Between Fakatsit and SMS-it* there's some Hebrew**

Translated from Israeli version on ynet.co.il, 14.06.06

The language of Israeli teenage girl-bloggers draws away from written Hebrew, to a point of illegibility. However researchers advise not to call them illiterates and point out a first innovative attempt to create a Hebrew [sic] web lingo

Gal Mor

באתר *‏w‏ ‏X‏נ*‏N‏3*!ת, ‏N‏‏w‏חק* ‏X‏!ן-&**ן,ת!כנ!ת,07ט!נ*ם,ת‏N‏!נ!ת ‏N‏גנ*2!ת, ק&*פ*ם !‏w‏*7*ם, 7*ג‏w‏!נ*ם !‏y‏!ד....ת!0*פ! ‏X‏ת ‏y‏‏N‏3כם &7‏w‏*‏N‏ת הח27*ם ‏w‏&נ!!!!!

Normative form:

באתר יש אנימציות, משחקי און-ליין, תוכנות, סרטונים, תמונות מגניבות, קליפים ושירים, רגשונים ועוד... תוסיפו את עצמכם לרשימת החברים שלנו!!!

If you did not understand this opening sentence, which appears at the top of a personal page in [Israeli] youth portal Tipo, then you are probably not in the right age for it.

Every child can explain to you (with a wondering look on his face) that it says: “The site includes animations, online games, software, film strips, cool pictures, video clips and songs, emoticons and more… Add yourself to our members list!!!”. Meet Fakatsit, a lingo common among groups of young bloggers, and a distant relative of SMS-it.

Fakatsit, not SMS-it

Illan Gonen and Carmel Vaisman, who performed a research on this digital youth lingo, show that the connection between the two lingos today is fairly weak: while the purpose of SMS-it is as brief a message as possible, Fakatsit doesn’t abbreviating but lengthens for ornamentation and fun purposes.

The former replaces [Israeli] words with letters or digits, e.g., u instead of you, while in Fakatsit [Israeli] letters are replaced with ASCII symbols with graphic resemblance, e.g., y for the Israeli letter Ayin ע, while the length of the word does not change. Another distant relative of the two is l33t (1337, from elite), hackers’ lingo.

The two researchers presented their first findings at a conference of The Israeli Association for the Study of Language and Society (IALS site, in Israeli), that took place last week at The Open University of Israel.

The uniqueness of [Israeli] Hebrew

Why does SMS-it fail in Israel?

Why does SMS-it fail in Israel, unlike in English-speaking countries? One possible reason is sparsity of letters and characters which can be used for space-saving replacement, such as כל הז בצבא [trans. the worse comes for those in the army, lit. all the-dick in-the-army, /kol ha-zAin ba-cava/. The name of the Israeli letter ז is Zayin, which also means vulgar dick]. Another reason, According to Gonen, is the growing tendency in “Israeli” [inverted commas sic] language towards disassembled constructs rather than joint: אימא שלי [trans. my mom, lit. mom mine, /Ima SelI/ rather than אמי [lit. mother-POSSESIVE PRON 1st sg, /imI/], אח שלי [trans. my brother, lit. brother mine, /ax SelI/ rather than אחי [lit. brother- POSSESIVE PRON 1st sg, /axI/], אני עובד בתור מלצר [trans. I work as a waiter, /anI ovEd betOr melcAr/ rather than אני עובד כמלצר [/anI ovEd ke-melcAr/]. This tendency towards disassembly lengthens the sentence. Since SMS-it has contrasting characteristics to this lengthening tendency in spoken language, it does not affect it largely.

Secret code for keeping grown-ups away

Before media-seeker parliament members rush to submit motions for the agends like “H3br3w – n0w wh3re t0?” and talkbackers to this article will mourn the death of Hebrew and the youngsters’ ignorance, you should calm down and listen the researchers, who say Fakatsit is merely a secret code used by teenagers (mostly girls) for creating a communication channel free of listening adults , just like sfat ha-Bet*** was used for in our times.

Vaisman and Gonen stress that Fakatsit is not an official name, due to the word’s negative connotations. According to Ruvik Rosental, an IALS board member and of the conference initiators, the word fakatsa was first used as a moniker for a woman serving as a military secretary, and then refered to a yuppie bimbo (and maybe acronym of frexa ktana ve-tsa’akanit [trans. young flamboyant bimbo]). Finally, the name was stuck to teenage girls (mostly aged 11-15) who operate pinkish blogs, decorated with graphic “buttons” and dolls animations.

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An innovative attempt to create a web lingo

The most prominent characteristic of Fakatsit is its orthography, which simulates spoken Israeli teenagers’ slang and deviates from standard grammar. Vaisman believes that despite the disesteem that the media and older bloggers show towards the fakatsas, the girls present a first innovative attempt to create a Hebrew [sic] “web lingo”.

According to her [sic, according to Gonen], they make a sophisticated use ASCII keyboard characters and other graphic symbols for a new written lingo, combining Hebrew letters. These adolescent girls tend to switch Hebrew letters with graphically resembling ASCII symbols.

The logic behind this switch code is graphic. In most cases, the letters are switched with digits or like characters. For example, the Hebrew letter Pe פ [usually stands for the sounds /p/ or /f/] is exchanged with the digit 9; the letter Tzadi צ [usually for /c/, צ in handwriting] with the digit 3; and the letter Shin ש [usually for /S/ or /s/] replaced with the English letter W, or with a sequence of slashes and back-slashes \/\/ [or with the English lower-case letter e, which resemble the handwriting form ש]. Vaisman and Gonen stress that the letter switching is not regular as natural written languages. For example, the common Fakatsi sentence אני פצצה פגזית ומושלמת ‘I’m a stunning, perfect knockout’ [anI pcacA pagazIt ve-muSlEmet, lit. I bomb canonball-like and-perfect] can be written in each of the following ways [and many other combinations]:

%נ^ פ33ה 9גז^ת 1N!W5Nת

JX+ 9צ3ה פגז*ת !N1e5Nת

א(י פ33ה פגזית 1מוeלמת

“The keyword is playfulness”, says Gonen, “Their goal is to have fun, not to deliver a message”. Fakatsit, in its extremity, is very illegible, and the researchers assume that it serves the adolescent need for close communality, to cultivate a community without intruders.

