the archives of f/k/a . . .

We campaigned long and hard against the ugly-little word “blog,”

invoking our duty to a joint language legacy.  Earlier this year, we

crusaded adamantly to make the word “blawg” obsolete.  Today,

the f/k/a Gang proclaims its dissent over another spawn of “blog” –

the neologism “blang.”   See New York Times, “Coming to Terms

with a Wired Age, Part 2,” by Lisa Belkin, April 23, 2006, in which

– perhaps trying to be a bit too hip and youthful — the Old Gray

Lady becomes an accessory to languicide.

       

Lisa Belkin’s column builds on one published on April 9th.  The

focus is an important and interesting topic: the ability of language to

“make something official” — to “make a phenomenon fully exist.” As

we discuss below, Part I, focused on words that describe the down-

side of being overly-wired into modern technology.  (Just yesterday,

Your Editor discussed the topic in a confessional post on over-posting.) 

Unfortunately, Belkins ended the April 9th post with a request for more

technology-focused neologisms.  The result was this paragraph in

today’s column: 

“You have names for many other new concepts, too. The longest

list comes from Eve Fox (I can fit only part of it here), a vice presi-

dent for electronic campaigns at M&R Strategic Services in Wash-

ington, who suggests a whole new language. She calls it ‘Blang,’

as in ‘Web language,’ and says it is spoken by ‘Web wraiths’

Comments Off