| e-lingo @ love sick.2020 |
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by Blaike August
Johnny won't read and Rita can't write. What they can do is chat and chat and chat...online. Educators have been fretting about this for years. O.K. maybe only since 1986. There is now a new language emerging, no, it's not e-bonics. It's "Chattese" or e-lingo to be more precise. It is like HTML only easier and useful. It may not be the lingua franca of Mrs. Miller or the LIHOM professor Mountebank Everest...but it's current. Even the venerable O.E.D. has recognized this symbolic language and includes a section. So why not poetry. Indeed poetry. It is a step removed from mathematical compression but, hey!......... we can't have humans speaking math yet. That is the next step in evolution of language! Below is a poem that was written on a scrap of paper that I found on the number 32 bus in Montreal. My translation is as close as I can get with the resources at hand. The guy seems to be some kind of nebbish, wouldn't you say.
Blaike August
| Translation | |
| AFK IRL | Away from my keyboard, in real life |
| 404 | I haven't got a clue |
| I live O | I live online. |
| IPOAHF | I put on a happy face |
| SETE | Smiling ear to ear. |
| NIFOC | Naked in front of the computer, |
| TILII | I I tell it like it is |
| TTT | To tell the truth and |
| AFAIK | As far as I know, |
| Y R <o> <o>, :-I | You are staring, indifferent, or |
| ?€?€ | Hiding, staring in the dark, |
| :-& | Tongue-tied |
| ROFLUTSROFL | Unable to speak. |
| Or RU | Or are you |
| :-I | Indifferent, |
| LOL | Laughing out loud, |
| LTS | Laughing to yourself, or |
| |-O | Yawning!? |
| :( | I frown, |
| :-U{} & | Blow you a kiss, and |
| :-@U | Scream at you! |
| OIC | Oh, I see? |
| YW! | You're welcome! |
Anonymous