John McWhorter: Txtng is killing language. JK!!!

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

Translator: Òscar Aznar Alemany Reviewer: Carmen Vega-Reina

We always hear that texting is a scourge.

Sempre es critica la missatgeria instantània.

The idea is that texting spells the decline and fall

Es diu que aquesta escriptura és la decadència

of any kind of serious literacy, or at least writing ability,

de l'alfabetització o, com a mínim, de l'escriptura

among young people in the United States

entre els joves dels Estats Units

and now the whole world today.

i ja també de tot el món.

The fact of the matter is that it just isn't true,

El cas és que això no és pas cert.

and it's easy to think that it is true,

I és fàcil pensar que és veritat,

but in order to see it in another way,

però per veure-ho d'una altra manera,

in order to see that actually texting is a miraculous thing,

per veure que en realitat és com un miracle

not just energetic, but a miraculous thing,

i no només un fet actiu,

a kind of emergent complexity

una mena de complexitat emergent

that we're seeing happening right now,

que es desenvolupa ara i aquí,

we have to pull the camera back for a bit

hem de mirar una mica enrere

and look at what language really is,

i veure què és realment la llengua.

in which case, one thing that we see

I el que veurem serà que

is that texting is not writing at all.

escriure missatges no té res a veure amb escriure.

What do I mean by that?

Què vull dir amb això?

Basically, if we think about language,

Bàsicament, si pensem en la llengua,

language has existed for perhaps 150,000 years,

la llengua ha existit durant potser 150.000 anys.

at least 80,000 years,

Com a mínim, 80.000 anys.

and what it arose as is speech. People talked.

I va néixer com un fenòmen oral. La gent parlava.

That's what we're probably genetically specified for.

I probablement això és per al que estem preparats genèticament.

That's how we use language most.

Així és com usem la llengua principalment.

Writing is something that came along much later,

L'escriptura va venir molt més tard

and as we saw in the last talk,

i, com hem vist en la última xerrada,

there's a little bit of controversy as to exactly when that happened,

hi ha discussions sobre quan va passar això exactament.

but according to traditional estimates,

Segons els càlculs tradicionals,

if humanity had existed for 24 hours,

si la humanitat hagués existit durant 24 hores,

then writing only came along at about 11:07 p.m.

l'escriptura s'hauria creat a les 23:07 h.

That's how much of a latterly thing writing is.

Així de tard va arribar l'escriptura.

So first there's speech, and then writing comes along

Per tant, primer hi ha l'oral i més tard ve l'escrit

as a kind of artifice.

com una cosa artificial.

Now don't get me wrong, writing has certain advantages.

No em malinterpreteu, escriure té certs avantatges.

When you write, because it's a conscious process,

Quan escrius, com que és un procés conscient,

because you can look backwards,

com que pots revisar el que has fet,

you can do things with language that are much less likely

pots produir coses que probablement no faràs

if you're just talking.

si estàs parlant.

For example, imagine a passage from Edward Gibbon's

Per exemple, aquesta cita d'Edward Gibbon

"The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:"

en el seu llibre del declivi i la caiguda de l'Imperi Romà:

"The whole engagement lasted above twelve hours,

"L'enfrontament va durar més de dotze hores,

till the graduate retreat of the Persians was changed

fins que la retirada gradual dels perses va esdevenir

into a disorderly flight, of which the shameful example

una fugida desordenada, iniciada amb l'indigne exemple

was given by the principal leaders and the Surenas himself."

dels líders principals i del mateix surena."

That's beautiful, but let's face it, nobody talks that way.

Sona preciós, però ningú no parla així.

Or at least, they shouldn't if they're interested

Com a mínim, no ho haurien de fer

in reproducing. That --

si es volen reproduir. Així...

(Laughter)

[Rialles]

is not the way any human being speaks casually.

...no és com parlen els humans espontàniament.

Casual speech is something quite different.

El discurs espontani és bastant diferent.

Linguists have actually shown

Els lingüistes han demostrat

that when we're speaking casually in an unmonitored way,

que quan parlem espontàniament

we tend to speak in word packets of maybe

solem dividir el discurs en grups

seven to 10 words.

d'entre 7 i 10 paraules.

You'll notice this if you ever have occasion to record

Ho podeu comprovar si us graveu

yourself or a group of people talking.

parlant en un grup de gent.

That's what speech is like.

La llengua oral és així.

Speech is much looser. It's much more telegraphic.

