adulthood is over-rated

This is really exciting, linguistically speaking.

Because it’s not true that Tumblr never uses punctuation. But it is true that lack of punctuation has become, itself, a form of punctuation. On Tumblr the lack of punctuation in multisentence-long posts creates the function of rhetorical speech, or speech that is not intended to have an answer, usually in the form of a question. Consider the following two potential posts. Each individual line should be taken as a post:

ugh is there any particular reason people at work have to take these massive handfuls of sauce packets they know they’re not going to use like god put that back we have to pay for that stuff

Ugh. Is there any particular reason people at work have to take these massive handfuls of sauce packets they know they’re not going to use? Like god, put that back. We have to pay for that stuff.

In your head, those two potential posts sound totally different. In the first one I’m ranting about work, and this requires no answer. The second may actually engage you to give an answer about hoarding sauce packets. And if you answer the first post, you will likely do so in the same style. 

Here’s what makes this exciting: the English language has no actual punctuation for rhetorical speech–that is, there are no special marks that specifically indicate “this speech is in the abstract, and requires no answer.” Not only that, it never has. The first written record of English (actually proto-English, predating even Old English) dates to the 400s CE, so we’re talking about 1600 years of having absolutely no marker whatsoever for rhetorical speech.

A group of teens and young adults on a blogging website literally reshaped a deficit a millennium and a half old in our language to fit their language needs. More! This group has agreed on a more or less universal standard for these new rules, which fits the definition of “language.” Which is to say Tumblr English is its own actual, real, separate dialect of the English language, and because it is spoken by people worldwide who have introduced concepts from their own languages into it, it may qualify as a written form of pidgin. 

Earlier this year, Chuck C. Johnson got me suspended from Twitter for posting his personal information, in the form of a screenshot that included his telephone number. This is a telephone number he guards zealously:

First 3D ‘Peanuts’ Trailer Will Make You Feel All Warm and Fuzzy

GUYS!!!!

GUYS!!!!!!!!!

THE DOCTOR!!! HE!!!

THE TOWN THE DOCTOR SAVED WAS NAMED CHRISTMAS!!

BUT IT LOOKS AN-AWFUL-LOT LIKE ANOTHER CHRISTMAS THEMED TOWN!!!

CHRISTMAS IS WHO-VILLE!!!!!

THE DOCTOR SAVED WHO-VILLE!!!!

THE DOCTOR SAVED WHO-VILLE!!!!

THE DOCTOR LIVED IN WHO-VILLE FOR OVER 300 YEARS!!!

AND THE CITIZENS FOLLOWED HIM AND LOVED HIM TOO!!!

Everglades National Park Established December 6, 1947

The park was established to conserve the natural landscape and prevent further degradation of its land, plants, and animals in southern Florida.  Today Everglades National Park is a World Heritage Site, an International Biosphere Reserve, a Wetland of International Importance, and a protected area under the Cartagena Treaty.

Chokoloskee Rookery In Everglades National Park, 07/1972

Fred Ward, photographer.

YOU GUYS!! It’s ALIVE! The NPR Book Concierge is at your service — see what we’ve been working on the past few months, and more importantly, see our favorite books of 2013 in a fantastic new clickable searchable playable-with format. 

Want book club ideas that are also love stories? Funny cookbooks? Kids’ books for geeks? And of course, our own staff picks. Check it out!

Spotted this in the bathroom at Brooklyn Central in Park Slope.