ABBREVIATION IN KOREAN CYBER COMMUNICATION - Editorial AAR
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ABBREVIATION IN KOREAN CYBER COMMUNICATION
AUTHORSHIP
INTRODUCTION
Kyunney Egorova
Nowadays, many SNS or short communication
North-Eastern Federal University named after M.K. Ammosov,
Russia, Yakutsk.
messages include emoticons or abbreviations
for faster and more impressive or intimate
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000- 0002-2348-6766
E-mail: kyunney.egorova@bk.ru messaging (ASTEROFF, 1987; CRYSTAL,
2008; EGOROVA ET AL., 2016a, 2016b, 2021).
Sang-Cheol Ahn
Emoticons rely on their graphic or pictorial
North-Eastern Federal University named after M.K. Ammosov,
Russia, Yakutsk.
effects as most emoticons are aimed at visual
effects. Along with emoticons, numerous
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9520-2366
E-mail: sangcheol.ahn@yahoo.com
types of abbreviations and acronyms are
Received in: Approved in: commonly used in cyber communication by
2021-05-20 2021-06-15
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24115/S2446-622020217Extra-C1005p.204-221
younger generation (EGOROVA ET AL., 2021;
KANG, 2018) . Due to the popularity of the
English language, the initial letters of English words or phrases are widely used for faster
messaging in cyber communication. Moreover, transliteration of Arabic numerals is also very
common, e.g., 4U ‘for you’. The abbreviation patterns, however, differ from language to
language, depending on their typological differences, especially in their writing systems. That
is, the distinctive characteristics of different writing systems produce difference patterns of
abbreviation (DI NARDO et al., 2020).
Among all the various types of abbreviations, the Korean writing system, Hangeul, has its own
unique features. Being promulgated in 1446, the letters of the Hangeul system are written in
blocks representing syllables. Moreover, the syllable blocks can be made horizontally as well
as vertically. For example, the linear CVC sound sequence of mal ‘language’ is arranged as the
CV ma over the coda C l, making말, while the CVC mul ‘water’ is arranged vertically, i.e., m on
the top, u in the middle, and l on the bottom, forming 물. That is, there are various ways of
filling in the syllable blocks. On the other hand, being phonetically motived, the Korean
alphabet system can pick various sounds for sound transliteration. Moreover, the simple stick
or circle shaped alphabet letters can be easily combined to show various graphic images in
computer-based communication. Based on the various demonstration, therefore, we will show
that the unique features of the Korean writing system can be interpreted as a cultural icon in
the formation of the abbreviatory expressions. In sum, the purpose of this paper is to clearly
demonstrate the unique but effective application of Korean alphabet letters not only
graphically but also phonetically. Therefore, we claim that the various patterns of the Korean
abbreviations based on the diverse application of Korean letters should be interpreted as
cultural icons. We take the examples from various papers on neologism and the online
dictionaries. Leading approach to research: classification by types of abbreviations and
theoretical analysis of their properties.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Due to the development of various electronic communication methods, the usual
communication pattern has undergone many drastic changes since 1990’s. As claimed in
Crystal (2008), various means of communication have emerged in every language all over the
world as they represent the communication trends of the young generation, highlighting
homogeneity. For example, one of the most distinctive characteristics of the new trend is
spelling deformation which was widely studied in the earlier studies, especially from a
quantitatively viewpoints (GRINTER and FIDRIDGE, 2001; YLVA, 2002; KASESNIEMI and
RAUTIANEN, 2002; TAGG, 2009; THURLOW and BROWN, 2003). As Crystal (2008) claims,
however, the usages (especially the spelling deformation) do not affect the grammatical
structure or communication in the standard language. Rather, they can contribute to the
diversification of the communication methods and make certain uniqueness cultural or
linguistic icons. Just like the cases of other languages, a lot of new communication patterns
have been made in Modern Korean although they often become the targets of criticism for
corrupting the grammatical structure. Therefore, many studies try to account for the changes,
taking them as a new linguistic trend for the young generation (LEE, 2017; KANG, 2018, LEE
2019). Especially, the preference for the use of SNS is dominant among the young generation.
Laplage em Revista (International), vol.7, n. Extra C, 2021, p.204-221 ISSN: 2446-6220Abbreviation in korean cyber communication • 205
Responding the trend in communication, numerous studies have been made to analyze the
patterns of neologism in Korean (KANG, 2018; LEE, 2003; LEE, 2012; LEE, 2017; LEE et al.,
2012; LEE, 2019). Most of the earlier studies, however, have focused on the analyses of the
morphological patters or phonological operations. Moreover, although they have found the
dominant usage of the Korean alphabet system in SNS, including the emoticons and
abbreviation, they have not discussed why such a dominant trend has emerged in spite of the
global popularity of the English alphabets in communication (LEE, 2019, 211). Considering
these earlier studies, therefore, this study will focus on the unique usages of Hangeul, the
Korean alphabet system in abbreviatory expressions, showing its capability for both graphic
and phonetic representations. Being based on the syllable structure, Hangeul has been known
as one of the most unique writing systems.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
In order to show our analytic discussion, we use the data shown in the earlier studies which
were shown in the earlier section (e.g., J.-B. Lee 2003, 2009, 2012, Song 2007, Lee & Park 2012,
J.-S. Lee 2017, E. Kang 2018, J.-H. Lee 2019, Egorova & Ahn 20171b, 2021, etc.). We also take
the examples from various online articles on neologism and the online dictionaries such as
https://opendict.korean.go.kr/main and https://dict.naver.com/. Some of the exemplary
sources are shown below.
