Satiric misspelling

Names and words are sometimes intentionally and satirically misspelled for a rhetorical purpose. This is often done by replacing a letter with another letter (for example, k replacing c), or symbol (for example, $ replacing s, @ replacing a, or ¢ replacing c). This is found particularly in informal writing on the Internet, but can also be found in some serious political writing that opposes the status quo.

Contents

"K" replacing "C"

Replacing the letter "c" with "k" in the first letter of a word came into use by the Ku Klux Klan during its early years in the mid-to-late 19th century. The concept is continued today within the ranks of the Klan.

In the 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, leftists, particularly the Yippies, sometimes used "Amerika" rather than "America" in referring to the United States.[1] It is still used as a political statement today.[2] It is likely that this was originally an allusion to the German spelling of America, and intended to be suggestive of Nazism, a hypothesis that the Oxford English Dictionary supports.

In broader usage, the replacement of the letter "C" with "K" denotes general political skepticism about the topic at hand and is intended to discredit or debase the term in which the replacement occurs.[3] Detractors sometimes spell former president Bill Clinton's name as "Klinton" or "Klintoon".

A similar usage in Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese is to write "okupa" rather than "ocupa" (often on a building or area occupied by squatters,[4] referring to the name adopted by okupación activist groups), which is particularly remarkable because the letter "k" is rarely found in either Spanish or Portuguese words. It stems from Spanish anarchist and punk movements which used "k" to signal rebellion.[5]

KKK replacing C or K

A common satiric usage of the letters kkk is the spelling of America as Amerikkka, alluding to the Ku Klux Klan, drawing to a perceived notion of an underlying or inherent racism in American society. The earliest known usage of Amerikkka recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary is in 1970, in a journal called Black World. Presumably, this was an extrapolation from the then already widespread Amerika.

The spelling Amerikkka came into greater use after the 1990 release of the gangsta rap album AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted by Ice Cube and also used by rapper Spice 1 for his album AmeriKKKa's Nightmare.

The letters KKK have been inserted into many other words, to indicate similar perceived racism, oppression or corruption. Examples include:

Currency signs replacing similar letters

The dollar sign ($) can be inserted in the place of the letter "S", the euro sign (€) in place of "E", the yen (¥) sign in place of "Y", the won (₩) sign in place of "W", or the pound (£) sign in place of "L" to indicate plutocracy, greed, corruption, or the perceived immoral, unethical, or pathological accumulation of money. For example:

A recent related usage is replacing "E" with the Euro sign ("€") as in "€$$O", "€urope", and "€C" (used by critics of the European Commission who accuse it of involvement in bribery and corruption).

"@" replacing "A", "at", or "O"

Since at least 1980, people have used the "at sign" ("@") as a representation of the circled letter A. This has been extended to substituting it for the letter "A" as in the crass fanzine "Toxic Gr@fity"[28]

It is often used to combine feminine and masculine words in Spanish, such as Latin@ to mean Latino/Latina

Hidden puns

Occasionally a word written in its orthodox spelling is altered with internal capital letters, hyphens, italics, or other devices so as to highlight a fortuitous pun. Some examples:

Along the same lines, intentional misspellings can be used to promote a specific negative attribute, real or perceived, of a product or service. This is especially effective if the misspelling is done by replacing part of the word with another that has identical phonetic qualities. Examples:

Some place names are also spelled differently in order to emphasize some political view. For instance, Brasil (the Portuguese spelling of "Brazil"), is sometimes misconstrued as a typo for Brazil in English texts.[40] Alternatively, the English spelling Brazil is used in Portuguese pieces of text as a way to denote Anti-Americanism or Anti-globalization sentiment.

Journalists may make a politicized editorial decision by choosing to differentially retain (or even create) misspellings, mispronounciations, ungrammaticities, dialect variants, or interjections.

