Wednesday, February 25, 2004
Language Trends. Has anyone noticed lately that Valley Speak disappeared? Remember when just about everyone under the age of thirty spoke thus: Has anyone, like, noticed lately, that , like, Valley Speak, like disappeared? This hackneyed word seems finally to have headed for the hills. Thankfully! I won't miss hearing it one bit.
Valley Speak has been replaced to some extent by the strong influences of Hip Hop which have given us expressions like: fly (adj. hot looking woman), scrub (n. a loser guy), baller (n. a decent guy), dope (adj. hot looking woman), and tool (n. an endearing term for idiot).
Interestingly it is a third language influencer -- that of hi-tech, that got to me personally the other day. A good acquaintance asked me to take him off his Spam list and in the same week, one of my virtual conservies wrote -- Anna has been filtered out as Spam on my server. Ouch! This means, "not only am I dumping you but I am casting you to the same junk lot as my Viagra ads and bank loan promotionals I filter out on my computer." I'm not sure even Shakespeare could have done a better job coming up with a more wounding double-entendre. Having said that, dear Shakespeare wouldn't have been able to make hide nor tail of the afore mentioned sentence; indeed it would have been an absolutely meaningless statement to anyone who read it up until the end of the 20th century.
Tip: If you don't like getting Spam from friends but are too polite to say anything, keep it that way! It's just their way of sending a 'hello ping' to friends they want to keep in touch with but don't get a chance to see very often. And who knows? They might even occasionally send you something funny or enlightening to brighten your day!
Valley Speak has been replaced to some extent by the strong influences of Hip Hop which have given us expressions like: fly (adj. hot looking woman), scrub (n. a loser guy), baller (n. a decent guy), dope (adj. hot looking woman), and tool (n. an endearing term for idiot).
Interestingly it is a third language influencer -- that of hi-tech, that got to me personally the other day. A good acquaintance asked me to take him off his Spam list and in the same week, one of my virtual conservies wrote -- Anna has been filtered out as Spam on my server. Ouch! This means, "not only am I dumping you but I am casting you to the same junk lot as my Viagra ads and bank loan promotionals I filter out on my computer." I'm not sure even Shakespeare could have done a better job coming up with a more wounding double-entendre. Having said that, dear Shakespeare wouldn't have been able to make hide nor tail of the afore mentioned sentence; indeed it would have been an absolutely meaningless statement to anyone who read it up until the end of the 20th century.
Tip: If you don't like getting Spam from friends but are too polite to say anything, keep it that way! It's just their way of sending a 'hello ping' to friends they want to keep in touch with but don't get a chance to see very often. And who knows? They might even occasionally send you something funny or enlightening to brighten your day!
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