• Kim Min-Hui. Eoneo phagwe (language destruction)// Weekly Chosun
Newspaper. September 19, 2017.
• Joongang Daily Newspaper. February 8, 2017
• Naver Online Dictionary. 2019 inki sinjoeo/hwajeui daneo yeonmal jeongsan (A
summary of the most popular new coinages in 2019), 2020.
• Urimalsaem Online Dictionary 2020.
After collecting the data, we analyze them to show the unique usage of the Korean letters by
the young generation in cyber communication. Among all the usages, we take out the
abbreviatory expressions such as acronyms for further analyses as their distributional pattern
is quite dominant in the domain of neologism.
Figure1. Distributional pattern in 2020 (Egorova & Ahn 2021)
Distribution
Sound mimic
12% Acronym
43%
Foreign
34%
Acronym Foreign Sound mimic Trendy
Source: Search data.
The data will be divided into two major categories, i.e., graphic and phonetic. In the discussion
of the graphic characteristics, we will show how the consonantal and vowel letters are used to
show the graphic images in communication, akin to those of the emoticons. As for the phonetic
usages, we show how the sounds are encoded in the Korean letters. We also discuss the
flexibility of the usages, illustrating the various ways of combination with other elements
including numbers, English letters, and even the letters from other languages. Based on this
analysis, we then further discuss the abbreviatory expressions including acronyms, by
Laplage em Revista (International), vol.7, n. Extra C, 2021, p.204-221 ISSN: 2446-6220• 206 Kyunney Egorova; Sang-Cheol Ahn
comparing with the examples from other languages. Here we illustrate how the simplicity of
the Korean acronyms can contribute to the effective communication among the young
generation. In sum, the design of this study can be shown as below
Figure 2. Dual application of the Hangeul letters
Source: Search data.
RESULTS: THE USAGE OF THE KOREAN ALPHABET AS CULTURAL ICONS
The graphic usage
As shown in Egorova & Ahn (2016a, 2016b, 2021), the graphic nature of the Korean alphabet
system is quite effective in making SNS or short messages in the cyber space. For example, we
can find a lot of graphic (or pictorial) usages which are formed with Korean alphabet letters.
First of all, consonant letters ㅁ or ㅂ are used as the mouth/nose shape and ㅇ,ㅎ,ㅍ are for
the eyes. From now on, the graphic representations are shaded for better recognition: ㅇㅁㅇ,
ㅇㅂㅇ, ㅇㅅㅇ, ㅁㅅㅁ, ㅎㅇㅎ and ㅅㅅ. The face shapes with quotation marks, apostrophes or
semicolons are also used to express “sweating/being embarrassed” or “crying” , e.g., ‘ㅅ’, “ㅅ”,
‘ㅂ’, ‘ㅇ’, ;ㅅ; ,etc.1
(1) a. Consonant letters only
Surprise: ㅇㅁㅇ ㅇㅂㅇ ㅇㅅㅇ ㅁㅅㅁ ㅎㅇㅎ
Smile: ㅅㅅ ㅆ
b. Combination with punctuation marks:
Smile: “ㅅ” ‘ㅂ’ ‘ㅇ’
Crying: ;ㅅ;
Surprise: ㅇ_ㅇ
Cute face: ㅎ_ㅎ ㅋ_ㅋ >ㅁ<
Second, the vowel letters ㅜ andㅠ are doubled to represent a crying face, e.g., ㅜㅜ, ㅠㅠ,
ㅠㅇㅠ, etc. Also, the vowel letter ㅡ (not the Western dash or hyphen) is often combined with
the other letters, e.g., ㅠ_ㅠ, ㅜ_ㅜ, ㅜㅡ, etc. Similar types of mixture can be made with a
comma or an underscore, e.g., ㅜ.ㅜ, ㅠ.ㅜ, ㅠ.ㅡ, ㅜ_ㅠ, and ㅜㅇㅡ. Korean emoticons can of
course use semicolons and carets; semicolons mean sweating/being embarrassed, while the
carets depict smiles, e.g., ^^, ^-^, ^오^.2 As shown in Egorova & Ahn (2016b), Korean
1
The emoticon was first used by Scott Fahlman of Carnegie Mellon University, USA, in in a message on
September 19, 1982 (ASTEROFF, 1987).
2
There seems to be a certain gender difference in the usage of emoticons.
