We\u2019ve got to get new iPhones \u2014 we have iPhone 7\u2019s and think the current generation is iPhone 13, or maybe 14. Anyhow, in anticipation of getting around to upgrading, I was deleting a lot of old text and e-mail messages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know I\u2019ve mentioned it before, but reading through them, I\u2019m still amazed at how our method of communication has changed. If you just glanced at the messages you\u2019d think they were written in some kind of code or something. Actually I read an article not long ago that said most electronic communication today used some sort of \u201cshorthand.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That may be true and I may be quibbling over terminology, but in the old days (and that probably means maybe the 1970s) shorthand referred to a system of rapid handwriting using symbols to represent words, phrases, and letters. People in offices used to dictate, and only secretaries knew how to write in abbreviated or symbolic form. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, shorthand refers to the abbreviated messages typed back and forth via messaging or e-mail. Today\u2019s \u201cshorthand\u201d can look like acronyms, but they\u2019re a little different. The difference between acronyms and shorthand is that with acronyms, you pronounce the letters as a new word \u2014 for example, SNAFU is pronounced \u201csna-foo\u201d and RADAR is pronounced \u201cray-dar.\u201d In shorthand, the letters are pronounced one-by-one \u2014 not pronounced as a word. FYI is pronounced \u201cF-Y-I\u201d and GMA is pronounced \u201cG-M-A.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the Internet, there seems to be little difference between shorthand and an abbreviation. I always though that an abbreviation referred to the shortening of a word \u2014 like, \u201cesp\u201d for \u201cespecially.\u201d And just to mess things up more in\u00a0 my mind, some of the shorthand\/abbreviations aren\u2019t even shorter than the original phrase.
Here\u2019s some things I found looking through some old texts and e-mails:
buhbye \u2014 apparently means \u201cbye;\u201d c ya \u2014 means see ya; dewd \u2014 dude?dunno \u2014 I don\u2019t know; girl \u2014 girls; guvment \u2014 government; i h8 it \u2014 I hate it; kewl \u2014 cool; sok \u2014 it\u2019s ok; ur \u2014 your<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So whether you call these things abbreviations, acronyms, shorthand, or whatever, their use has evolved into a language of its own.\u00a0
I wonder what some of my old English teachers would think about this\u2026.
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We\u2019ve got to get new iPhones \u2014 we have iPhone 7\u2019s and think the current generation is iPhone 13, or maybe 14. Anyhow, in anticipation of getting around to upgrading, I was deleting a lot of old text and e-mail … Continue reading