És més flexible. Molt més telegràfica.

It's much less reflective -- very different from writing.

Molt menys reflexiva. Molt diferent de l'escrita.

So we naturally tend to think, because we see language

I és normal que pensem (perquè sovint veiem

written so often, that that's what language is,

la llengua escrita) que la llengua és això.

but actually what language is, is speech. They are two things.

Però en realitat la llengua és oral. Són coses diferents.

Now of course, as history has gone by,

Evidentment, amb el pas del temps

it's been natural for there to be a certain amount of bleed

és natural que hi hagi interferències

between speech and writing.

entre el parlar i l'escriure.

So, for example, in a distant era now,

Per exemple, fa molt de temps

it was common when one gave a speech

era normal que els discursos es fessin

to basically talk like writing.

igual que com s'escriu.

So I mean the kind of speech that you see someone giving

Em refereixo als discursos que veus

in an old movie where they clear their throat, and they go,

en pel·lícules antigues quan s'aclareixen la gola,

"Ahem, ladies and gentlemen," and then they speak

"Ehem, senyores i senyors", i llavors parlen

in a certain way which has nothing to do with casual speech.

d'una manera que no té res d'espontani.

It's formal. It uses long sentences like this Gibbon one.

És formal. Utilitza frases llargues com la de Gibbon.

It's basically talking like you write, and so, for example,

Parlen tal com s'escriu i, per exemple,

we're thinking so much these days about Lincoln

últimament es parla molt de Lincoln

because of the movie.

arran de la pel·lícula.

The Gettysburg Address was not the main meal of that event.

El discurs de Gettysburg no era l'acte principal.

For two hours before that, Edward Everett spoke

Les dues hores d'abans, Edward Everett va parlar

on a topic that, frankly, cannot engage us today

d'un tema que, francament, avui no interessa

and barely did then.

i llavors tampoc gaire.

The point of it was to listen to him

La gràcia era escoltar-lo

speaking like writing.

parlant com s'escriu.

Ordinary people stood and listened to that for two hours.

La gent normal el va escoltar durant dues hores.

It was perfectly natural.

Era del tot natural.

That's what people did then, speaking like writing.

Això és el que feien llavors, parlar com s'escriu.

Well, if you can speak like writing,

Però si es pot parlar com s'escriu,

then logically it follows that you might want to also

lògicament, també podries voler algun cop

sometimes write like you speak.

escriure com parles.

The problem was just that in the material,

El problema era que materialment

mechanical sense, that was harder back in the day

i mecànica era més difícil en el passat

for the simple reason that materials don't lend themselves to it.

per la simple raó que no tenien els mitjans adequats.

It's almost impossible to do that with your hand

És quasi impossible fer-ho a mà,

except in shorthand, and then communication is limited.

excepte amb la taquigrafia, però també està limitada.

On a manual typewriter it was very difficult,

En una màquina d'escriure era molt difícil,

and even when we had electric typewriters,

fins i tot quan van sortir les electròniques

or then computer keyboards, the fact is

i els ordinadors. El fet és que

that even if you can type easily enough to keep up

encara que teclegis suficientment de pressa

with the pace of speech, more or less, you have to have

a la velocitat de la parla, necessites

somebody who can receive your message quickly.

algú que pugui rebre el missatge de pressa.

Once you have things in your pocket that can receive that message,

Un cop tens un objecte a la butxaca que rep el missatge,

then you have the conditions that allow

ja tens les condicions que ens permeten

that we can write like we speak.

escriure com parlem.

And that's where texting comes in.

I aquí és on entren els missatges instantanis.

And so, texting is very loose in its structure.

Els missatges són molt flexibles en l'estructura.

No one thinks about capital letters or punctuation when one texts,

Ningú no pensa en les majúscules ni en la puntuació.

but then again, do you think about those things when you talk?

Però, hi penseu quan parleu?

No, and so therefore why would you when you were texting?

No. Llavors, per què ho heu de fer en un missatge?

What texting is, despite the fact that it involves

La missatgeria instantània, tot i que inclogui

the brute mechanics of something that we call writing,

la mecànica d'allò que s'anomena escriptura,

is fingered speech. That's what texting is.

és un discurs dactilar. Això és el que és.

Now we can write the way we talk.

Ara podem escriure com parlem.

And it's a very interesting thing, but nevertheless

I és molt interessant, però encara

easy to think that still it represents some sort of decline.