Laplage em Revista (International), vol.7, n. Extra C, 2021, p.204-221 ISSN: 2446-6220Abbreviation in korean cyber communication • 207
emoticons can also be made by the combinations of the Western punctuation marks or
symbols.3 For example, the dash, hyphen, or underline depicts a bad feeling, e.g., -_^, --^ .4
(2) a. Vowel letters only:
ㅜㅜ, ㅠㅠ, ㅜㅡ ‘crying’
ㅡㅠㅡ ‘depression’
ㅡㅡ ‘sulky, strained’
b. Combination with consonant letters:
ㅠㅇㅠ, ㅜㅇㅡ ‘crying’
ㅇㅠㅇ ‘vomiting/driveling’
ㄱㅡ ‘worry’
c. Combination with ASCII letters:
^오^ , ^ㅇ^ ‘smile’
+ㅡ+, ㅇ_ㅇ ‘surprise’
ㅡㅡ^ ㅡ.ㅡ ‘strained’
o(^^o) (o^^)o ‘patting’
As the following list shows, the graphic nature of the Korean alphabet system, Hangeul, is quite
unique as the Korean letters are more graphically useful than the Chinese or Japanese letters
in terms of their simplicity and efficiency for easier communication. 5 As shown in Koji (18), in
spite of many similarities, Japanese emoticons are more complicated than Korean ones, as the
Korean alphabet letters are more pictorial. 6
(3) a. Korean letters with square shapes
i. Consonants: ㄱ, ㄲ, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄸ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅂ, ㅃ, ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ, etc.
ii. Vowels: ㅏ, ㅑ, ㅓ, ㅕ, ㅗ, ㅛ, ㅜ, ㅠ, ㅡ, ㅣ, ㅢ, etc.
b. Korean letters with round shapes
i. Consonants: ㅇ, ㅎ
3
As shown in Veszelszki (34,35), there are two different types of emoticons, based on the standing
postures. That is, the “western” emoticons or smileys depict human face being rotated 90 degrees, while
the “East Asian” emoticons depict the facial expressions in a standing shape, e.g., ^^ ‘smile’ or (;_;) ‘crying’
(34, p. 105).
4
There are many more examples which belong to this special category. The following examples show the
combination of punctuation marks or special symbols (7).
-;/ --^ ‘uneasy feeling’
>.< ‘agony’
^^; ^-^; ‘sweat running down’
ㅡㅡ;;; -_-;; ‘sweating’
^.~ ‘wink’
-_- ㅡㅡ ‘serious face’
-_^ -_-^ ‘one side of eye brow lifted’
~_~ ‘boring’
=_= ‘sleepiness’, etc.
5
There are also other consonants are also useful to depict various eye shapes, so there is much less need
to employ the western symbols to depict the eye shapes: e.g., ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅈ, ㅉ, ㅊ, ㅎ, ㅇ, etc.
6
The following Japanese emoticons are taken from Koji (18).
(^(エ)^) ‘a bear’, (￣ー￣) ‘happy face’, (>_• 208 Kyunney Egorova; Sang-Cheol Ahn
Reflecting this uniqueness and convenience of the Korean alphabet system, the pictorial use
of the Hangeul (i.e., the Korean alphabet system) is quite frequent in the communication of the
young generation.
The phonetic usage: sound transliteration
Unlike the pictorial characteristics of emoticons, sound transliteration borrows only the sounds,
so the inherent meanings of the numbers, symbols or letters have nothing to do with the
meanings they are carrying in actual communication. These usages reflect the messages sent
in numbers by the beepers and pagers in the 1990’s. Nowadays, not only numbers but also the
symbols or alphabet characters can be combined together to represent necessary sounds. In
English, the sounds of numbers, symbols or alphabets are transliterated to convey meaning in
cyber communication. First, the following examples show some of the most frequently used
English cases which only the sounds are borrowed. That is, the numbers, symbols, letters and
even words express the sound, rather than meaning.
(4) a. Number + letter/word
2 ‘to’, b4 ‘before’, 2day ‘today’, gr8 db8 ‘great debate’
b. Symbol + letters
@oms ‘atoms’
c. Letters
xxx ‘kiss’, zzz ‘snoring’
Longer actual conversational phrases are shown in Crystal (2006, p. 83-84).
(5) u shall nt speak 2 sum1 face2face… ‘you shall not speak to someone face to face…’
b4 bedtime ‘before bedtime’
Just like the English users, many young Koreans often use sound transliteration in SNS
messages. Moreover, they take not only those English cases shown above, but also various
other means of combination in which both Sino-Korean and pure Korean numbers and sounds
are used. In some cases, they even combine the English alphabet sounds with those from other
sources. Below are some representative examples used among the young Koreans. (The
Korean/English sounds are represented in square brackets.)
(6) Sound transliteration7 (LEE, 2010, p. 8).
a. Sino-Korean numbering
8282 [phal i phal i] p’alli p’alli ‘quickly, hurry up’ (빨리빨리) (ref. 8 [phal], 2 [i])
1004 [chən sa] ‘angel’ (천사) (ref. 1000 [chən], 4 [sa])
24 [i sa] ‘moving’ (이사) (ref. 2 [i], 4 [sa])
b. Pure-Korean numbering
1010235 [yəl yəl i samo] (열열히 사모해) ‘love dearly’
(ref. 10 [yəl], 2 [i], 3[sam], 5 [o])
c. (Sino-)Korean sound + number
mi.5 [mio] (미오) miwə ‘hate’ (ref. 5 [o])
gam.4 [gamsa] (감사) ‘thanks’ (ref. 4 [sa])
ba.2 [bai] (바2) ‘bye’ (ref. 2 [i])
7
Sound transliterations is called “Eum-cha phyo-gi (음차표기,音借表記)” in Korean.
