Editing Internet slang (section)

==Types of slang==
[[File:Buesum molenfeuer lol rofl.JPG|thumb|In this picture, the graffiti represents some examples of the different types of slang. The symbols "X:)" ":)" and "XD" are an example of emoticons. LOL "laugh out loud" and ROFL "rolling on the floor laughing" are examples of letter homophones.]]
Internet slang does not constitute a homogeneous language variety; rather, it differs according to the user and type of Internet situation.<ref name=hohenhaus>Hohenhaus, Peter (2005). Elements of traditional and "reverse" purism in relation to computer-mediated communication. In Langer, Nils and Winifred V. Davies (eds.), Linguistic Purism in the Germanic Languages. Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 203-220.</ref> [[Audience design]] occurs in online platforms, and therefore online communities can develop their own [[sociolects]], or shared linguistic norms.<ref name=pavalanathan>Pavalanathan, Umashanthi, and Jacob Eisenstein. "Audience-modulated variation in online social media." American Speech 90.2 (2015): 187-213.</ref><ref name=lucy>Lucy, Li, and David Bamman. "Characterizing English variation across social media communities with BERT." Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics 9 (2021): 538-556.</ref>

Within the language of Internet slang, there is still an element of [[linguistic prescriptivism|prescriptivism]], as seen in [[style guides]], for example ''Wired Style'',<ref name=hale>[Hale, C. and Scanlon, J (1999). Wired Style: Principles of English Usage in the Digital Age. New York: Broadway Books]</ref> which are specifically aimed at usage on the Internet. Even so, few users consciously heed these prescriptive recommendations on CMC ([[Computer-mediated communication]]), but rather adapt their styles based on what they encounter online.<ref>Baron, Naomi. (2000). ''Alphabet to Email.'' London: Routledge.</ref> Although it is difficult to produce a clear definition of Internet slang, the following types of slang may be observed. This list is not exhaustive.