és fàcil veure-ho com un tipus de decadència.

We see this general bagginess of the structure,

Veiem aquesta flexibilitat d'estructura,

the lack of concern with rules and the way that we're used to

la indiferència respecte d'aquelles normes

learning on the blackboard, and so we think

que vam aprendre, i per això pensem

that something has gone wrong.

que alguna cosa va malament.

It's a very natural sense.

És una impressió molt natural.

But the fact of the matter is that what is going on

Però en realitat, el que passa és la creació

is a kind of emergent complexity.

d'un sistema nou i complex.

That's what we're seeing in this fingered speech.

Això és el que veiem en el discurs dactilar.

And in order to understand it, what we want to see

I per entendre'l, hem de trobar

is the way, in this new kind of language,

en aquest nou tipus de llenguatge

there is new structure coming up.

les noves estructures que es formen.

And so, for example, there is in texting a convention,

Per exemple, en missatgeria hi ha una convenció

which is LOL.

que és LOL.

Now LOL, we generally think of

Generalment diem que

as meaning "laughing out loud."

LOL significa 'rialla ben sonora'.

And of course, theoretically, it does,

I teòricament és així.

and if you look at older texts, then people used it

Si mireu missatges antics, la gent

to actually indicate laughing out loud.

l'utilitzava en aquest sentit.

But if you text now, or if you are someone who

Però si escrius missatges ara o si entens

is aware of the substrate of texting the way it's become,

les bases del sistema que s'ha desenvolupat,

you'll notice that LOL

t'adonaràs que LOL

does not mean laughing out loud anymore.

ja no és riure ben fort.

It's evolved into something that is much subtler.

Ha evolucionat cap a una cosa més subtil.

This is an actual text that was done

Això és una conversa real

by a non-male person of about 20 years old

entre noies d'uns 20 anys

not too long ago.

de no fa gaire.

"I love the font you're using, btw."

"M'encanta la font que fas servir."

Julie: "lol thanks gmail is being slow right now"

Julie: "lol gràcies gmail va una mica lent"

Now if you think about it, that's not funny.

Si hi penseu, no té cap gràcia.

No one's laughing. (Laughter)

Ningú no riu. [rialles]

And yet, there it is, so you assume

Però aquí el teniu i suposeu

there's been some kind of hiccup.

que pot haver estat involuntari.

Then Susan says "lol, I know,"

Llavors la Susan diu "lol, ho se.",

again more guffawing than we're used to

més riallera del que solem estar

when you're talking about these inconveniences.

quan parlem d'aquest tipus de problemes.

So Julie says, "I just sent you an email."

I la Julie diu, "T'acabo d'enviar un mail."

Susan: "lol, I see it."

Susan: "lol, ja ho veig."

Very funny people, if that's what LOL means.

S'ho passen molt bé si LOL vol dir això.

This Julie says, "So what's up?"

I la Julie diu: "Com va?"

Susan: "lol, I have to write a 10 page paper."

Susan: "lol, he d'escriure un treball de 10 pàgines".

She's not amused. Let's think about it.

No és divertit. Penseu-hi.

LOL is being used in a very particular way.

LOL s'està utilitzant d'una manera molt particular.

It's a marker of empathy. It's a marker of accommodation.

És un senyal d'empatia, un senyal d'acceptació.

We linguists call things like that pragmatic particles.

Els lingüistes ho anomenem <i>partícula pragmàtica</i>.

Any spoken language that's used by real people has them.

Qualsevol llengua parlada per gent real en té.

If you happen to speak Japanese, think about

Si algú parla japonès, penseu

that little word "ne" that you use at the end of a lot of sentences.

en aquell <i>ne</i> que dieu al final de moltes frases.

If you listen to the way black youth today speak,

Si heu sentit el jovent negre d'avui,

think about the use of the word "yo."

penseu com fan servir aquell <i>yo</i>.

Whole dissertations could be written about it,

Se'n podrien escriure llargues dissertacions

and probably are being written about it.

i segurament ja s'està fent.

A pragmatic particle, that's what LOL has gradually become.

Una partícula pragmàtica. El LOL s'ha convertit en això.

It's a way of using the language between actual people.

És com la gent real fa servir el llenguatge.

Another example is "slash."

Un altre exemple és la "barra" [/].

Now, we can use slash in the way that we're used to,

La podem utilitzar de la manera que ja sabem,

along the lines of, "We're going to have

com ara: "Celebrarem

a party-slash-networking session."

una festa-barra-trobada de contactes."

