Move along. There's nothing new to see here.

I was about to become quite petulant about Ms Ellipsis' previous post and launch into a rant something along the lines of: 'How dare those Generation Y-ners bastardize the English language as we know it? LOLcat and TXT-language indeed. How about mastering the Queen's English first?' when in a moment of pure serendipity, I stumbled across a reference to the practice of defence personnel and their sweethearts using acronyms in correspondence during World War II(Notebook:, August 2007, p. 48) . Perhaps, I paused to reflect, creating code-like language is not something new?

According to an entry at everything2, The World War II acronyms developed as a way of expressing endearments with extreme brevity (e.g. for use in telegrams) or as a 'secret' language between the lovers. The words could be concealed in sentences, or written across the back of the envelope.

Although some of these examples are well-known now, I wonder if the parents of that generation (and the correspondence censors) were as much in the dark about the meaning of BURMA, SIAM and ENGLAND as today's parents are about LOLcat?

Some of the less saucy examples are:

ITALY: I trust and love you
HOLLAND: Hope our love lasts and never dies
SWALK: Sealed with a loving kiss

And my personal favourite (although a little racier):

NORWICH: 'Nickers off ready when I come home

SNAFU (Situation normal, all f***ed up) and FUBAR (F***ed up beyond all repair) are also thought to have had their origins in the Second World War.

But the fun didn't stop with the Silent Generation. The Baby Boomers and their Generation X children have (among a multitude of other language tweaking practices) created a treasure-trove of acronyms to describe demographics and lifestyle choices:

DINKS: Double income, no kids
YUPPIES: Young upwardly-mobile professionals
LOMBARD: Lots of money but a real dickhead

And the one which always makes me LOL (laugh out loud):

SITCOM: Single income, two children, outrageous mortgage

The corporate world has also weighed in with examples such as:

SMART goals: Specific, measurable, agreed, realistic, time-bound goals
SWOT analysis: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats analysis

Imagine these in context:
Q: Where's Bob? A: He's in the tearoom, doing a swot on the comestible supplies situation. He plans to set some smarts regarding coffee, fresh milk and Tim Tam availability levels.

Most acronyms seem to have been adopted from BrE or AmE, however in my extensive research(!) I did come across one which the good people at BBC' s h2g2 attributed to Australian origins. We Aussies can proudly lay claim to the classic:

FIGJAM: F*** I'm good, just ask me

So now, I'd like to say I'm off to RELAX (Research Every Last Acronym eXample) but I'd be lying. Instead I think I'll do a bit of HACK-ing (Have A Coffee and Krispy-kreme)!

R U Rdy 4 Auzi LOLHymn? O RLY, no? 2 Bad

Hai World

When Ms Asterisk asked her 10 year-old daughter and her daughter’s friend to write down the Aussie slang word for McDonald’s they wrote:

Macas

While debate ensues about the “correct” spelling of the word (matters? think not) these girls were certain about one thing. Macas is the easiest to text, as in

CU 4 lnch @ macas*

*lets meet for lunch at a McDonald’s Family Restaurant

Welcome to the cyber-generation. Are you tsk tsking? Well don’t because right under your nose two new languages are forming. One you know: text language, which derives out of a need to abbreviate English to fit small screen sizes; and one you might not be aware of: LOL or internet slang. Your kids will grow up speaking both fluently and if you want to get a handle on what they are saying about you or arranging with their friends on their MySpace/Facebook page then sit up and listen.

* LOLcat from here

LOL is a language which has grown out of a combination of gaming language, those funny cat pictures, texting and instant messaging. Is it a true pidgin English or simply a code language? Who knows? The term "kitty pidgin" is gaining popularity. The main difference between text language and LOL is that with LOL language:

*LOL is not always a shorter form eg. Invisible Man = God;
*numerals can be used to replace letters not just sounds: d00dz = dudes;
*the grammar is “marked” ie. unusual: eg. I can has Cheezbrgr?
*it can include deliberate common misspellings or typos: eg. teh = the
*It is more than a simple derivation, it is a growth away from English

LOL language seems to find inspiration from a wide range of language cultures such as gaming, hip hop, sci-fi, fantasy and perhaps even Yoda. Arguably all cultures consistent with "internet geekdom"

This emergent language is funny and irreverent and has spread across the internet in humour such as LOLcats (also check here), LOLpresidents and even as LOLcode and is now gaining the interest of linguists (eg. Mark Liberman's Language Log) . There is a lot of cross-section between LOL and text languages and both are now starting to appear across a range of written texts (emails, blogs, websites).

Look out for: Hai World (Hello); Kthxbye (okay, thanks, bye); ROFL (roll on the floor laughing); O RLY? (Oh really?); OMG (oh my god…); TEH (the). Perhaps pertinently to your teenager: PRW (parents are watching) and PRT (party). More to be found here.

Oh, and my personal favorite: a translation of the first few paragraphs of Genesis here.

IYCBTJT (if you can’t beat them, join them). I’d like to contribute to the LOL lexicon with my translation of Advance Australia Fair .* A “LOLHymn”.

Auzi Hym

All Auzi cmon hav fun
Coz we yung an we can has wot we want
We can has gud home and can has dollarz if wrk hard
Auzi home does has watr all round
Auzi home does has much gud stuff
We iz lucky
Invisible Histry guru wud sai
Go Auzi Go Auzi
Cmon sing loud
Go Auzi Go Auzi

Under cool starz
We can do hrd wrk and thnk gud thingz
An mak r home
Well known all over
Fur visible guys want come from other landz
We can has sharing wiv u
So be brav an come, an sing
Go Auzi Go Auzi
Cmon sing
Go Auzi Go Auzi

Kthxbye

*1st & 3rd verses of orig. as is traditionally sung