{| class="wikitable"
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! Class !! Description
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| Letter homophones || Included within this group are [[abbreviation]]s and [[acronym]]s. An abbreviation is a shortening of a word, for example "CU" or "CYA" for "see you (see ya)". An acronym, on the other hand, is a subset of abbreviations and are formed from the initial components of each word. Examples of common acronyms include "LOL" for "laugh out loud", "BTW" for "by the way" and "TFW" for "that feeling when". There are also combinations of both, like "CUL8R" for "see you later".
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| Heterographs || Using one word in place of another, different but similarly sounding, word. Alternatively, a deliberate misspelling. For example, using "sauce" instead of "source" when asking for the source of an image or other posted material online.<ref>[http://ysu.am/files/Liana%20BARSEGHYAN.pdf] Barseghyan, L. (2013). On some aspects of Internet slang. Graduate School of Foreign Languages N, 14, 19-31.</ref> For example, TikTok algorithms monitor 'explicit' content by censoring certain words or promoting videos based on the inclusion of certain hashtags; the intentional misspelling of words bypasses censorship guidelines and subsequently creates a range of platform-specific slang, renders trigger warnings as ineffective and can end up promoting harmful content (e.g. misspelling anorexia, pro-eating disorder content can be featured on the For You page via algorithms that promote popular content).<ref>{{Cite web|last=Sung|first=Morgan|date=31 August 2020|title=It's almost impossible to avoid triggering content on TikTok|url=https://mashable.com/article/tiktok-algorithm-triggers|access-date=26 August 2021|website=Mashable|language=en}}</ref>
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| Punctuation, capitalizations, and other symbols || Such features are commonly used for emphasis. Periods or exclamation marks may be used repeatedly for emphasis, such as "........" or "!!!!!!!!!!". Question marks and exclamation marks are often used together in strings such as "?!?!?!?!" when one is angry while asking a question. Grammatical punctuation rules are also relaxed on the Internet. "E-mail" may simply be expressed as "email", and apostrophes can be dropped so that "John's book" becomes "johns book". Examples of capitalizations include "STOP IT", which can convey a stronger emotion of annoyance as opposed to "stop it". Bold, underline and italics are also used to indicate stress. Using a tilde ~ can be a symbol of sarcasm, like "~That was so funny ~".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kimball Leslie|first=Jess|date=5 June 2017|title=The Internet Tilde Perfectly Conveys Something We Don't Have the Words to Explain|url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A494472666/ITOF?u=temple_main&sid=ITOF&xid=b51da47c|journal=Science of Us|volume=Science of Us|via=Vox Media, LLC}}</ref> The period can also be used in a way to symbolize seriousness, or anger like "Ok."
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| Onomatopoeic or stylized spellings || [[Onomatopoeia|Onomatopoeic]] spellings have also become popularized on the Internet. One well-known example is "hahaha" to indicate laughter. Onomatopoeic spellings are very language specific. For instance, in Spanish, laughter is spelled as "jajaja" instead because J is pronounced as {{IPA|/h/|lang=sp}} (like English "h" in "hahaha") in Spanish. In Thai, it is "55555" because 5 in Thai ("ห้า") is pronounced {{IPA|/haː˥˩/|lang=th}}.
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| Keyboard-generated emoticons and smileys || [[Emoticon]]s are generally found in web forums, instant messengers, and online games. They are culture-specific and certain emoticons are only found in some languages but not in others. For example, the Japanese equivalent of emoticons, kaomoji (literally "face marks"), focus on the eyes instead of the mouth as in Western emoticons. They are also meant to be read right-side up, as in ^_^ as opposed to sideways, :3. More recently than face emoticons, other emoticon symbols such as <3 (which is a sideways heart) have emerged. Compared to emoticons used in Western cultures such as the [[United States]], kaomoji play a very distinct social role in online discourse.<ref>Sugimoto, T. and Levin, J. A. (2000), [https://pages.ucsd.edu/~jalevin/S-L/index.html Multiple Literacies and Multimedia: A Comparison of Japanese and American Uses of the Internet], In C. Self & G. Hawisher (Eds), Global literacies and the World-wide Web, London: Routledge</ref><ref>Katsuno, Hirofumi and Christine R. Yano (2002), ''Asian Studies Review'' 26(2): 205-231</ref>
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|Emojis
|Emojis are relatively new to internet slang,<ref>{{Cite journal |author=Petra Kralj Novak |author2=Jasmina Smailović |author3=Borut Sluban |author4=Igor Mozetič |title=Sentiment of emojis |journal=PLOS ONE|year=2015|volume=10|issue=12|pages=e0144296|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0144296|pmid=26641093|pmc=4671607|arxiv=1509.07761|bibcode=2015PLoSO..1044296K|s2cid=5526153|doi-access=free | issn = 1932-6203}}</ref> and are much like emoticons in the way that they convey messages in a visual way. However, while emoticons create an image using characters from the keyboard, emojis are a whole new level of communication and slang that portray messages in small cartoons. With culture comes different meaning for different emojis. For example, in 2016, Emojipedia and Prismoji took 571 peach emojis tweets and associated them with six different meanings varying from the fruit, feeling peachy, or sexual connotations.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Azhar|first=Hamden|date=2016|title=How We Really Use The Peach|url=https://blog.emojipedia.org/how-we-really-use-the-peach/}}</ref>
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| Leet || [[Leet]]speak, or 1337,<ref>{{cite web|title=1337 - what is it and how to be 1337|url=http://www.1337.net/|access-date=30 April 2012}}</ref> is an alternative alphabet for the English language which uses various combinations of ASCII characters to replace Latinate letters. For example, Wikipedia may be expressed as "\/\/1|<1p3[)14". It originated from computer hacking, but its use has been extended to online gaming as well. Leet is often used today to set up effective security password for different accounts.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Li|first=Wanda |last2=Zeng|first2=Jianping |date=January 2021|title=Leet Usage and Its Effect on Password Security|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348361712}}</ref> Leet is also used on social media platforms that employ content control algorithms to censor topics that may be controversial or inappropriate; using leet for potentially problematic terms (e.g. "k1ll"; "s3x"; "ant1s3m1t1sm") can avoid censorship.
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| Novel [[syntax|syntactic]] features || Unusual syntactic structures such as "[[I Can Has Cheezburger?]]" and "You are doing me a frighten" have been encouraged and spread by highly successful memes. Pluralization of "[[Internets|the internets]]" is another example, which has become common since it was used by [[George W. Bush]] during a televised event.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Menning|first=Chris|date=2000|title=Internets|url=https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/internets}}</ref>
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