for the last time, the “tumblr accent” is not an ACCENT it is a DIALECT
ok so it's not quite a dialect, since that would necessitate a fundamental shift in grammatical structure while still being sorta recognizable as the same language to speakers of other dialects
i mean, how fundamental you want to argue they are is somewhat YMMV, but the way people use language on this website has absolutely had grammatical and linguistic structure shifts from most "offline" dialects
it's hard to make a coherent argument for phonological changes because text-based website. lets ignore that one lol
from a morphological and vocabulary-based standpoint, there's a few. consider "glup shitto" and "blorbo", as well as generalized affix fuckery like -"ito" as a diminutive (from spanish but used here on non-spanish words), as examples of morphemes originally from tumblr. we also have the concept of the Sexyman (derogatory)
most of the really interesting tumblrspeak comes from syntax though. there is of course the oft-mocked, parodied, and misunderstood Tumblr Prose, where someone just sticks words together in an order that sort of conveys an aesthetic-based meaning as long as you don't think about it too hard and realize it doesn't make a whole lot of sense together
it's obvious what is being conveyed here even though the words barely function together. beyond Tumblr Prose, we also have Emphasis And Nounification Through Capital Letters, and its inverse where everything is lowercase unless it's being emphasized, as well as using sentences that while easily parseable by a reader do lack a lot of punctuation that would be desired by stricter english speakers often commas and periods. this last trait is particularly despicable considering the high amount of neurodivergence among tumblr users makes us very prone to run-on sentences anyway
there is also using "lol" and "lmao" similar to STOP on a telegraph, though it's hard to say how exclusive to tumblr this is
the in-joke about how being on tumblr is a cheat code to being funny as fuck around people who aren't is reliant on the fact that tumblr netizens are often playing with an entirely different set of learned syntax rules than non-tumblr residents




