That's kind of like what we're at.

Però això és el que ens trobem,

Slash is used in a very different way

La barra s'utilitza d'una manera molt diferent

in texting among young people today.

en els missatges dels joves d'avui.

It's used to change the scene.

Es fa servir per canviar de tema.

So for example, this Sally person says,

Per exemple, aquí la Sally diu:

"So I need to find people to chill with"

"He de trobar gent amb qui anar"

and Jake says, "Haha" --

i el Jake diu, "Haha"

you could write a dissertation about "Haha" too, but we don't have time for that —

(també podríem estudiar el "Haha", però no tenim temps)

"Haha so you're going by yourself? Why?"

"Haha així que hi vas sola? Per què?"

Sally: "For this summer program at NYU."

Sally: "És un programa de la Universitat de Nova York."

Jake: "Haha. Slash I'm watching this video with suns players

Jake: "Haha. Barra estic veient un video de jugadors de bàsquet

trying to shoot with one eye."

que tiren amb un ull tancat"

The slash is interesting.

La barra és interessant.

I don't really even know what Jake is talking about after that,

No sé què diu el Jake després d'això,

but you notice that he's changing the topic.

però es veu que ha canviat de tema.

Now that seems kind of mundane,

Això no sembla gaire especial,

but think about how in real life,

però si penseu en la vida real,

if we're having a conversation and we want to change the topic,

quan volem canviar de tema enmig d'una conversa,

there are ways of doing it gracefully.

hi ha maneres de fer-ho amb gràcia.

You don't just zip right into it.

No us limiteu a fer-ho de cop.

You'll pat your thighs and look wistfully off into the distance,

Us tocareu la cuixa i mirareu místicament cap a l'horitzó

or you'll say something like, "Hmm, makes you think --"

o direu alguna cosa com "Hmm, això em recorda..."

when it really didn't, but what you're really --

quan realment no ho fa, però tu vols...

(Laughter) —

[rialles]

what you're really trying to do is change the topic.

tu en realitat vols canviar de tema.

You can't do that while you're texting,

Això no es pot fer pels missatges

and so ways are developing of doing it within this medium.

i per això es creen altres maneres en aquest mitjà.

All spoken languages have what a linguist calls

Totes les llengües orals tenen un nou sistema

a new information marker -- or two, or three.

per identificar la nova informació, o dos o tres.

Texting has developed one from this slash.

Els missatges instantanis han creat la barra.

So we have a whole battery of new constructions

Així que tenim un munt de noves construccions

that are developing, and yet it's easy to think,

que s'estan creant i encara és fàcil pensar

well, something is still wrong.

que alguna cosa va malament.

There's a lack of structure of some sort.

Hi ha una falta d'estructura d'algun tipus.

It's not as sophisticated

No és tan sofisticat

as the language of The Wall Street Journal.

com el llenguatge del <i>The Wall Street Journal</i>.

Well, the fact of the matter is,

Bé, però de fet,

look at this person in 1956,

mireu què deien el 1956,

and this is when texting doesn't exist,

quan la missatgeria encara no existia.

"I Love Lucy" is still on the air.

i el Rin Tin Tin sortia a la tele.

"Many do not know the alphabet or multiplication table,

"Molts no saben l'alfabet o les taules de multiplicar,

cannot write grammatically -- "

i fan textos agramaticals".

We've heard that sort of thing before,

No és el primer cop que ho sentim.

not just in 1956. 1917, Connecticut schoolteacher.

I abans del 1956. El 1917 una mestra...

1917. This is the time when we all assume

El 1917. Un temps en què creiem

that everything somehow in terms of writing was perfect

que l'escriptura era perfecta

because the people on "Downton Abbey" are articulate,

perquè els personatges de <i>Downton Abbey</i>

or something like that.

són súper eloqüents.

So, "From every college in the country goes up the cry,

Diu: "A totes les universitats es queixen dient

'Our freshmen can't spell, can't punctuate.'"

«Els alumnes no saben d'ortografia ni de puntuació.»"

And so on. You can go even further back than this.

I tota la resta. I més endarrere.

It's the President of Harvard. It's 1871.

El president de Harvard. El 1871.

There's no electricity. People have three names.

No hi ha electricitat. La gent té tres noms.

"Bad spelling,

"Mala ortografia,

incorrectness as well as inelegance of expression in writing."

incorrecció, així com poca elegància en l'expressió escrita."

