Internet imperils Chinese civilization yet again
February 8th, 2007

Those crazy Internet kids are ruining the Chinese language.

Or so you would think from a cute pair of Xinhua stories that ran today. (I realize that "cute" and "Xinhua" aren't words that naturally fit together. But bringing new things together is the essence of creativity. Work with me.)

Chinese Internet slang is truly a language unto itself. Sam Flemming, of CIC Data, included a brief Chinese net slang primer in his recent wrap-up of the second half of 2006 (PDF - see slide 16). While Sam concentrates on Chinese character phrases, Xinhua has climbed onto the bandwagon with a story on Chinese net abbreviations using the Roman alphabet (that would be the one you're reading right now). These tend to be either the Roman initials of Chinese phrases, or pairs of words that are homonyms for common Chinese phrases.

Among the examples:

--more at CNET Asia--