Those crazy Internet kids are ruining the Chinese language.

Or so you would think from a cute pair of Xinhua stories that ran today. (I realize that "cute" and "Xinhua" aren't words that naturally fit together. But bringing new things together is the essence of creativity. Work with me.)

Chinese Internet slang is truly a language unto itself. Sam Flemming, of CIC Data, included a brief Chinese Net slang primer in his recent wrap-up of the second half of 2006 (PDF--see slide 16). While Sam concentrates on Chinese character phrases, Xinhua has climbed onto the bandwagon with a story on Chinese Net abbreviations using the Roman alphabet (that would be the one you're reading right now). These tend to be either the Roman initials of Chinese phrases, or pairs of words that are homonyms for common Chinese phrases.

Among the examples:

• FB is short for fu bai (corrupt), but is often used to mean "dining out"


• BS or BT, short for bi shi (contempt) and bian tai (deviant), but used as ironic complements in the manner of "wicked"


• GG (ge ge, elder brother), DD (di di, younger brother) and JJ (jie jie, sister). JJ also has a somewhat coarser and more anatomical meaning, however, so caution is advised.

The article makes a concession to the sensitivities of Xinhua readers, however, by defining the Net phrase NB (niu bi) as "wow" without bothering to provide the literal translation, which is "cow's vagina". For my money, "cool" might be a better translation than "wow", since niu bi is more adjective than exclamation.

My own Mandarin tutor never bothered to explain these kinds of phrases to me. I had to rely on taxi drivers.

Of course, where there are young netizens inventing slang, there are stodgier types lamenting the death of the language, as this second story makes clear:

The average Chinese language newspaper has 46 language errors, according to a report released at a national conference on newspapers and magazines earlier this month. Then add the fact that the Internet inevitably confuses people because of unusual words easily found there.

***

"My son in high school speaks a new language that I cannot understand, and most of it he learned from the Web. He said in his composition that somebody 'looks like a big frog escaped from the museum'. In his language, weishenme (why) has been replaced by weixiami (feed with shrimp), zheyangzi (this way) was replaced by jiangzi (soy purple), and '555' means weep and 'ppmm' means beautiful sister. I do not understand why standard language and grammar have been moved out so easily."

Wang Bin, a mother in Chongqing.

Because, Mrs Wang, kids will be kids. And also because pinyin input is a bitch, and shortcuts are welcome. I can vouch for that personally.

As for Mandarin, it's been around for a while. I don't think it's in danger of going anywhere. It's just getting a bit more colorful.

Related: Danwei's Joel Martinsen with a great post on the top language errors of 2006.