And he's talking about people who are otherwise

I parla de gent que estaven

well prepared for college studies.

ben preparats per a la universitat.

You can go even further back.

O encara més endarrere.

1841, some long-lost superintendent of schools is upset

1841, un inspector d'escoles està molest

because of what he has for a long time "noted with regret

perquè "Fa temps que, tristament, he notat

the almost entire neglect of the original" blah blah blah blah blah.

que s'ha abandonat quasi del tot" bla, bla, bla.

Or you can go all the way back to 63 A.D. -- (Laughter) --

O podem anar encara fins al 63 dC [rialles]

and there's this poor man who doesn't like the way

i a aquest home no li agrada com

people are speaking Latin.

la gent parla el llatí.

As it happens, he was writing about what had become French.

I es referia al que seria el francès.

And so, there are always — (Laughter) (Applause) —

I així, sempre hi ha [rialles i aplaudiments]

there are always people worrying about these things

sempre hi ha gent preocupada per això,

and the planet somehow seems to keep spinning.

però el planeta segueix girant.

And so, the way I'm thinking of texting these days is

Per això, quan penso en els missatges, crec

that what we're seeing is a whole new way of writing

que estem davant d'una nova forma d'escriptura

that young people are developing,

que els joves estan creant,

which they're using alongside their ordinary writing skills,

que fan servir paral·lelament a l'escriptura normal,

and that means that they're able to do two things.

el que vol dir que són capaços de fer totes dues coses.

Increasing evidence is that being bilingual

Hi ha proves a favor, com que ser bilingüe

is cognitively beneficial.

és bo per a l'aprenentatge.

That's also true of being bidialectal.

També es pot aplicar a parlar dos dialectes.

That's certainly true of being bidialectal in terms of your writing.

I això són dos dialectes de l'escriptura.

And so texting actually is evidence of a balancing act

I escriure així és la prova d'aquest equilibri

that young people are using today, not consciously, of course,

que mantenen els joves, inconscientment, és clar.

but it's an expansion of their linguistic repertoire.

Però és una ampliació del seu repertori lingüístic.

It's very simple.

És molt simple.

If somebody from 1973 looked at

Si algú del 1973 mirés

what was on a dormitory message board in 1993,

un taulell d'anuncis universitari del 1993,

the slang would have changed a little bit

l'argot hauria canviat una mica

since the era of "Love Story,"

des del temps de <i>Love Story</i>,

but they would understand what was on that message board.

però encara ho podria entendre tot.

Take that person from 1993 -- not that long ago,

Agafa algú del 1993; no fa gaire

this is "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" -- those people.

(això és com <i>Retorn al futur</i>).

Take those people and they read

Feu que aquesta persona llegeixi

a very typical text written by a 20-year-old today.

un missatge actual escrit per algú de 20 anys.

Often they would have no idea what half of it meant

Segurament no n'entendrien res perquè

because a whole new language has developed

s'ha desenvolupat un nou llenguatge

among our young people doing something as mundane

a les mans dels joves amb una cosa tan simple

as what it looks like to us when they're batting around

com és teclejar com si res

on their little devices.

en els seus aparells.

So in closing, if I could go into the future,

En resum, si pogués anar al futur,

if I could go into 2033,

si pogués anar al 2033,

the first thing I would ask is whether David Simon

Primer preguntaria si en David Simon

had done a sequel to "The Wire." I would want to know.

ha continuat <i>The Wire</i>. Ho voldria saber.

And — I really would ask that —

I... de debò que ho faria.

and then I'd want to know actually what was going on on "Downton Abbey."

I llavors voldria saber què passa a <i>Downton Abbey</i>.

That'd be the second thing.

Que seria la segona cosa.

And then the third thing would be,

I llavors, la tercera cosa seria

please show me a sheaf of texts

"Si us plau, mostreu-me alguns missatges

written by 16-year-old girls,

escrits per nenes de 16 anys"

because I would want to know where this language

perquè m'agradaria saber fins a on ha arribat

had developed since our times,

aquest llenguatge des d'avui.

and ideally I would then send them back to you and me now

I l'ideal seria poder-los enviar al present per

so we could examine this linguistic miracle

poder estudiar aquest miracle lingüístic

happening right under our noses.

que tenim davant dels nassos.

Thank you very much.

Moltes gràcies.

(Applause)

[aplaudiments]

Thank you. (Applause)

[aplaudiments]