The Lexicographer's Rules

One day, this will be Standard English. OMG wau!! Dat beesings a kiti vary ful ov tewtul kutenis!! Bees wif da lukingz!! Omg him gotz da bowwagez on himz hed lyk WTF?!? OMG I tewtul wuntz to grabz dat kiti and fuzziez himz awl ovar…him sooooooo mooshy an fullz ov win!! Don werry lil kiti, I no eetz u! I luvz kitiz! I can has bunchiz ov dem! Mah kitiz luvz bowwagez too! YETH!! GIMME!! Kthxbai!”

See the Metafilter thread, where posters rightly point out that LOL-kitteh does not produce proper cat macro captions, according to the rules as perceived by Anil Dash.

If you’re completely at sea on this, don’t worry. Right now, the threat has been localized to a group of teens dexing-and-texting on their Sidekicks in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Indiana.

Going through messages we’ve received from listeners at the radio show over the past six months, I find that one of the questions that comes up often—and which we addressed in a recent show—is what to call a life partner if you’re not married to them. Boyfriend/girlfriend sounds immature, lover sounds illicit, partner could be confused with “business partner”: there’s a problem with just about any choice.

Ben Yagoda takes a stab at answering the question in Slate. 

You can read the transcript of last night's slang chat hosted by Anu Garg's A Word A Day.

Over the last six months it’s been my pleasure to be a new part of the long-running radio show A Way with Words, broadcast by KPBS out of San Diego. Martha Barnette and I have great fun doing it (God forbid anyone should ever get ahold of the blooper and blue reels!) and it’s been an invigorating experience to work with a team of radio professionals who can turn me into a passable radio presence.

Many friends and colleagues have expressed delight in the sound of the show and have said or written encouragements. Strangers, too, have gone out of their way to say how happy they are to have the show to listen to while jogging, doing laundry, traveling on business, driving to church. They write long, passionate email messages to us about language issues that they believe are important—lots of emails with lots of passion.

One comment that we repeatedly get is that they think of the show as being in the same group as mainstays like “Car Talk” or “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me.” Listeners think of it as one of the big boys.

But really, with A Way with Words KPBS is punching above its weight class. First created for a local audience, the show now is a growing national name, especially with the explosion of podcast listeners. However, the home station, KPBS, still picks up the majority of the costs of running the show.

So, although A Way with Words is being broadcast from more stations coast-to-coast than ever before, I want to ask that readers here, listeners to the show, and visitors to Double-Tongued Dictionary support KPBS as it holds its spring fundraising drive.

This link takes you to the fundraising page of the KPBS web site. Donate any amount! And in the “Comments/Suggestions” field put “A Way with Words.”