[Ads-l] Name for this? -- HSJSHSHSH, ASKSKSKAK

Bonnie Taylor-Blake b.taylorblake at GMAIL.COM
Tue Aug 21 12:51:11 UTC 2018


No, those aren't typos in the subject line.

They're, well, words of some sort sometimes used in texts, tweets, and
elsewhere on social media to convey (extreme) feelings, such as being
amazed, overwhelmed, excited, frustrated, angry, etc. The string of letters
suggest *rushed* exclamations. The only convention is that they're all from
the middle row of a QWERTY keyboard.

Here are some examples, all taken from recent tweets (it's a little tough
to search for this sort of thing since there are no standard forms):

1) "ok but is she still beefin with jimin HSJSHSHSH"

2) "so grimes and Elon musk unfollowed each other on ig and grimes still
follows Azealia Banks kskdkdksksksk"

3) "ASKSKSKAK WE NEED MORE TEA"

I'm curious whether linguists/lexicographers have a name for this form of
(written) language. An entry at knowyourmeme.com suggests kinship with the
grawlix.

More at https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/asdf

-- Bonnie

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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