what's in a word?

“I’m not a purist” he said, rolling his eyes to the ceiling, “but … stuft? Stuft?!” He ranted on, “I despair at the bastardization of today’s English language. In my agency, the copywriter would have been fired! For laziness, for lack of originality, for sheer bad copywriting … ”

I had to agree; I’ve worked with copywriters who have been fired for those very reasons. But over the last month or so I’ve noticed the following terms prominently posted on large ads in print and commercial media.

• Get your pix kwiker here (in-and-out photo developers)
• Adult filmz (does the Z make them more / less x-rated?)
• Pick up your kool skool gear (speaks for itself)
• Tableized or columnated (formatting preferences listed on software ad)
• Kleen green and mean to weeds (weed/word killer)

… and the list goes on. Even the limited and often questionable capabilities of the most generic word processor flags those terms in red! But is it a big deal?

I think it is, and I’ll tell you why. Literacy is important to individual, cultural, and societal development. Yet, regardless of native tongue, almost everything we read or hear in the media today is already reduced to high school’s 6th-grade level, which — for reasoning that eludes me — has been deemed an acceptable standard across the great United States.

If we allow further reduction of our language, via phonetic and cutesy or lazy phrasing in media, I question where we’ll find ourselves in 20, 10, or even 5 years, from now. Back in the cave, grunting along with our Neanderthal ancestors? Or, more realistically in our digitally-exploding culture, “ … txtng jst t-bscs nd rdng ths in bks nd nwspprs 2”.

As we lose and abuse the rules of language, we also lose an important part of our heritage. And no matter where we were born or raised, or where we choose to live, there are some aspects of heritage that are intrinsic to our being and that we have a responsibility to share with the next generation.

Let’s not roll over in complacency. I vote we embrace the nuances between the interpretations of one word, and one language, over another. And that we put pressure on advertisers and the corporations who drive our governments to hold to literacy standards we can be proud of!

What do you think … is it a big deal?