What is Netspeak?

Hi everyone, I’m glad to meet you all again. For this week, we are required to refer to David Crystal work and writing on Netspeak and discuss it.

David Crystal(Crystal,D.2001) has coined a phrase Netspeak. Netspeak refers to the types of communication used in chatrooms and messaging software such as MSN messenger. In short, it is known as computer-mediated language. It is introduced because typing text taking time than saying verbally. Besides that, it is difficult to determine one’s feelings and emotions when communicating through text. Thus, a new form of communication required which would be faster to type and can be manipulated to include feelings to words. That new language is netspeak.
Below are some of the characteristics of Netspeak:-
a) inattention to the norms of spelling and grammar
b) infrequent punctuation
c) informal tone
d) the use of all lower-case letters
e) turning nouns into verbs

This language uses a combination of abbreviations (including words created using digits as well as alphabetic characters), acronyms and emoticons. Abbreviations and acronyms are used to save time in typing words. Below are some of the examples of abbreviations and acronyms used in messaging:-

*u= you
*ur= your
*10q= thank you
*k= okey
*tc= take care
*bf= boy friend
*gf= girl friend
*paw= parents are watching

So, netspeak is a code language and it is a practical shorthand lingo too. It is important to learn some of the basic web terms to communicate online with our friends.