Laplage em Revista (International), vol.7, n. Extra C, 2021, p.204-221 ISSN: 2446-6220Abbreviation in korean cyber communication • 209 bap.5 [babo] (밥5) ba.bo‘fool’ (ref. 5 [o]) d. Korean sound + English alphabet gɨn.D [gɨndi] (근D) gɨn.de ‘by the way’ R.ge.tG [algetji] (R겠G) ‘Understand’ g. Number + English alphabet + Korean sound yəl.C.mi [yəlsimi] (10C미) yəlsimhi ‘enthusiastically’ (ref. 10 [yəl]) The examples in (LEE, 2010) clearly show that, having more means of combination, the Korean sound transliteration is highly innovative.8 That is, Korean users transliterate the sounds from alphabet or words from any origin, i.e., Sino-Korean, pure Korean, or even English. And they do the same in combining the sounds of numbers. This highly innovative means of combination, however, is taken to an extreme in some cases, so the outcome may look like an alien language. The following examples illustrate that many nonstandard combinations may result in highly illegible phrases, due to their complicated symbols, numbers, and incorrect spellings. The examples are taken from C.-J. Park (2006, p.459). (7) a. ∧йㅎи福많OI받으서l요 ( 새해 복 많이 받으세요) sae-hae bok manh-i, bad-eu-se-yo ‘Happy new year’ b. 널읔살뢍휔 ( 너를 사랑해) neol-eukh-sal-rwang-hwekh ( neo-reul sa-rang-hae ‘I love you’) The first example consists of symbols, numbers, Cyrillic and Roman letters, and even an Chinese words, in addition to Korean words, which make the whole phrase very difficult to read or almost illegible. The second example shows many intentionally bad spellings, were an attempt by the user to make the phrase cuter. As the main purpose of the sound transliteration is in communicative efficiency, this means of combination, being illegible, makes the phrase unpopular and thus makes (even young) readers reject such combinations. Abbreviations and acronyms Western languages The abbreviations can also be similar to those conventional acronyms which consist of only the initial letters of compounds or phrases.9 As acronyms are made of the initial letter of each syllable or a word and they are frequently used in cyber communication as well as in daily off- line contexts. The common acronyms such as VIP or RSVP are usually capitalized, so that people can easily figure out that they are abbreviations or acronyms.10 (8) asap: as soon as possible RSVP: Répondez s’il vous plaît. (French ‘Reply, if you please’) VIP: very important person BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation PIN number: personal identification number (number) 8 This highly innovative combination has been further developed, so that even more pictorial examples became in use: ♬(^ㅇ^)~♪ 'Lululala’. 9 Certain combinations of number and alphabet letters are also used in conventional abbreviations, e.g., K9: kay-Nine for ‘canine’, designating police units utilizing dogs. 10 Acronyms are also widely used in Russian: e.g., ‘Moscow State University’, for ‘North Eastern Federal University’. Laplage em Revista (International), vol.7, n. Extra C, 2021, p.204-221 ISSN: 2446-6220
• 210 Kyunney Egorova; Sang-Cheol Ahn
The formation of abbreviation/acronym is, however, more innovative in cyber communication,
e.g., combination of initial letters or combination of consonants taken from a single word, e.g.,
wk ‘week’, spk ‘speak’, sry ‘sorry’, thn ‘then’, etc. Nowadays, people try to use further
contractions which shorten short phrases as shown in the following English examples.
(9) English Abbreviations Full form
aam, aamof as a matter of fact
ab ah bless!
add address
cmb call me back
fc fingers crossed
gf girlfriend
omg oh my God
wuwh, wywh wish you were here
ybs you’ll be sorry
yiu yes I understand
These examples show that abbreviations are made of initial letters or syllables from single
words as well as short phrases. The various combination patterns can also be found in other
languages, especially, Indo-European. Refer to an earlier socioliguistic study by Ling (2005)
based on the SMS massages in Norwegian.
