'New Slang is Totes Ridic,' says I in le Herald

It's clearly my finest moment as a journalist. In today's Herald I tackle the abbreviated slang trend, and no, you don't need to remind me that I too talk like this. Evs.

New slang is totes ridic
By Michael Marotta
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 - Updated 4h ago

America is starting to sound like Paris Hilton. And it’s not hot.

From saying “evs” instead of “whatever” to “totes” instead of “totally,” hipster slang abbreviations have leapt from text messages into our daily vernacular. Is it annoying? Oh, def.

And you can thank the Twitter generation.

“People spend more time texting and IMing than having actual face-to-face conversations, so it’s a natural progression,” said Leigh Hallisey, local pop-culture expert and director of marketing for FableVision. “You can say a lot with a simple gesture.”

Not since “za” made a run as a nickname for pizza a few years ago has there been such a push for shorthand slang. And it’s getting kind of ridic.

“It would never replace (proper) English, but in the long run we are seeing society learn to use less words to get a point across,” said Mina Tsay, visiting assistant professor of communication at Boston University. “Because, as with Twitter, there are limited characters to use, the trend is almost affording people a more concise way to speak.”

Then of course, there’s youth culture just trying to look cool.

“We want everything immediately and everything is sped up,” Hallisey added. “It’s a really accelerated culture. It’s saying, you are so busy and have so little free time, you can’t even finish your sentence.”

Tsay believes the trend is just a playful way to decorate language and create new slang that helps foster communities, particularly among youth obsessed with pop culture.

“It’s like shared languages and codes,” she said.

For those not privy to spoken slang shorthand, here are 10 of the worst offenders, obvs:


SLANG/TRANSLATION/COMMON USE

“Totes” - Totally - “Want to grab some eats?” “Totes, I’m starving.”

“Evs” - Whatever - “He’s got a girlfriend.” “Evs - she’s busted.”

“Obvs” - Obviously - “Did you get Lady Gaga tickets?” “Obvs, I’m like her biggest fan.”

“Def” - “Definitely” - “Is that from American Apparel?” “Def.”

“Frealz” - For real - “Frealz, I can’t believe I didn’t get into Emerson.”

“Awks” - Awkward - “Here comes my ex, this is wicked awks.”

“Ridic” - ridiculous - “That shirt she’s wearing is so ridic.”

“Deets” - Details - “Gimme the deets on the party, yo!”

“Brillz” - Brilliant - “Rihanna’s new single is so brillz.”

“Jellz” -Jealous - “Clearly you’re mad jellz of my lingo, brah.”

“Delish” - Delicious - “Rachael Ray thinks her food is totes delish, which is def ridic so evs, obvs.”
- mmarotta@bostonherald.com