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Consonant Extentions
Kenninator
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Alright, something has been bugging me for quite a long time. When I go on Facebook or talk to certain people online, I notice they extend words by typing more of the last consonant, for example, they say "Whattttt?" instead of "Whaaaat?" At least, I think they are trying to extend the words. Anybody know what it's all about or what they are trying to convey?
I don't really want to sound like a snobbish asshole by asking them why they type so odd, because it really doesn't matter, I'm just curious.
I don't really want to sound like a snobbish asshole by asking them why they type so odd, because it really doesn't matter, I'm just curious.
Kenninator on
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You're over thinking. It really is just equivalent to "Whaaaat?"
Well, I can understand some people not being bothered by it. But when I read things, I read them as though I were listening to them being spoken. And when a word is written in a way that is not only wrong* but impossible to pronounce properly, I kind of stumble over it... it breaks the flow. If this happens a lot, it's pretty infuriating to wade through. I don't know if every/anyone else reads like this, or if there's another process at work for some types of people but little things like this just plain make things harder to read for me.
* "Whattttt?" is wrong. It's not phonetically possible, there's no way someone can repeat a stopping consonant at the end of a word and reasonably expect to convey the intonation they actually want to convey to the reader. Unless you're writing the lines of someone who stutters, and even then it's a stretch. Some people might be able to translate or correct it mentally on the fly, but it is pretty much incorrect in every imaginable way.
Also this should almost be a D+D thread.
So, TL;DR - it's only going to happen more and more, so you may as well get used to it. I can't stand it when people replace words with numbers, but all of my friends do it, so the only thing I can do is refuse to use them myself...
Resistance is futile.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
At least, that's what my sister's looks like. The funny thing is, she's an English major and she can write fine, she just chooses to write her emails like a jackass.
I thought it was like you're about to yell fuck really loud and it's the anticipation without necessarily saying it.
Also my friends at college used to say "eff" rather than fuck so maybe that's an attempt at the same sort of thing. Instead of literally typing "eff" it comes out "FFFFF."
I don't know, why do people write "should of" and use "loose" instead of "lose"? Because most people don't think about what they're writing as an alternative form of communication -- they just think "how do I say this, I'll write it like that."
I guarantee that the people you're complaining about barely enunciate the T at the end of "what," and they not thinking about how they're writing -- they're just barfing it out, thinking "gawd, why do I have to deal with writing this."
Yeah, I totally agree with you. It breaks the flow for me, too, because I try to pronounce it and "what-t-t-t-t-t-t" is clearly not what they were going for. I just deal with it because I am a vowed linguistic descriptivist.
I'd be careful throwing around words like 'wrong' when it comes to emergent linguistic patterns. While English does have an accepted grammar, that grammar only exists through consensus, and is readily able to be changed over time. Words like 'wrong' don't really apply over the long term.
We, as a language, hardly have standards anymore. Colloquial is the new correct, and for some of us we just need a vomit a little when we come across things like this.
We know it's "wrong" but we're a language in which "wrong" doesn't matter. Frankly the majority of people I deal with on a day-to-day basis can barely speak the language, let alone care about how it looks on the page.
Well, See I try to avoid even uttering that word on the internet but, Jesus H. Fucking Christ On Pink Flashing Rollerskates man, I just can't get over it. Even the concatenation of wrds n the nm of efcncy, and the vast majority of stupid evolutions of the language make SOME KIND OF SENSE. Adding extra letters to the end of a word is a lazy, ignorant person's stab at adding some kind of emphasis or... something. It'S aBoUt As UsEfUl As ThIs sHiT when it comes to actually conveying a thought. Also, it really messes up my flow, which is, obviously, unforgivable.
Beyond that, even if you figure out where you'd be extending it while speaking, it might look or pronounce even weirder. See: "howwwwwwwwwwwwwww" vs "hooooooooooooow"
I think that's wwwwwwwww.
make a fuh noise really drawn out and you'll understand what I mean.