But It Makes No Sense...
By robspeakman
@robspeakman (1700)
December 2, 2012 6:32pm CST
There are many things in life that make us question things...
Such as,
When do women learn to wrap towels on their heads?
Why is a boxing ring square?
And then there is the one that troubles me.
I understand why some of the less fortunate use text speak - it is difficult for some to shorten a paragraph and still make it coherent with 140 characters. I understand that the easiest thing to do is to make the words shorter and spelt incorrectly to make them fit.
However there is something that does not make sense...
The word WAS is three characters long, so they replace it with WUZ which is also three character long
WHAT IS ALL THAT ABOUT?
1 person likes this
15 responses
@katthevamp (55)
•
3 Dec 12
I use wuz/wut/y on occasion when i'm imitating being dumb or so shocked I can't speak. I don't understand the need to communicate something so long by text you feel the need to shorten it, though.
@robspeakman (1700)
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3 Dec 12
When you are with friends, do you speak? Or do you use primative gestures because speaking is too much of an effort?
Aned what does wut mean?
@katthevamp (55)
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3 Dec 12
I mostly speak. But if grunting and pointing has the intended effect, yes I do.
Wut is used when something is so dumb/shocking/strange that people would make a blank face and say "What." in a flat tone of voice.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
3 Dec 12
Text speech has always been one of my pet hates. The level of English spoken has been depreciating drastically over recent years, and I am not referring to local dialect or slang but the ability to construct a grammatical sentence or spell correctly. I constantly receive emails at work with no punctuation, misuse of words and atrocious spelling. I could accept this from the bulk of the workforce, but not from those employed to operate a computer.
Text speech is certainly accelerating the problem and many people seem to see it as an easy alternative that requires very little effort. I have actually received good jokes sent to my mobile phone that were so badly constructed that I have rewritten them before sending them on to others.
@robspeakman (1700)
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3 Dec 12
I do text in proper and grammatical correct English - It annoys my kids, but stuff 'em
@katthevamp (55)
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3 Dec 12
Text speak and bad grammar in a professional setting is the WORST. It makes you wonder if they're too lazy to communicate properly on the job what else they don't bother to do.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
3 Dec 12
Hello katthevamp, I have received internal emails totally in lower case, which I have to agree can only to attributed to laziness. Unfortunately I have also received many internal emails with bad punctuation, poor grammar and spelling mistakes. This is due to the person sending the email having insufficient command of English. I can accept a spelling mistake, even a blatant one, as a simple typing error, but not if the word is repeated and still spelled the same way.
A very prolific and annoying error is the misuse of the apostrophe. I often see words such as "boxe's" or "carton's", yet they omit the apostrophe in terms such as "Johns order".
It is not so much laziness as the rapidly diminishing comprehension of grammar that I fear text speech will accelerate.
@LovingMyBabies (85288)
• Valdosta, Georgia
3 Dec 12
I don't understand at all what the point of that is... They are both 3 characters long like you said so I do not get it. That is not shortening it at all. Some things I understand when they are shortened if someone doesn't have much time but you got me...
@robspeakman (1700)
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3 Dec 12
it is a real head scratchers isn't it - A little like the complexities of time travel
@41CombedaleRoad (5952)
• Greece
3 Dec 12
I think it is all about being 'cool' - or fashionable if that word is still in vogue. Writers of text speak are going to have a problem in the future, not only has their vocabulary shrunk but they are losing the way to express themselves properly and young people are growing up illiterate and text speak is a way of covering this up. For those who have read the book or seen the film 1984 it may have struck them that the newspeak of that film (designed to limit thought) has now arrived under a new name.
So to get back to your question - WAS is spelled WUZ just to be different, and I'm afraid that it is not even phonetically correct. Was is pronounced wos, at least they could have used the 'o' instead of the 'u'. I despair and I think we are all better off considering why boxing rings are square.
@robspeakman (1700)
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3 Dec 12
Thank you for you comments and well don for slipping in the 1984 reference...
So?
Why are boxing rings square?
@robspeakman (1700)
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3 Dec 12
D'oh!
What a Herbert I look now - bemoaning the falling standards in English with a post full of spelling mistakes
@rjschultz68 (387)
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3 Dec 12
Some good imponderables here. One of my bugbears,and one which my wife is guilty of, is when people are texting back and forth because one response inevitably leads to another question. Is it not easier just to wrap up the entire conversation by using their phones for their original intended purpose and actually SPEAKING to each other? I suppose that is asking too much!
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
3 Dec 12
I can certainly relate to that because my next door neighbour does the exact same thing. He will an hour constantly receiving and sending messages as part of a conversation and never actually rings anyone.
I have sent text messages when I have simply wanted to pass on information because it avoids disturbing someone. However, if I have received a response asking for further information I automatically ring and speak to them, which I agree is far easier.
@Iriene88 (5343)
• Malaysia
3 Dec 12
Wow, you really take time to ponder.
I like this topic, it makes me think and exercise my brain.
Was and Wuz, maybe they want to synchronize as the internet,
sms text of 'special text language' specially dedicated for
this new technology language. It sounds cool... I guess.
@sriroshan (2585)
• India
3 Dec 12
The things do comes in life and new things do occur in our life. I can what has come into existence in this world is the need of the time which one started and its follows. Seeing something like this I just utter OWE To tell you frankly I don't know what's the meaning of this but these three words do comes out automatically from my mouth
@jenny1015 (13366)
• Philippines
3 Dec 12
The texting language really has changed how we use the English language. And I think with that word that you specified, people have just sort of make it "funkier" (?) I do not know exactly how to describe it but, just the same, the younger people may have wanted to make it informal.
@inertia4 (27960)
• United States
7 Dec 12
I often question things like that myself. I wonder what they were thinning when they named these things. As for the towel on the head, I think that is one of those unspoken things amongst women. As for the word WAS, maybe the replacement WUZ is a form of ebonics. Don't know. It sure is a new language.
@Angelpink (4034)
• Philippines
3 Dec 12
I guess it is just a fad in writing. People used to adapt because they think that is what everybody is using , especially the very young ones. maybe , it mean just same thing but just that they put some art in spelling. It's foolish but they love it . For me it just make one dull in spelling.
@Bayour05 (63)
• United States
3 Dec 12
(Sorry sorri) i couldn't read (all ol) (what wat/wot) (people ppl) (have av) said so far but i really (want 1nt) (to 2) contribute my opinion in (this dix) discussion. I made use of 'slangs' in my first line and while i was doing i tried to make my typings short and clear. I find it easy although i don't use it
@habibti320 (925)
• United States
3 Dec 12
You had me laughing with the women wrapping their hair in towels line! I really had to think...probably after seeing someone else do it it seemed like a good idea! :)
As far as WAS becoming WUZ...I think that it is a way of trying to connect spoken English to written English. Typically, when people try to write "slang", they want to be phonetically descriptive. It's making a clear distinction that it is informal speech.
Maybe "z"s are just cool or something!