Intentional misspellings, or spellings used to emphasize dialect, are often used to suggest illiteracy or ignorance. Witness such permutations as "pubblik skoolz", or "public screwels", the latter initially associated with talk radio. A similar phenomenon would be T-shirts saying "I is a kollege stoodent," "Hookt on Foniks Wurks Fur Mee!" or some such, suggesting that college students are ignorant.

Misspellings may also be used to indicate a speaker's accent, when the writer finds that accent worthy of ridicule. A well-known example is nucular, perceived as a regional or uneducated pronunciation of nuclear; Hahvahd is meant to reflect the local pronunciation of Harvard University.

See also

References

  1. ^ See [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
  2. ^ See [6] [7]
  3. ^ LeSaint's Sloth Cave
  4. ^ comunidades.calle22.com - TODOS SOMOS OKUPAS at the Wayback Machine (archived June 11, 2008)
  5. ^ Rodríguez González, Félix. (2006). "Medios de comunicación y contracultura juvenil". In Círculo 25:5–30 [8]
  6. ^ The Blackstripe - Stolen 2000 Election at the Wayback Machine (archived February 25, 2006)
  7. ^ [9]
  8. ^ From Critical Reflections to Forward Progression at the Wayback Machine (archived November 4, 2005)
  9. ^ KKKlinton Follows Hitler's Humanitarian Footsteps at the Wayback Machine (archived September 27, 2007)
  10. ^ Settler vigilantes (re-)converge on the Arizona-Sonora border at the Wayback Machine (archived June 11, 2008)
  11. ^ «Stoppez Bu$h» | Le Devoir
  12. ^ Caught in the Crossfire: What Will Bu$h Do About Corporate Corruption?
  13. ^ UK Indymedia - Stop Bu$h - National Demonstration - Thursday 20th
  14. ^ Urban Dictionary: micro$oft
  15. ^ App£e is the new Micro$oft by scy7he - TribalWar Forums
  16. ^ The $cientology Cartoon Page at the Wayback Machine (archived March 2, 2007)
  17. ^ :: Olekh G. L. Novosibirsk Oblast: Problems of Globalization and Regionalization. :: На пороге будущего… :: «Сибирская Заимка» — история Сибири в научных публикациях
  18. ^ >Country Joe McDonald, All the Fixin's
  19. ^ American Gulag - Dismantle the Prison-Industrial Complex at the Wayback Machine (archived December 23, 2004)
  20. ^ MIM Notes - Bush signs $190 billion farm billopposing `free trade' at the Wayback Machine (archived January 23, 2008)
  21. ^ LeSaint's Sloth Cave
  22. ^ Urban Dictionary: lar$
  23. ^ LinuxQuestions.org - View Single Post - LXer: Ballmer: Android ain't free. Microsoft gets paid
  24. ^ LinuxQuestions.org - View Single Post - The All New Linux vs Windows MegaSuperThread
  25. ^ http://chromeossite.com/wp-content/themes/oschrome/includes/timthumb.php?src=/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/google-money.jpg&w=&h=&zc=1&q=100
  26. ^ http://www.regainingsteam.com/blog/crony55.html
  27. ^ http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/20010/09/michael_a_success_story.html
  28. ^ SOUTHERN | crass records > crass discography, 1980
  29. ^ Name the President!
  30. ^ Internet Archive Wayback Machine
  31. ^ PAT RIOT Act - Richard Stallman
  32. ^ Slashdot Comments | British Columbia Acts Against Patriot Act
  33. ^ Salon Ivory Tower | Battling stag/nation
  34. ^ Elections Québec '98
  35. ^ cri
  36. ^ France-Mail-Forum Nr. 31: Politique et histoire
  37. ^ Les deux vies de « Wolfie », le « néo-con » au « coeur qui saigne » - LeMonde.fr
  38. ^ http://www.boldnebraska.org/con-servative-bait-and-switch
  39. ^ Urban Dictionary: windows hasta la vista
  40. ^ Dictionary - Definition of brasil

External links