Home>News Center>China
           
     

    Internet 'codewords' widen digital gap
    By Zhi Gang (China Daily)
    Updated: 2004-09-13 11:35

    Do you know what the following numbers mean: "7456," "246" and "995"?

    Or can you tell the meaning of these English letters such as "GG," "GF" and "PLMM"?


    A man surfs the Internet at an Internet cafe. The popularity of the Internet has also generated many new vocabularies among young people. [newsphoto/file]

    Stay calm and do not lose your self-confidence if you are confused by the questions.

    They are actually not a test of your intelligence and wisdom but kind of quiz of your know-how about so-called Internet language.

    In fact, even experienced Chinese linguists and long-standing Chinese teachers are getting puzzled by the new language, commonly used in online Chinese-language chat rooms.

    The language is becoming more and more popular among the country's more than 87 million Internet users, especially young Internet surfers.

    It consists of Chinese characters mingled with English letters and words, images, symbols and numbers.

    Over the past few years, the use of Internet language has become so common that some netizens have compiled a special dictionary consisting of more than 1,000 newly-designed cyber words.

    These cyber words are roughly classified into four categories - the number, Chinese character, letter and signal parts.

    The number part includes words consisting of a series of numbers which have similar pronunciations of some Chinese characters.

    For instance, 7456 is pronounced as qisi wole (I'm extremely angry), 246 as esile (I'm very hungry) and 995 as jiujiuwo (Save me).

    Included in the letter part are different letter combinations either derived from English abbreviations or pinyin (sounds forming syllables).

    For example, "GG" means gege (elder brother) while "GF" means girl friend. PLMM is spelled out as piaoliang meimei, meaning beautiful girl.

    In the Chinese character part are Chinese words composed of Chinese characters that are given newly-defined meaning by Internet users.

    For instance, konglong (dinosaur) and qingwa (frog) refer to ugly people and cainiao (literally meaning vegetable bird) refer to a green horn.

    In the symbol part are various combinations of symbols such as punctuations and alphabets, aimed at expressing different expressions.

    For instance, :-) means a smiling face while (:-...... refers to a broken heart.

    Lin Yunfu, an associate professor with the Xi'an-based Northwest University, says Internet language is characterized with conciseness, better visualization and strong humour.

    The language fully reflects the creativity and personality of young people, he notes.

    The associate professor suggests the public hold a tolerant attitude towards the use of Internet language.

    "Since it is used in a very limited scope, Internet language has little negative impact on the Chinese language as a whole," he says.

    Other proponents go further to say that the emergence of Internet language is a normal phenomenon and a necessary stage in the development of Chinese.

    Some new words from Internet language may finally be accepted by the public to enrich the Chinese vocabulary, they say.

    Opponents, however, blast the toleration of Internet language as "inappropriate" and "irresponsible."

    "Some linguists have adopted incorrect attitudes towards the disordered Internet language by calling for toleration and non-interference of the non-standard use of language," says Liu Bin, former minister of education.

    "Any responsible linguist should criticize and help rectify the disorder."

    He stresses that the abusive use of Internet language will finally undermine standard use of Chinese and even jeopardize its purity.

    Educators share the view and warn that young people, especially primary and middle school students, may fall victim to Internet language.

    "Frequent use of Internet language, though in a small scope, among primary and middle school students will affect their learning of standard Chinese ," says Professor Li Shengmei of Nanchang University in Jiangxi Province.

    "In the long run, they may not be able to use Chinese correctly and suffer troubles in communication with others."

    Indeed, her worry has already been testified by media reports that Internet language has been creeping into primary school students' spoken Chinese and even their school work.

    A teacher in a middle school in Changsha, capital city of Central China's Hunan Province, recently was surprised to see scores of strange words such as "200" and "PMP" in a Chinese composition written by one of her students.

    The Dongfang Xinbao newspaper reported that the teacher had to ask the student to translate these words into standard Chinese.

    The student explained that in Internet language, "200" means dongwuyuan (zoo) and "PMP" means paimapi (bootlicker).

    Meanwhile, more parents reportedly express deep worry about the "digital gap" between them and their teenage children, who prefer to use Internet language to show off their personality.

    "Is it normal that we cannot even understand what my son says?" a perplexed father was quoted as asking Xinhua News Agency.



     
      Today's Top News     Top China News
     

    Vice premier predicts growth over 7% by 2020

     

       
     

    Man attacks Suzhou nursery, 28 injured

     

       
     

    Research labs power China's next boom

     

       
     

    Survey aims to discover, curb AIDS spread

     

       
     

    Record high turnout in HK LegCo election

     

       
     

    WHO warns of global outbreak of bird flu

     

       
      Tougher measures to hunt corrupt officials
       
      Purity of Chinese language debated
       
      Outdoor ads banned in Beijing's special areas
       
      Research labs power China's next boom
       
      Record high turnout in HK LegCo election
       
      WHO warns of global outbreak of bird flu
       
     
      Go to Another Section  
     
     
      Story Tools  
       
      News Talk  
      It is time to prepare for Beijing - 2008  
    Advertisement
             
    久久久久亚洲AV无码麻豆| 中文字幕人妻无码系列第三区| 中文字幕在线观看日本| 国产AV无码专区亚洲AV男同| 无码精品尤物一区二区三区| 久久无码AV中文出轨人妻| 无码视频一区二区三区在线观看| 最近最新中文字幕完整版| 五月天无码在线观看| 狠狠躁天天躁无码中文字幕图| 国产网红主播无码精品| 日本精品久久久久中文字幕8| 日本妇人成熟免费中文字幕 | 久久精品中文无码资源站| 变态SM天堂无码专区| 无码性午夜视频在线观看| 伊人久久精品无码二区麻豆| 最近免费视频中文字幕大全| 漂亮人妻被中出中文字幕久久| 精品人体无码一区二区三区| 精品国产一区二区三区无码| 日韩精品真人荷官无码| 亚洲国产精品无码一线岛国| 成人无码WWW免费视频| 合区精品久久久中文字幕一区| 欧美日韩中文在线| 无码内射中文字幕岛国片| 亚洲精品中文字幕乱码三区| 久久精品中文字幕大胸| 亚洲综合最新无码专区| 午夜无码视频一区二区三区| 国产精品中文久久久久久久| 人妻丰满熟妇A v无码区不卡 | 亚洲成?v人片天堂网无码| 惠民福利中文字幕人妻无码乱精品 | 国产aⅴ无码专区亚洲av| 国产精品亚洲аv无码播放| 人妻丰满熟妇岳AV无码区HD| 国产免费无码一区二区| 久99久无码精品视频免费播放| 精品人体无码一区二区三区 |