be “Pretty In Pink” cool and drop “major” as a noun, verb and even pronoun. The 90s brought out the surfer in us and “dope” or “tight” seemed to take over ideal adjectives. Also, I think OMG was dropping on the scene during the late 90s but had yet to catch a break until “Clueless.” And those 2000s. What a doozy and melting pot. Language pretty much changed in tandem with the dawn of Twitter, hashtags and text messaging. Forget calling someone. Text, text and text.
I’ve never been an English or grammar expert and often struggle to make complete sentences. But within the moments when I’m on point, or in back and forth banter, I’ve most certainly swapped “Moni Speak” during flows of speech. What those words might be fore stand for is always up to questions, especially my use of the word #lit. And now that I’m heavily involved in business coaching words such as “Ninja” are so normal from 9-5 that they trickle down to everyday and I find myself saying to my 10 year old newpher when he reaches level 2 million Wii, “Wow, you are Ninja!.” That may or may not make sense but it does for me. I’m I or you engaging in the demise of proper English or bringing the juice to modern day exchange? I like to think the later. May we look back at these days of using short acronyms-hashtag combos like #SMH and the word like, like, what was I thinking? For sure. But for now, I’m sticking to this wave of radical language ideation and creating and smiling through it. Filter as needed is my motto.
What about you? Do you think English is on a downward spiral? LMK.