(10) Abbreviations Full form English gloss
Czech bo nebot because
cj co je what
csdd co se dá dělat well, it can’t be helped
dh drž hubu shut up
dn dobrou noc good night
dyz když when, if
jj jo jo oh yes
jn jo no ok then
jsm jak se máš how are you
mt miluji tě I love you
zaves žádný velký sraní no big deal
Dutch gep geen enkel probleem no problem
gekocht
gkcht bought
geld
gld money
heb
hb have
ik houd van je
ikvou I love you
ik weet niet
ikwniet I don’t know
je, jij, jou
j You
French alp à la prochaine bye-bye for now
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amha à mon humble avis in my humble opinion
asv âge, sexe, ville age, sex, location
auj aujourd’hui today
bcp beaucoup very much
bjr bonjour good day
bsr bonsoir good evening
c, cé c’est it is
cad c’est-àdire that is
c cho c’est chaud it’s hot
ché chez at the home of
edr écroulé de rire laughing out loud
stp s’il te plaît please
svp s’il vous plaît please
tkc t’es cassé you’re tired
German anws auf nimmerwiedersehn for good and all
bbb bis bald, baby see you soon, baby
bihoba bis hoffentlich bald hope to see you soon
bild bärchen, ich liebe dich baby, I love you
bs bis später see you later
dad denk an dich thinking of you
dbee du bist ein engel you’re an angel
dbmtm du bist mein traummann you’re my dream man
dg dumm gelaufen shit happens
div danke im voraus thanks in advance
ff fortsetzung folgt to be continued
fg fett grins big grins
g grinsen grin
gn8 gute nacht good night
guk grus und kus love and kisses
Italian c sent ci sentiamo see you later
cmq comunque anyhow
dm domani tomorrow
dp dopo after
dr dire say
Spanish b beso kiss
bstnt bastante enough
cia compañía company
comnikr comunicar report
Laplage em Revista (International), vol.7, n. Extra C, 2021, p.204-221 ISSN: 2446-6220• 212 Kyunney Egorova; Sang-Cheol Ahn
complikdo complicado complicated
d de of
dcir decir say
dd días days
dir dirección direction
do domingo Sunday
mñna, mñn, mnna, mnn mañana tomorrow
nd nada nothing
Swedish asg asgarv big laugh
bsdv bara så du vet just so you know
cs ses see you
d du/dig/din/det you, it
d1a detta this
dt det it
e, r är is
eg egentligen really
f1 fett cool
fr från from
hare ha det bra take care
iaf i alla fall in any case
iofs i och för sig actually
ivf i varje fall anyhow
In French, most vowel diacritics in à é û â ô are usually omitted for the sake of simplicity of
writing.
(11) bi1to bientôt ‘soon’,
bi1 sur bien sûr ‘of course’
alp à la prochaine ‘bye-bye for now’
asv âge, sexe, ville ‘age, sex, location’
edr écroulé de rire ‘laughing out loud’
The vowel é is, however, used sometimes as in 6né (ciné )‘cinema’ but such an example is quite
rare. In some cases, however, this vowel is used to carry the function of the apostrophe or for
shorter transcription.
(12) je’, g j’ai ‘I have’
c, cé c’est ‘that is’
oué ouais ‘yeah’
p-ê peut-être ‘maybe’
In the other examples, however, the diacritic marks are avoided for faster messaging. For
example, the various diacritics are used in many Indo-European languages, such as Czech,
German, French, Spanish, and Swedish. But the usage of the diacritics is suppressed, unless it
is absolutely necessary to keep them in abbreviations, as shown below.
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(13) ä in German: e.g., bs bis später ‘see you later’
á, ě, í, ý, š, ž in Czech: e.g., dyz když 'when, if'
ñ, ó, í in Spanish: e.g., cia compañía ‘company’
ä, å, ö in Swedish: e.g., iofs i och för sig ‘just so you know’
We can conjecture that the tendency of minimizing the diacritics seems to be enforced.
(14) Minimization of diacritics
Minimize the diacritic in abbreviation for faster typing
Shortening of long phrases or expressions also end up with abbreviations or as acronyms, in
which even special symbols and numbers can be used, independently or in combination with
the alphabet letters.
(15) Abbreviations in English (CRYSTAL, 2008, p. 189).
Abbreviation Full form
@ at
1daful wonderful
2 to, too, two
2b, 2B to be
2d4, 2D4 to die for
2day, 2DAY today
2moro tomorrow
2nite tonight
4 for, four
4e, 4ever forever
t+ think positive
As for the use of the numbers, the sounds of “2, 4, 8” seem to be quite useful in English, while
the other numbers are rarely used.
(16) a. “2” = [tu] 'to'
f2t free to talk
g2g, gtg got to go
h2cus hope to see you soon
t2go time to go
wan2 want to
b. “4” = [fɔɹ] 'for'
j4f just for fun
u4e yours for ever
c. “8” = [ejt] without meaning
Laplage em Revista (International), vol.7, n. Extra C, 2021, p.204-221 ISSN: 2446-6220• 214 Kyunney Egorova; Sang-Cheol Ahn
gr8 great
db8 debate
d8 date date
h8 hate
m8 mate
l8 late
l8r later
w8 wait
ttul8r, ttyl, ttyl8r talk to you later
d. “1” = 'one'
n1 nice one
no1 no one
Other Western languages show similar patterns as we can see in the following examples
(CRYSTAL, 2008, p. 207-228).
(17) Abbreviation Full form English gloss
Czech o5 (5=pět) opět again
z5 zpět back
o5z5 opět zpět back again
Dutch 2l8 (2=twee) te laat too late
b& (&=en) ben am
ngd8 (8=acht) nagedacht thought
French @2m1, a2m1 (1=un) à demain till tomorrow
1 un one
6né (6=six) ciné cinema
A12C4 9 (2=deux) à un de ces quatres See you one of these days
apls, @+ à plus See you later
cb1 c’est bien that’s good
bi1to bientôt soon
b1sur bien sûr of course
koi29 quoi de neuf what’s new
German 3n nie, niemals, nirgendwo no way, no how
3st (3=drei) das war dreist that was cheeky
8ung (8=acht) achtung attention
Italian dv 6 (6=sei) dove sei where are you
qlk1 (1=uno) qualcuno someone
-male meno male luckily
mmt+ mi manchi tantissimo I miss you very much
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Spanish +tikr (más ‘plus’) masticar chew
0/ning ninguno no-one
a2 (2=dos) adios goodbye
salu2 saludos greeting
s3 estrés stress
t2 todos all
Swedish 3vlig (3=tre) trevlig nice
7k (7=sju) sjuk sick
The number “3” is used sometimes for its meaning ‘three’, rather than its sound in English and
German.