“We should not be quick to call them illiterates”, Vaisman recommends, “The definition of literacy is always changing and context-dependant, and many researchers notice that teenagers in computer era have completely different literacy skills. Therefore, it is hard to judge a girl who writes איברית instead of עברית [‘Hebrew’, both pronounced ivrit, the latter is the normative] but knows how to use ‘Photoshop’ for design and combines loanwords in sentences. The language skills required in the digital era are more intricate, and we cannot judge them by the education system standards required twenty years ago”.

Vaisman and Gonen point out in the last six month an Fakatsit’s evolution: the fakatsas use in their blogs ASCII symbols which do not appear on the Israeli keyboard, and make their lingo more creative – hence even less coherent.

Orthography deviations for cuteness

Fakatsit draws away from written Hebrew [sic] not only in letter switching. Girl bloggers sometimes write הבלוג שילי [ha-blOg shilI ‘my blog’] rather than normative הבלוג שלי [ha-blOg shelI, switch Zayin ז [usually represents /z/] with Samekh ס [usually /s/]: מה סה הדבר הסה? [‘What is that thing?’, probably pronounced: ma se ha-davar ha-se] rather than normative מה זה הדבר הזה? [ma ze ha-davAr ha-zE]; switch Dalet ד [usually represents /d/] with Tet ט [usually /t/]: מאוט יפה [‘very pretty’, probably pronounced: meOt yafE] rather than normative מאוד יפה [meOd yafE]; and writing Ayin ע [usually /ø/****, therefore pronunciation of its usages is unkown] instead of He ה [usually for /h/ or /ø/]: normativeחמודה [‘cute-fm-sg’ xamudA] is replaced with חמודע, normative קטנה [‘small-fm-sg’ ktanA] is replaced with קטנע, and given name שירה [‘Shira’] is replaced with שירע.

“They are clearly not spelling mistakes, but consistent orthographic deviations”, says Gonen, who assumes that these changes are part of the cuteness of the written language – a keyword in child culture. Vaisman and Gonen assume that the trend of cuteness is inspired by Japan.

They write as they speak

“When they are angry they can write in Fakatsit ימפגרת יסתומה הרסת לי תיום [‘you stupid retard you’ve ruined my day’, lit. DEROG-retard DEROG-stupid ruined to-me the-day, ya-mfagEret ya-stumA harAst li ta-yom, normative: יא מפגרת, יא סתומה, הרסת לי את היום; ya mefagEret, ya stumA, harAst li et ha-yom]”, says Gonen. “You write the way you speak. It is not a new language. The girls do not invent new rules, but merely write the spoken language. Most people pronounce the following colloquialisms, but would write them in normative script:

מסכירה [maskirA ‘secretary’, normative: מזכירה mazkirA];

אנלא [an-lO ‘I’m not’, normative: אני לא anI lo];

בצפר [becEfer ‘school’, normative: בית ספר beyt sEfer];

גמני [gamanI ‘me too’, normative: גם אני gam anI]”.

Fakatsas totally erase the difference between written and spoken languages.

Another phenomenon in Fakatsit is adding the suffix -uS for cuteness: עדי [adi, given name] becomes עדידוש [adiduS], גיא [gay, Guy, given name] is גאיוש [gayuS], אילת [eylat, Israeli city of Eilat] is אילתוש [eylatuS]. However, -uS is not suffixed to proper names alone: you wear חצאיתוש [xacaituS, norm: xacaIt ‘skirt’], something you see can be מדהימוש [madhimuS, norm: madhim ‘amazing’], and when you leave, you say יאללה ביוש [yala bayuS, norm: yala bay ‘well, bye’]. Some words can join in Fakatsit in a way that hasn’t been seen until now in Israeli writing: גמני [gamani] rather than גם אני [gam ani ‘me too’], ממצב [mamacav] instead of מה המצב [ma ha-macav ‘what’s up’], and some other [more complex] variations, such as ממצב אנשנושים [mamacav anaSnuSim, norm: ma ha-macav anaSim ‘what’s up, people’].

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הבירת'דיי המהמם שלייק היה ‘The awesome birthday that like was’

The greatest linguistic influence on Fakatsit, but Hebrew [sic], is naturally English. The researchers noticed innovations such as הבירת'דיי המהמם שלייק היה [ha-bersdey ha-mehamem Se-layk haya ‘The awesome birthday that like was’], normatively יום ההולדת המהמם שכאילו היה [yom ha-huledet ha-mehamem Se-keilu haya]. “The layk in sense of ‘like’ is, of course, not new to Israeli, but the agglutination of the subordinator prefix ש- [Se-] to layk is the onnpvation of Fakatsit”, note Gonen.

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* SMS-it /esemEsit/ is the Israeli name for the Israeli SMS jargon.

** My additions are given in [square brackets].

*** sfat ha-Bet is an Israeli language game used by children. The principle was to separate the syllables in a word by insertion of the consonant /b/ (the letter Bet) plus a vowel assimilated to its preceding vowel.

**** Merely an orthographic residue from Hebrew script. In a few Israeli variants still pronounced as pharyngeal voiced fricative /ʕ/, and in some others variants as glottal stop /ʔ/.