« Reply #13 on: May 26, 2010, 04:55:42 PM »
What is a leet?
"leet don't fail me now..."
"leet" is short for "elite".
So is "leet" some sort of ebonics, or is it just a 'hip' word that misguided youngsters use?
Its something like both I guess. Its part of something called, "AOLese" [and something called "Haxor" speak].
http://www.blackchampagne.com/slang.shtml#aolese^This explains what AOLese is.
http://www.blackchampagne.com/slang.shtml#hacker^"Haxor" speek.
Its annoying but nothing is worse than ebonics in my opinion.
AOLese
AOLese is a gutter tongue; a bastardized language combining acronyms, slang, h4xor sp33k (hacker speech, see below) and generally execrable grammar and spelling. It is used almost entirely by young, male, Internet newbies, most often ones on their parent's AOL account (hence the name), who somehow have come to the conclusion that this type of speech is cool. You could also call it Hotmailese, since quite a few users have that goddawful free mail service with which to spread their insidious yammerings. I have extensive experience with this sort of grammar, since in the nearly 4 years I've worked on Diabloii.net, I have received thousands of emails written in AOLese, and at least 75% of the mails with this sort of grammar are from @aol.com, with probably 20% coming from @hotmail.com.
This type of speech should be avoided at all costs if you want anyone (other than other AOLese users) to take anything you have to say seriously. It's universally agreed upon by adults and more advanced users that only trolls and noobs speak in this fashion, and you might as well try to win a debate using AOLese as argue before the Supreme Court using Pig Latin.
That warning being given, here is what this tongue consists of. AOLese is difficult to define, but like pornography, you will probably know it when you see it. The line between AOLese and someone using a lot of Internet slang, or hacker speak, can be difficult to draw. AOLese generally adds enough stupid, nonsensical comments, lack of proper capitalization, misspellings, and poor grammar to put it in a class by itself.
Keep in mind that there is a difference between true AOLese and the poor writing of someone who just isn't a good writer. Someone who is just learning English, a child or perhaps an adult who has another native tongue, will tend to butcher the language, and perhaps use a lot of abbreviations, not knowing any better. Have patience with people who are working on their language skills; save your vitriol for trolls who intentionally subject the rest of us to their ill-formed syntax. Especially if they think it's k3wl.
Also keep in mind that not every AOLer is using AOLese, and not every AOLese'er is an AOLer. It's entirely possible to find experienced users on real ISPs, often cable modems or DSL, who just lack the common sense to know better than to use AOLese. More commonly, you'll encounter AOLers who are are adults, usually ones new to the Internet or just not on it often enough to feel the need to move up to a real ISP. They'll use perfect English, though often not type very fast or accurately, and will probably have no idea at all what AOLese is, other than some weird language they saw on an email to their kid one time. While you can safely assume an AOLer won't be real up on Internet conventions, or a very experienced user, that's nothing to hate them for. Remember, we used to have real lives away from our computers also.
RaNdOm CapS: A very common AOLese trait, this annoying style of writing is common among users who virtually never manage proper capitalization, but somehow are able to find their shift key every other letter the rest of the time. There is no rhyme or reason to the substitution. Sometimes you'll see every other letter, sometimes every consonant, other times it's totally random, about every 3rd or 4th letter. Jarring to the eye and of no possible value, this is quintessential AOLese.
R4nd0m Num3r41s : Similar to (and often combined with) random caps, this is the practice of substituting numbers for letters, to no obvious benefit. This differs from Hacker Speak in that it's vastly overused, and often includes pointless substitutions, such as zero for "o", or "1" for "l", changes that can't even be discerned in some fonts. (Which is sometimes the point, to disguise a name so it's impossible to squelch them.)