(18) English: a3 ( any three, i.e., anytime, anywhere, anyplace)
German: 3n ( drei n ‘three n’, i.e., nie, niemals, nirgendwo) ‘never, no way, no how’
These examples show that cyber communication prefers shorter expressions for faster and
more impressive reading.
(19) Simplicity principle of abbreviation
Whenever possible, take the shorter form, i.e., symbol or number, for faster messaging.
Transliteration of ideographic alphabets
Unlike the Indo-European languages, those languages having ideographic letters show
different abbreviation patterns through sound-based transliteration. Being ideographic, for
example, Chinese has much fewer acronyms or abbreviations than those languages having
phonographic, alphabet-based writing systems. Thus, they use either English acronyms or the
initial letters of Transliterated Chinese words.
(20) Chinese acronyms
a. 我要下了, CU [wǒ yào xiàle, CU] ‘I will get off-line, CU(see you).’
b. 有没有PLMM? [yǒu méiyǒu PLMM] ‘Isn’t there pretty eyebrow?’
(PLMM (piàoliang měiméi)漂亮美眉 'beautiful eyebrow')
c. JJ (jiějiě, 姐姐) ‘sister’
GG (gēgē, 哥哥) ‘brother’
PMP (pāimǎpì, 拍马屁) ‘flatterer’
BD (bèndàn, 笨蛋) ‘idiot’
Moreover, certain symbols or numbers are used due to the similarities of their sounds to the
intended phrases.
(21) a. +u jia you come on! (i.e. encourage)
555 wuwuwu whimper (5=wu)
88 baibai bye-bye (8=bā)
b. 我明天有K4 [wǒ yǒu míngtiān kǎoshì] ‘I have an examination tomorrow.’
(考试 (kǎoshì) = examination, kao (考) + shi (试, 4))
Further examples are shown below (4, p.199-200).
(22) b4 bishi despise [also ‘before’]
bb baobei darling, baby
Laplage em Revista (International), vol.7, n. Extra C, 2021, p.204-221 ISSN: 2446-6220• 216 Kyunney Egorova; Sang-Cheol Ahn
bc baichi idiot
bs bishi despise
cm choumei show off
dd didi brother
ddd dingdingding agree
dx daxia expert
kl konglong dinosaur (ugly woman)
mm meimei sister
mpj mapijing flatterer
(Original source: Liwei Jiao, Report of Ministry of Education and National Language Committee
of China, 22 May 2006)
Abbreviations in Korean
Just like the truncation process, the Korean abbreviation patterns have been studied in many
earlier studies (EGOROVA et al. 2016a, 2016b; LEE< 2003; LEE 2012; LEE, 2017; LEE and
SUNWOO, 2012; LEE, 2010; SONG, 2007). Being phonographic, the Korean writing system
provides a lot of varieties for abbreviation as well as truncations. For example, the truncation
of syllable or segments are very common in Korean cyber communication (EGOROVA et al.,
2016b, 2021).
(23) yə.lə.bun→yəl.bun (여러분 → 열분) ‘people’
hɛss.sɨp.ni.da → hɛss.sɨm.da (했습니다→ 했슴다) ‘(I) did’
с’a.cɨŋ.na → c’aŋ.na (짜증나 → 짱나) ‘(I am) annoyed’
The shortening of casual expressions, however, goes further, so that we can take only the initial
letter of each syllable.11 And this abbreviation process applies to not only to pure Korean (24a)
but also to transliterated English words (24b).12
(24) Abbreviation Full form Transliteration English gloss
a. ㅇㅇ 응응 ŋ,ŋ (ɨŋɨŋ) ‘Yeah’
ㄷㄷ 덜덜 d.d (dəl.dəl) ‘trembling, rattling’
ㅎㄷㄷ 후덜덜 h.d.d (hu.dəl.dəl) ‘heavy trembling’
ㅋㅋ 크크 khe.kh (khɨ khɨ) ‘Laughing’
ㅎㅎ 하하 h.h (ha.ha) k .h h
‘Laughing’ ‘Laughing’
(khɨ.ha)
ㅋㅎ 크하 ‘Thanks’
g.s (gam.sa)
‘Congratulations’
ㄱㅅ 감사
ch.kh (chuk.ha)
‘Sorry’
ㅊㅋ 축하[추카]
j.s (joe.soŋ)
ㅈㅅ 죄송
These usages can be found in older generations, as we can find such expressions likeㅋㅋㅋ khkhkh (
11
크크크, khɨ.khɨ.kh) ‘laughing’ in the twitter communication by people in their 40’s (LEE, 2012, p. 191).
