Fakatsit: some phonological and lexical phenomena

(Partial translation of the philological column The Language Arena, by Ruvik Rosenthal, in Ma'ariv Sofshavua newspaper)

Cuteness Ayin

While SMS-it is the language of abbreviations, Fakatsit is the language of extensiveness. About an [Israeli] linguistic phenomenon on the web that combines Yiddishizm, wordconjunctionizm and Englishizm

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The revival on the Internet of the Hebrew letter Ayin ע, which is famous for have vanished from the Israeli sound reservoir, is a component of what some call the Fakatsit language, the blogs lingo, which teenage girls use. In a previous section (Ha-Zira Ha-Leshonit 16.6.06), I mentioned the language of abbreviations and symbols that originated from SMS-it. These components create a language sometimes looks like a secret code and requires skill and effort. This other trend in the new web writing does not abbreviate, but rather extends, and is very much based on imitating spoken language.

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Carmel Vaisman and Illan Gonen, that part of their research was presented here few weeks ago, have mapped the Fakatsi style elements of this web lingo. They call the increasing presence of Ayin … The Cuteness Ayin, and its purpose is to give the Fakatsi text a shade of coquetry and flattery. The Ayin sometimes pops up for no reason, within a word, as follows: יאאא משעמם לעייייי [‘ohhh I’m boredddddd’, norm: יא, משעמם לי], יאללה אני עפתי בעייי [‘well, I’m out of here byeee’, norm: יאללה, אני עפתי, ביי], and even בעצפררר [‘school’, norm: בית ספר, בצפר]. By Ayin’s side, the presence of Full Hiriq [i sound represented by the letter Yud י], named here The Cuteness Yud:

שיליי [‘mine’, assumed pron: Sili] rather than standard שלי [Salom],

שילום [‘hello’ assumed pron: Silom] rather than standard שלום [Salom] etc.

Aside from Ayin, Alef א also emerges as an unread/uncalled [Israeli ambiguity] vowel letter, in words like

יאפה [‘beautiful’] rather than standard יפה [yafe],

שאלום, שאאלום [‘hello’] rather than standard שלום [Salom].

This Cuteness Ayin … hints the return of the Yiddish [to Israeli]. A wide spread Yiddish addition [to Israeli], which originates from Slavic languages, is the common suffix ­-uS. It is known as the old affection [diminutive] suffix as in geveruS [standard: gever ‘man’] and, on the derogatory side, the racist title arabuS [‘arab’]. In the surveyed blogs, -uS is suffixed to many given names, sometimes making it difficult to trace the original: liluS [assumed lilax+uS], alonuS [assumed alona+uS], and even foreign names like kristuSka [assumed kristina+uSka] and vikuS [assumed viki+uS]. -uS can also be suffixed to other words: anaSnuSim from anaSim [‘people-CUTE’], or the nice phrase xaim xadaSduSim from xaim xadaSim [‘new-CUTE life’].

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Needless to say, English is embedded deeply in Fakatsit … in many variations: English opening the sentence, ending it, or inserted in the middle of it. The examples speak for themselves:

מי אנד מיי פרפקט פמילי נוסעים!

[mi end may perfekt femili nosim

‘me and my perfect family are going!’];

סוו לייק אי ג'סט לא מאמינה שיש אנשים סוו קנאים

[sow layk ay jast lo maamina SeyeS anaSim sow kanaim

‘so like I just can’t believe there are such jealous people’];

סו באילת קניתי מוצ'ו אוף סינגס והיה פאנוש

[assumed: sow be-eylat kaniti muCo ov singz ve-haya fanuS

‘so in Eilat I bought mucho of things and it was fun-CUTE’];

ביקוז זה שיו מקנאים בי איטס לייק נוט חשוב

[bikoz ze Se-yu mekanim bi ic layk not xaSuv

‘because you envying me, it’s like not important’];

אני לייק סו סורי פיפל שלא עדכנתי מוצ'ו טיים, אבל דההה לייק יש לי לייף

[ani layk sow sori pipel Se-lo idkanti muCo taym, aval da layk yeS li layf

‘I’m like so sorry people I havn’t updated mucho time, but duhhh like I have life (other than this blog)’].