According to an article by Reuters, “[some] Twitter users tweet messages with regional dialects.” Orthography, language as it is written, is an entity separate from speech. Speech uses different muscles, brain areas, and is considered less formal than is orthographic language. However, due to the casual nature of Twitter speech and the limited character count involved, regional accents have altered the way that certain Twitter users “tweet” their messages in terms of spelling, not just slang.
A Carnegie Mellon University study found slang differences between Northern California and New York in terms of their substitute for the word “very,” and different abbreviated spellings of the word “cool.” In addition, the spelling in tweets often reflects how one would speak rather than how one would usually write. Thus, though technically orthography, Twitter shares many characteristics of verbal speech.
This finding should somewhat quell worries that the internet will homogenize speech due to its ubiquitous use. There should not be cause for concern about the state of the English language either.
Language evolution is natural and has been ever-present throughout history. Because the different spellings reflect language as spoken, it is not a driving force of language change, but rather a reflection of it.
Roseanne Dale
2 comments:
Intriguing. However, as online use increases, I wonder if online speech will eventually overshadow the influence of geographical speech patterns.
For example, children are beginning to use the internet at such a young age. The speech patterns and slang of the internet can have an influence on them, perhaps wearing away the effects of regional dialects?
I think the idea of accents or "tones" through online media is a very interesting idea, I personally have at times been able to tell when someone had taken my friend's phone and was texting me off of it as a joke. Not only was I able to tell that the person texting me was not who they said it was, I was also able to guess who had taken the phone and was talking to me. I am not entirely sure how I was able to do this but I think it had to do with the diction that was used and from learning the individual "tones" that each of my friends use through messages.
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