12
The graphic or pictorial character of the Korean alphabet may end up in a tilted form. For example,
'KIN' is not an English word, but it is a tilted shape of the Korean syllable즐, meaning ‘No way (=rejection
of an offer)’ or ‘Go away!’ (SONG, 2007, p. 8). Some common swear words such as ㅂㅅ (bs) meaning
byəŋsin ‘fool’ are formed in a similar way (SONG, 2007, p. 71).
Laplage em Revista (International), vol.7, n. Extra C, 2021, p.204-221 ISSN: 2446-6220Abbreviation in korean cyber communication • 217
b. ㅇㅋ 오케이 O.kh (O.khej) ‘OK’
ㄴㄴ 노노 N.N (No No) ‘No, no’
Along with these word-based abbreviations, Arabic numerals are often combined to be
transliterated, denoting certain words or phrases.
(25) 8282 phal.i phal.i ( p’alli p’alli) ‘quick quick’
2424 i.sa.isa ( isa ) ‘moving (company)’
4989 sa.gu.phal.gu ( sa.go phal.go) ‘buy and sell’
7788 chil.chil.phal.phal ( chichi pha.pha) ‘chug-chug, puff-puff’
These transliterations of numbers are widely used not only in SMS messaging but also in
commercial advertising or even in websites for public information. For example, “8282” is often
used by many small business stores doing “quick” delivery services, while the number “2424”
is often used as their contact phone numbers by many moving companies. Furthermore, the
number “7788” has been widely used as the major phone number of major train stations in
Korea: e.g., 1544-7788, 1588-7788 (nationwide toll-free numbers). Whenever available, this
number is favored even in small train stations, e.g., the phone numbers of Uiseong station in
Kyungbuk Province and Yangphyeong statation in Gyeonggi Province are 054-832-7788 and
031-774-7788.
DISCUSSION AND FURTHER REMARKS
So far, we have examined the characteristic usages of the Korean alphabet letters, Hangeul,
having both graphic and phonetic roles in SNS or short message communications. First of all,
We showed the unique graphic application of the Korean letters. For example, the consonant
letters ㅁ or ㅂ are used as the mouth/nose shape and ㅇ,ㅎ,ㅍ are for the eyes. The face shapes
with quotation marks, apostrophes or semicolons are also used to express “sweating/being
embarrassed” or “crying” , e.g., ‘ㅅ’, “ㅅ”, ‘ㅂ’, ‘ㅇ’, ;ㅅ; ,etc. These graphic usages are based on
the square and round shapes of the Korean alphabet letters. Especially, the circle shaped letter
is used quite often for various situations, e.g., crying, smiling, surprise, patting, etc. In fact, it
represents a velar nasal in a syllable-final position, while only an “empty” onset required only
orthographically. That is, this “zero” consonant does not have any sound value as an initial
segment, as in 아이 [a.i] in whichㅏand l represent [a] and [i], respectively, whileㅇtakes the
empty syllable-initial positions. Nevertheless, it is not only used as a part of emoticon, but also
in the formation of acronyms as shown in (24). In other words, the “empty” consonantㅇstill
plays an important role in the expression “Yea”, “OK” or “This is real”.13 (Especially, the final
example shows the clear case of the initial “zero” consonant in abbreviation.)
(26) ㅇㅇ (• 218 Kyunney Egorova; Sang-Cheol Ahn As we have observed, having both square and round shapes, the Hangeul letters are used for graphic images as if they were Lego blocks which can be piled up both horizonally and vertically. And this kind of diverse usages is hard to find in other languages. On the other hand, being phonetically motivated alphabet system, the Hangeul letters are optimized for phonetic representation in abbreviation. Being often used in SNS messages, the Hangeul transliterations represent the shortened sounds of the intended long expressions. Moreover, along with the common borrowing of English abbreviation, the typological differences in writing produce very unique abbreviations patterns, especially in Korean. For example, SNS abbreviations are more abundant, shortening both native-Korean and Sino- Korean words or phrases, along with the English expressions. Furthermore, the sound correspondence between the numerals and the Hangeul expressions is quite often used in SNS messaging, commercial advertisements, or even in websites for public information. Therefore, we can argue that the flexibility of the usage comes from the innate nature of the phonetically motivated Hangeul alphabet system (EGOROVA & AHN, 2021). In sum, we claim that the phonetic as well as the graphic nature of the Korean alphabets make the Korean cyber communication more innovative and unique than those of other languages. This study is distinct from the many earlier studies as they give their major focus on morphological or sociolinguistic aspects. Therefore, the theoretical significance of the work lies in the fact that the abbreviated expressions are considered as a unique tool of modern communication, especially for the young generation. In this regard, this study can also contribute to the typological researches on writing systems. From a practical point of view, the result of this study can serve a reference material as well as a good basis for subsequent research on coinage of neologism. REFERENCES ASTEROFF, J. Paralanguage in Electronic Mail: A Case Study. Doctoral Dissertation, Columbia University, 1987. Available at: https://www.elibrary.ru. Access: Jun. 11, 2021. BLAIS, C.; JACK R.E,; SCHEEPERS, C.; FISET, D.; CALDARA, R. Culture shapes how we look at faces. PLoS ONE, v. 3, p. e3022, 2008. