Old speak or young speak: An analysis of netspeak features in Filipino netspeak

Electronic language or Netspeak is the language of today’s generation in computer-mediated communication (CMC). It is characterized by the nonstandard and non conventional use and manipulation of symbols, characters, and lexical items. Hence, Netspeak is considered informal in existing literature. Using age as an important variable in the analysis, the researchers found that Netspeak was not an exclusive language among the young but a shared language among all age cohorts under study. This is so because all Internet users, regardless of their age attempted to use nonstandard language in virtual communication. After having analyzed the online utterances from the social media accounts of 63 respondents, the present study compared the Netspeak features of Filipino Netspeakers who belong to three age cohorts (15-25, 26-35, and 36-50). The data revealed similarities and differences in the prevalence of the 30 identified Netspeak features across age cohorts. The absence of punctuation and shortening of expressions were the most prevalent in the utterances of Filipino Netspeakers. This study foregrounds the notion of youngerspeak—the language of Netspeakers who belong to the older age brackets which is used to adjust to the language of the young. © 2017 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved