Trends: KTG Considers A Language “Haircut”… Is this Possible? tagged: , , , , , ,

Trends: KTG Considers A Language “Haircut”… Is this Possible?

Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Editor

I’ve been thinking to follow the Austerity Trend in Greece, not only in term of my income and expenses – something that happens anyway in the usual monthly tact: income decreases, expenses rise. I have been wondering whether I would invent a kind of ’austerity language’ with a 30-40% of “Haircut” in its components. I’ve been thinking to apply a) my experience as a Twitter user and b) half of what I learned at the university when I was studying -among others- Linguistics, that is the scientific study of the human language.

Any language system, contains components like the grammar (language structure), the morphology (the formation and composition of words), the syntax ( formation and composition of phrases and sentences from these words), and the phonology (sound of words).

Aim

the aim of this …scientific hypothesis is to proceed into ‘cutting’  some of the above mentioned language components and achieve a ‘haircut’ or a language restructuring, similar to the trendy economic trends like debt haircut and restructuring. Furthermore I want to achieve a quick blog-posting,  avoid spelling mistakes and allow the usage of  ‘bad words’…

Introduction

As a Twitter user I occasionally write words without vowels in order and sharp abbreviations so I can stick to the 140-character message limits. I write <gov> for ‘government’ and <prblms> for ‘problems’. I am surprised my followers understand. And I’m really stunned that other Twitter users are much more talented in language “haircuts”.

As I started writing this post, I realized that I couldn’t/can’t decide which component of the language system will suffer a “haircut” without hindering the normal flow of my blog. That is that KTG-readers would still be able to understand what I write and mean.

Hypothesis

Let me show you my hypothesis with a sentence as example:

<Stavros is angry about his salary cuts>. 

In my new system I could write <S angry & poor>.  Do KTG-readers really want to know why or can’t they imagine the reasons? Apart from that,  everyone following my KTG-blog knows <wht s ll bt>*! Under such austerity pressure,  I can’t <spr vn a vowel>*! 

I could also replace <S> with <X>;  then all Greeks are angry and soon will be really poor and it makes no difference if it is Stavros, Pavlos, Mavros.

Of course, If I could also write <S ngr &pr>. But then nobody would understand anything. My language “haircut” would have failed.

Another potion would be to write <S angry & poor>. I’d have a haircut of proud 25% and my sentence would still have a meaning and the message will be given.

I could also replace all Greek citizens’ names with <GRX> and the names of government ministers (incl. the PM) with <GRM>. Greece’s lenders <Troika, Thomsen etc> could be replaced with <GRL> or <GR3>. It really makes no difference, believe me! As my blog focuses on GR, I’d need to write just <X>, <M> and <L> or <3>.

My favorite would and still is <TD>* but you will never read it. Instead you will stick to <TH> which means <Tax Hikes>.

Conclusion

I’m convinced that the best  Language Restructuring  would be a combination of full words, code abbreviations and words without vowels with the target of a 40% ”haircut”…. In linguistic terms the “haircut” will be applied in grammar, phonology and syntax , where the morphology, the science of identifying and describe the word components, will remain ‘uncut’ as such. (Exactly like in Greece, where there is no identification of those responsible (components) for the economic crisis?

The rules of my new austerity language would be applied only for my written posts. Then how could I use the words “prblms”, <pr>, <ngr> when speaking? That would be a real <fck>!

——- I assume, you understood the words marked with *wtht a prblm!

PS I’m OK, thank you for asking :)