l33t speak translation - the voice of the younger generation
l33t speak translation - the voice of the younger generation
(OP)
Sorry if this is way off-topic, but it's Friday!
Being of a younger generation than the average here, I feel obliged to help out with the inevitable obsolescence that comes with age. I'm speaking here of l33tspeak, the slang language employed by teenagers, hackers, gamers, and programmers alike. I'll also cover the lesser variants employed in chat programs such as AIM.
To my knowledge, it evolved out of multiplayer online games where action and decision take precedence over grammar and punctuation. There are various codes used depending upon the game in question, but the standards everybody knows -
afk = away from keyboard
brb = be right back
lol = laughing out loud
moving on -
l33t = elite, skilled
n00b = newbie, freshman, unskilled, fresh meat
pwned = derivation of powned, itself a derivation of owned - meaning to thoroughly beat somebody (perhaps a derivation from slavery?), also 0wn3d
teh - the (don't ask)
Examples:
|-|3 pwn3d teh n00bs but not l33t!!
(He may have beaten the newcomers, but is not as skilled as we.)
Those are the basics I think - if anybody has specific questions I'll be happy to field them. Also there's a pretty nice site out there - www.urbandictionary.com - which is basically a Wiki-dictionary. Unfortunately you'll learn too, Too much about sexual slang on that site as well.
Being of a younger generation than the average here, I feel obliged to help out with the inevitable obsolescence that comes with age. I'm speaking here of l33tspeak, the slang language employed by teenagers, hackers, gamers, and programmers alike. I'll also cover the lesser variants employed in chat programs such as AIM.
To my knowledge, it evolved out of multiplayer online games where action and decision take precedence over grammar and punctuation. There are various codes used depending upon the game in question, but the standards everybody knows -
afk = away from keyboard
brb = be right back
lol = laughing out loud
moving on -
l33t = elite, skilled
n00b = newbie, freshman, unskilled, fresh meat
pwned = derivation of powned, itself a derivation of owned - meaning to thoroughly beat somebody (perhaps a derivation from slavery?), also 0wn3d
teh - the (don't ask)
Examples:
|-|3 pwn3d teh n00bs but not l33t!!
(He may have beaten the newcomers, but is not as skilled as we.)
Those are the basics I think - if anybody has specific questions I'll be happy to field them. Also there's a pretty nice site out there - www.urbandictionary.com - which is basically a Wiki-dictionary. Unfortunately you'll learn too, Too much about sexual slang on that site as well.





RE: l33t speak translation - the voice of the younger generation
I also fail to see how your uprights (or are they the letter 'l' ?) with a hyphen between is quicker than the typing a single letter H when you are spelling the word 'He'.
btw (I'm not totally illiterate in newspeak), I have seen many of the younger generation writing in their colouring books with crayons. I'm not sure I like the way things are headed as I can barely even discern letters, let alone words, in their written gibberish.
Cheers,
CanuckMiner
RE: l33t speak translation - the voice of the younger generation
RE: l33t speak translation - the voice of the younger generation
As UcfSE demonstrates, l33tspeak can be formed from normal English through character substitution, although I've seen much worse than that.
I wonder if any etymologists are studying this stuff?
RE: l33t speak translation - the voice of the younger generation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet
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RE: l33t speak translation - the voice of the younger generation
Once used by the hacker community as sort of a sub-culture language, ANYONE using this type of speak in the present day in age is either:
A) A clueless net newbie who somehow thinks its still "cool" to speak this way.
B) A veteren net user who uses it to parody the type of people mentioned in example A.
RE: l33t speak translation - the voice of the younger generation
teh and pwned
They are stricty mis-spells of the actual words which took root in l33t speak and are not derivations. The interesting one is the use of meh which is basically a shrug and can have many meanings depending upon the conversation.
See: http://www.urbandictionary.com
RE: l33t speak translation - the voice of the younger generation
I don't recommend a Google search during work hours. :)
JHG
RE: l33t speak translation - the voice of the younger generation
Lamps that you screw into lampholders are known as 'blubs'.
Angled bits of steel for supporting things are 'brockets'.
Electrical plugs and sockets are 'coonectors' (this one came from a government document).
Blow-by exhaust from a Diesel engine is 'blobby gas'.
Do other engineering offices do such silly things, or do we have too much time on our hands? (I don't think so)
RE: l33t speak translation - the voice of the younger generation
RE: l33t speak translation - the voice of the younger generation
all I can say is "a crub, 2 burshes, and a fents".
I read this on thecarlounge.net a year or so ago (car wreck thread) and have had to stop myself from using "crub" and "fents" both in written and verbal communication ever since.
There is evidence that I am not the only Car Lounger with this issue.
RE: l33t speak translation - the voice of the younger generation
RE: l33t speak translation - the voice of the younger generation
My family is fairly straight laced, language wise.
After uni I lived in a shared house where we were somewhat ribald (think The Young Ones) and invariably referred to the English TV soap opera "Coronation St" as "Fornication St". My (Spanish) girlfriend picked up on this, not realising the joke, and, inevitably, sat down to watch "Fornication St" with my family...to our intense amusement.
Cheers
Greg Locock
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