Saturday 21 August 2010

Exercising Your Abbs?

Is it me, or is everyone else speaking in abbreviations these days? patterns

I can cope with the ones on knitting patterns - although I remember one Christmas when Mum dropped hers on the fire and burned the corner. Dad and my Uncle tried to recreate the missing part – but got unstuck with “dec 1 st” which they translated as ‘December First’ ! [good list here]

 

oz I know that for years those in the Antipodes have been fond of reducing their language to the bare minimum. Check here for examples such as arvo, barbie and sanger. I have twelve cousins in Perth – is that '’a doz cuz in Oz’ do you think?

 

cell-phone-texting abb

Then the advent of mobile phones meant we got text-speak  [list here] which started about twenty years ago.Well, IMHO, text messages should be spelled and punctuated correctly. But I’m middle-aged and fussy!

linlo

 

But the one that is annoying me most of late is this reduction of people’s names. Your name is important- and I really find myself irritated by references to Lindsay Lohan as LinLo [better than LiLo I suppose – which reminds me of Lilo Lil in the old TV series ‘Bread’!]

Jennifer Lopez is reduced to J-Lo, and Susan Boyle is SuBo

j-lo

subo

And the wife of our prime minister is frequently called SamCam

samcam

…and that makes me think of the “JamCam” that they refer to on the BBC when they are giving travel news.

Perhaps I am just getting too picky because my name does not lend itself to this treatment. I should hate anyone to think I was AnAl!!

8 comments:

  1. Never. Ang is abb. enough.

    What annoys me is people who seem to assume the right to contract other people's names without consent.

    Just so long as you don't call me CatGo or CaGo I think you'll be fine!

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  2. lol, 2 funny! u r so right!!!!

    I'm just having some fun with you, Angela. It drives me crazy too. I think the more high-tech we get, the less of a cultured society we become! :-(

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  3. Alright, I agree!! Great post!! Who knows if it is middle age :-) Abbreviations are very annoying, especially on text messages. I don't even like texting, but that is the only way to get in touch with one of my sons!
    Blessings,
    Anne, and that's Anne with an "e"!

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  4. c u r l8 in accepting semantic evolution. I'm with u all the weh, having spent too long correcting junior English work that doesn't know there's any other weh!

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  5. Think a lot of it began with those 'meeting' announcements, you know, GSOh and SAHM etc. It takes me ages to work some of them out!
    Of course the Austrailians and Canadians always greet me as Barb, which I loathe!

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  6. I think you may have a point there, Elizabethd - I'd forgotten the abbs of the small ads. I hope I am still in VGC with GSOH, but we all appreciate some TLC now and then!

    And Catriona and Anne - I agree with you on the name thing [and btw I much prefer being contracted to 'Ang' I HATE being called 'Angie'!]

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  7. I think estate agents have a lot to answer for her. Our new house is a 3 dbl bed (master en-suite)tce hse on a new dev in des loc. It benefits from gch, mod din kit, gen stg rm, sep din rm, stud, dwn bth, fam bth, uty rm, int gge, gdns f & b.

    I'm sure there's more, but you get the idea! Yuck! (The estaqte agent speak, not the house, which at least is not dcp spac - i.e. tiny).

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  8. New hse sounds gr8 - I think I shall have 2 cum & C!! [but ensuite, down bath AND fam bath - that's an awful lot of water. I suppose you are baptist tho!!]

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