For Other Professionals
How the Internet Is Changing Language
BBC (U.K.)
David Crystal, honorary professor of linguistics at the University of Bangor, says that new colloquialisms spread like wildfire amongst groups on the net. "The Internet is an amazing medium for languages," he told BBC News. "Language itself changes slowly but the Internet has speeded up the process of those changes so you notice them more quickly." People using word play to form groups and impress their peers is a fairly traditional activity, he added. "Online you show how brilliant you are by manipulating the language of the Internet."
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