Month: December 2019

by Psy Poon

The Origin of Internet Slang

Hong Kong English Internet Slang was initially developed mainly because of the limitation of words on early appeared online chatting platforms like ICQ and MSN Messenger, just like how the English community uses a lot of abbreviations when only 140 characters(now it is 280 characters) were allowed on Twitter before 2018. During then, Hong Kong people created a few Internet slangs, for example, c replaces ‘see’, and u replaces ‘you’. However, most of them were buried with the downfall of ICQ until the revival of Internet Slang.

The Revival of Internet Slang

With the rise of social media during the 2000s, Internet Slang captured attention once again. Especially in the early 2010s when platforms like Facebook and Twitter were gaining popularity rapidly, people sought convenience and speed in typing while they might have tens of friends in chat room or inbox. Here are the major advantages of using Internet Slang:

• Is fun to use
• Has shorter spelling
• Enables faster typing
• Implies informality
• Indicates identity
• Expresses in trendy way

After knowing all these pros, are you surprised why the use of Internet Slang is still growing?

The Development of English Internet Slang

Well affected by world trends and globalization, online forums dedicated to Hong Kong people such as HKGolden were established and they often got influenced by foreign cultures, but only the ones that are popular.

For example, the graph below shows the timeline of different acronyms in history of Internet Language. However, only YOLO(You Only Live Once), a slang developed in the black culture, survived with its discernible use in the Hong Kong Internet. It is even included in the Oxford English Dictionary. The hit of the song The Motto(YOLO) by Drake in 2011 was probably the cause, making the phrase ‘YOLO’ popularized.

Its appearance in the chorus part of BTS(a famous Korean boy band)’s song Go Go further proves the popularity of the slang ‘YOLO’ in different countries under the effect of globalization.

Another similar example is how the phrase ‘Nae Nae’ blew out when Watch me by Silentó was released in 2015. There used to be a Nae Nae dance craze which many teenagers were into in Hong Kong because of the catchy music and simple movement. Since the dance move seems like one is waiving and stepping back, ‘nae nae’ as slang could hold a variety of meanings like ‘saying bye to something in a cool/stupid way’, ‘a (cringey) no-no’, etc.

We see how Internet slang borrows cultures or originates from a specific place but ending up in being popular everywhere!

Common Hong Kong English Internet Slang in category

As mentioned before that Hong Kong is under the influence of popular culture, we developed our own set of Internet slang, the characteristics are as belows:

I. Shortened form of words

A. Abbreviations(the most common in English, the formation of slangs like lol as ‘laugh out loud’, btw as ‘by the way’ and omg as ‘on my god’, etc.)

1. Places, e.g. HKBU(Hong Kong Baptist University), NP(North Point)

2. People, e.g. KOL(key opinion leader), LKS(Li Ka Shing)

B. Initialisms regarding syllables or pronunciations(the formation of slangs like hbd as happy birthday and bbq as barbeque, etc.)

1. Places, e.g. MK(Mongkok), CWB(Causeway Bay)

2. Platforms, e.g. FB(Facebook), IG(Instagram)

3. Foul or vulgar language, e.g. cls(癡[ci1]撚[nan2]線[sin3], meaning ‘insane’ or ‘crazy’), dllm(屌[diu2]你[nei5]老[lou5]母[mou2], meaning f*** your mother)

C. Single word contractions(the formation of slangs like good → gd, what → wt, okay → k and though → tho, etc.)

D. Replacement of letters(the formation of slangs like good → gud and what → wut, etc.)

E. Clipping(the formation of slangs like sorry → sor and post → po, etc.)

II. Konglish

A. Loan translation

1. Foul or vulgar language, e.g. seven(柒[cat1], one of the vulgar names for penis, also the capital form of the chinese numeral seven ‘七’, meaning one is acting stupid), on nine(戇[ngong6]鳩[gau1], meaning similarly with ‘seven’)

2. Common expressions or Cantonese puns

a)add oil(加油, meaning an encouragement like ‘fighting!’)

b)laugh die me(笑死我, meaning something is funny to the point that can make the person died from too much laughter)

c) no eye see(無眼睇, meaning something is like an eyesore to oneself)

d) nine not following eight(九唔搭八, meaning that someone is providing irrelevant responses)

(For more examples, please visit https://zolimacitymag.com/tag/cantonese-language/)

III Typing out English syllables that sound similar to Cantonese

A. Interjections

B.Cantonese dialects that no Chinese words can represent, e.g. hea(the state of being lazing or chilling out), chok(acting cool)

IV Direct use of English inflectional suffixes

A. -ed indicating past event, e.g. doed(did)

B. -ing indicating progressing event, e.g. walking street(shopping)

C. ‘-er’ and ‘-est’ indicating comparatives and superlatives, e.g. gooder, goodest

V Mix-and-match of slang formation(for example, thx is first contracted or clipped that ‘th’ represents the sound /θaŋ/, and then ‘s’ is replaced by ‘z’, similar to what happened to plz)

From the list above, it can be observed that vulgar languages or Cantonese expressions have contributed a lot to the creation of various Internet slang in Hong Kong. These characteristics act as another proof that the use of Cantonese profanity and code-switching are prevalent, shedding light on the local linguistic culture.