Horrible Grammar: This is a near-universal trait of AOLese, and is often intentional, though it's a rare AOLese speaker who could manage proper English if you held a gun to their head (though it would certainly be fun to test that theory). They'll mangle the language horribly, entirely missing the subtlety of verb tense changes, proper pronoun use, decent sentence structure, etc. More than that, you don't need to be an English teacher to spot the problems in their writing. Most AOLese is intentionally full of fragmentary sentences, run-ons, random, non-sequitor'esque remarks, and stupidity, all of which are of course liberally studded with acronyms, abbreviations, slang, and random caps/numerals. Proper AOLese should be almost indecipherable to a real person.
Overuse of Terms: Most AOLese will beat a few popular terms absolutely to death, due to the lack of imagination or creativity in the writers of this dialect. See the most common terms in Hacker Speak, listed below, and expect "skillz", "l33t", "noobz", "sux", etc to appear in nearly every sentence.
Remember, it's all about degrees of descending into the void. AOLese doesn't feature anything not seen in other types of Internet Slang, it just has far too many of them, all thrown in together. Many writers operate on the borderline of AOLese, stumbling over the edge like a drunk unable to walk a straight line at a sobriety test, and then recovering for a few awkward sentences.
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L33t and h4x0r Sp33k
This generally-loathed form of expression is used mostly by kids in an often-successful effort to annoy those who are more literate than themselves. It differs from AOLese in that it's more controlled, and can be inserted into sentences that are otherwise perfectly-written.
Hacker Speak can be used by decent writers, and throwing in term or two here or there can add amusing emphasis. If you are discussing something extremely geeky, you might want to role-play a bit, in sarcastic fashion. For example, if you died on something stupid or easy in a game, and as your friends were laughing, you could say, "Fear my l33t skillz!" In this case it would be understood that you were mocking yourself, pretending to be a troll, and your friends would probably find it funny, if they weren't trolls themselves, in which case 1) they shouldn't be your friends, and 2) they wouldn't realize it was a joke. You could say the exact same thing in a different situation, such as bragging about how good you were at a game in a forum, and you'd be universally regarded as a 13 y/o wannabe loser. So don't do it, or risk the consequences.
The fashion of substituting numbers for letters began (apparently) with hackers, as a sort of shorthand and an inside joke, and also as a way to circumvent chat logging bots. Bots would be programmed to log text or boot users who used certain key terms. Substituting numbers for letters enabled people to say what they wanted to say, without being caught so easily. Thanks to Tomas for the tip.
Leet speak has grown steadily less cool since it's been corrupted and ruined by overuse, especially by non-hackers, or hacker wanna-bes; AKA "script kiddies". This form of writing is really a type of AOLese at this point, and should not be used by anyone other than for a joke effect.
There are a few very common l33t terms, (that's one), but the basic rules of the spelling can be applied to virtually any word. As such a full lexicon isn't reasonable, but once you know the basic rules of grammar, so to speak, you'll be as fluent as any clueless fat 14 y/o from Topeka on his mom's AOL being flamed in a Quake 3 newsgroup.
And what more could you ask for?
Basic Letter Substitution Patterns
Many are based on similarity of appearance to either the upper or lowercase letter.
3: e or E
4: a or A
z: s (usually ending a word, as a plural)
ph: f (phonetic)
c: k (k used when phonetic, to intentionally misspell)
x: ck (phonetic)
33: ea (sometimes 34 is used, usually 33, to intentionally misspell, as in "sp33k")
@: a (pronounced "a", not "at". No, it's not logical.)
1: I or i
Common Words
Most of these use the l33t spelling, of course.
l33t: elite (adjective, meaning far better than average)
skillz: skills
roxor: rocks, as in "that rocks!" but even more so
ph34r: fear (also ph33r)
sux: suck (or suxor, as in, "You suxor, noob!"
noob: Newbie (plural = noobz)
tr00: True
w00t: "woot". An all purpose happy sound effect.
j00: You
Advanced usage: Ph34r my tr00 l33t sk1llz, j00 suxor noobz!
« Last Edit: May 26, 2010, 05:00:52 PM by Ariel Shayn »
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