A comment on my post describes users of this slang as lazy simpletons with a limited vocabulary. (I was having none of it.)

I see linguistic shortcuts – abbreviations and the like – more as efficiencies. They're the verbal equivalent of desire paths, which no one sees as "lazy".

But the characterization shows the social baggage that language has accumulated. It's a scapegoat for broader anxieties and prejudices.

#language #slang #abbreviations #sociolinguistics #blogging

@stancarey The "laziness" argument is probably class snobbery. An English woman I knew with a very RP accent was complaining about the "laziness" of Irish people not aspirating "th." I pointed out that she didn't pronounce the letter R, and said cah instead of car, oadah instead of order, but wouldn't consider herself lazy.

Slang contractions are playful. And they create a sense of community when people share them.