Tizzletalk?

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sat, 2 Apr 2005 20:53:30 -0500, Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
>On Apr 2, 2005, at 7:49 PM, Duane Campbell wrote:
>> This got through my pop-up blocker; the header said it was a "paid
>> pop-up."
>>
>> WWW3.tizzletalk.com
>>
>> I didn't download it because of the paucity of information on their
>> index page. It purports to to translate instant message type
>> communications into one of several "humerous" dialects: Ebonics,
>> Redneck, Dubya, Jessica, Ahnold, or Engrish.
>>
>> Anyone hear of this?
>
>Fuh shizzle, I don't know anything about this particular site, but such
>sites aren't particularly new or rare. In fact, you can even find apps
>that promise to do this sort of thing.

The "Jive" filter (a Unix script that "translates" text into Jive) dates
back to 1986 -- it was inspired by the "I speak Jive" scene in the movie
_Airplane!_(1980).  Here's the earliest script I could find on Usenet:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/net.sources/msg/56c359c00e8a45dc

More information here:

http://www.kith.org/logos/words/upper2/JJive.html

The "Valspeak" filter also dates to 1986 (fer shure).  Other text filters
(Elmer Fudd, Swedish chef, etc.) followed soon thereafter.


--Ben Zimmer