New Communication Slangs

By Olayinka Yusuf Olakangudu 

As communication is advancing and getting easier with different media so are new words being invented by the day.  These words are abbreviations from already existing words, written as a form of modern short hand.

There are conventional abbreviations used for terminologies and titles in different professional fields like Dr., Engr., 0₃, H₂0, Mr. and a host of others.  All these conventional abbreviations communicate educative terms. But the recent development of different abbreviations to communicate via the social media is alarming as some of them beat my imagination.

Users of social media have coined so many short words to ease typing and make communication faster. As these new words have made communication flow easier, the negative effect on users especially students cannot be over emphasized. It has affected their writing skills, level of critical reasoning and the way they communicate.

The short words are coded communication terms among youths, which makes typing of long sentences easy and fast via hand help devices, Laptops and PCs.

This has been shown to affect communication skills of people when they want to address a large gathering, during interviews especially written and many more.

The constant use of these news words both in writing and verbal communications is gradually creeping into the school system as they have become a common sight on students’ assignments and other forms of writing in the school. This is very alarming as teachers/lecturers are getting worried of the situation.

As creative as this development is, some of the words are totally out of place and needs to be tried and convicted so as to get them off our informal communication system. Some of such words are “sowie” from the word sorry, “fenks” from thanks, “kk or owkay” from ok or okay.

I have paused to ask myself a couple of times how sowie could connect with sorry and also how fenks could relate to thanks? I guess you are probably asking yourself the same questions.

Some of these abbreviations/acronyms and words are:

LOL                         - laugh Out Loud

LMAO                   – Laughing My Ass Out

Ttyl                         – Talk to you Later

Ur                           – your

N                             – and

Wat                        – What

Sud                        – should

Tks                         - thanks

Wia                        – where

Fnx                         – thanks

Neva                     – Never

 Wiv                       – with

Nufting                                 –  Nothing

Hi                            - ai

HBD                       - Happy birthday

HML                       - happy married life

HBDLLAP              - Happy birthday long life and prosperity

GF/BF                   - Girl friend/boyfriend

Gd a.m                 - good morning

Gd p.m                 - good afternoon

The adverse effect of this trend is that writing culture in our society is diminishing by the day. Youths are so addicted to the usage of these words now that they no longer have the patience to settle down and write meaningful and constructive sentences.

The high rate of mass failure in examinations like WAEC, NECO, UTME and others can be attributed to the usage of these words. This is because students are no longer cautious of formal writing as they have become addicted to these words.

Low performance and productivity of our graduates will continue to increase if this communication menace is not checked promptly.