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0003022. Access: Jun. 11, 2021. CRYSTAL, D. Language and the Internet (2nd edition). Cambridge: University Press, 2006. CRYSTAL, D. Txtng, the Gr8 Db8. Oxford: University Press, 2008. DI NARDO, M. A risk assessment proposal through system dynamics. Journal of Southwest Jiaotong University, 2020, 55(3). Available at: https://doi.org/10.35741/issn.0258- 2724.55.3.4. Access: Jun. 11, 2021. DRESNER, E.; HERRING, S.C.. Functions of the non-verbal in CMC: Emoticons and illocutionary force. Communication Theory, v. 20, p. 249-268, 2010. Available at: https://www.elibrary.ru. Access: Jun. 11, 2021. EGOROVA; KYUNNEY; AHN, S.-C. Emoticons in Korean Cyber Communication. Materials of the All-Russian scientific conference (with international participation) dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the M.K. Ammosov “Cultural heritage of traditional communities in the context of world civilization: problems of translation and intercultural dialogue”: North-Eastern Federal University named after M.K. Ammosov (Yakutsk), 2016b. Available at: https://www.elibrary.ru. Access: Jun. 11, 2021. EGOROVA; KYUNNEY; AHN, S.-C. Morpho-phonological patterns of recent Korean neologisms. Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 531Proceedings of the conference on current problems of our time: the relationship of man and society (CPT 2020), 2021. Available at: https://www.elibrary.ru. Access: Jun. 11, 2021. EGOROVA; KYUNNEY; AHN, S.-C. Truncation in Korean cyber communication. Vestnik of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. series: linguistics, v. 20, n. 2, p.100-111, 2016a. Available at: https://www.elibrary.ru. Access: Jun. 11, 2021. Laplage em Revista (International), vol.7, n. Extra C, 2021, p.204-221 ISSN: 2446-6220
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Abbreviation in korean cyber communication • 221
Abbreviation in korean cyber communication
Abreviação na comunicação cibernética coreana
Abreviatura en la comunicación cibernética coreana
Resumo Abstract Resumen
O objetivo deste artigo é argumentar The purpose of this paper is to El propósito de este documento es
que os vários padrões das argue that the various patterns of argumentar que los diversos
abreviaturas coreanas devem ser the Korean abbreviations should be patrones de las abreviaturas
interpretados como ícones culturais. interpreted as cultural icons. coreanas deben interpretarse
Abordagem líder da pesquisa: Leading approach to research: como iconos culturales. Enfoque
classificação por tipos de classification by types of líder de la investigación:
abreviaturas e análise teórica de suas abbreviations and theoretical clasificación por tipos de
propriedades. Os autores analysis of their properties. The abreviaturas y análisis teórico de
argumentam que a natureza authors argue that the phonetic but sus propiedades. Los autores
fonética, mas também gráfica do also graphic nature of the Korean argumentan que la naturaleza
sistema de alfabeto coreano, torna a alphabet system makes the fonética pero también gráfica del
estrutura muito inovadora e única. structure very innovative and sistema de alfabeto coreano hace
Além disso, os autores afirmam que, unique. Moreover, the authors que la estructura sea muy
juntamente com o empréstimo claim that along with the common innovadora y única. Además, los
comum das abreviaturas inglesas, as borrowing of English abbreviations, autores afirman que junto con el
diferenças tipológicas na escrita the typological differences in préstamo común de abreviaturas
produzem padrões únicos de writing produce unique en inglés, las diferencias
abreviaturas, especialmente em abbreviations patterns, especially in tipológicas en la escritura
coreano. Quanto às análises teóricas, Korean. As for the theoretical producen patrones de abreviaturas
tomamos os exemplos de vários analyses, we take the examples únicos, especialmente en coreano.
artigos sobre neologismo e from various papers on neologism En cuanto a los análisis teóricos,
dicionários online. O significado and the online dictionaries. The tomamos los ejemplos de diversos
teórico da obra reside no fato de theoretical significance of the work artículos sobre neologismo y los
que as expressões abreviadas são lies in the fact that the abbreviated diccionarios online. En este
consideradas como uma ferramenta expressions are considered as a sentido, este estudio también
única da comunicação moderna, unique tool of modern puede contribuir a las
especialmente para a geração communication, especially for the investigaciones tipológicas sobre
jovem. Do ponto de vista prático, o young generation. In this regard, sistemas de escritura. Desde un
resultado deste estudo pode servir a this study can also contribute to the punto de vista práctico, el resultado
um material de referência, bem typological research on writing de este estudio puede servir de
como uma boa base para pesquisas systems. From a practical point of material de referencia, así como
subsequentes sobre cunhagem do view, the result of this study can una buena base para la
neologismo. serve a reference material as well as investigación posterior sobre la
a good basis for subsequent acuñación de neologismo.
research on coinage of neologism.
Palavras-chave: Acrônimo. Sistema Keywords: Acronym. Writing Palabras-clave: Acrónimo. Escritura.
de escrita. Hangeul. Coreano. system. Hangeul. Korean. Hangeul. Coreano. Transliteración.
Transliteração. Transliteration.
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