Is twitter changing English?

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Wed Nov 18 22:37:44 UTC 2009


"Invite" for "invitation" has been around at least since the horse
operas of the '30's and '40's. I've used it myself for years,
jokingly. I've never considered it to be "proper" English. However, it
seems to me, as also to Tom, that this word is occurring more and more
in place of "invitation", at least in spoken English.

-Wilson

On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 12:42 PM, Tom Zurinskas <truespel at hotmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Is twitter changing English?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I've just seen another "I'll send you an invite" (instead of invitation).  Its 3 times in a row I've seen this recently.  I didn't know it was so common.  It was a twitter related item, from a bulk mailing.  It goes to a lot of people.
>
>
> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL7+
> see truespel.com phonetic spelling
>
>
>>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Dan Goodman
>> Subject: Re: Is Tweeter changing English?
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>>
>>> A friend has asked me if there are any studies on whether, and if so
>>> how, Tweeter and other limited-message media have affected other
>>> channels of English, spoken or written. Simple opinions are not
>>> unwelcome also.
>>
>> Correction: Twitter.
>>
>> I haven't seen Twitter terms showing up anywhere else online, except in
>> reference to Twitter. I've seen text-messaging abbreviations on Usenet
>> and in mailing lists, but don't recall which ones.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Dan Goodman
>> Journal at:
>> dsgood.livejournal.com
>> dsgood.dreamwidth.org
>> dsgood.insanejournal.com
>>
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--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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