Whilst you might not use the terms TMI (Too Much Information) and WTF (have a guess) in your everyday internet correspondence, both of which can now be found in the Oxford English Dictionary, I bet if you hear someone say “I’ll Google it” – you’ll know exactly what they mean.
It’s official, 'To Google' has become a universally understood verb but not only that, many countries are actually developing their own internet slang.
One example of this is evident in Ukraine, where a written variation of the national tongue has sprung up on internet blogs and message boards called "padronkavskiy zhargon" - in which words are spelled out phonetically. It is often used to voice and emphasise disapproval towards another commentator.
David Crystal, honorary professor of linguistics at the University of Bangor, believes; "The internet is an amazing medium for languages". He claims that new colloquialisms spread like wildfire amongst groups on the net.
"Language itself changes slowly but the internet has speeded up the process of those changes so you notice them more quickly."
It still takes at least five years of public usage before a word is introduced to the Oxford English Dictionary, so how long have we got before OMG (Oh My Gosh) and the noun ‘app’ (programmes for the smartphone) is accepted?
