Author: John Williams / Source: New York Times
Yazmin Butcher
The first step in the next stage of language’s inevitable evolution — or devolution — may have already hppnd.
The year now ending has been one of catastrophes. To name just two: The planet is getting warmer and the alphabet is getting shorter.
Where have all the vowels gone?It’s true that A, E, I, O and U have never gotten much respect. In Scrabble, they’re each worth a measly point. On “Wheel of Fortune,” they’re cordoned off from the other letters, the ones that get you money and prizes. In fact, contestants have to pay for them out of their bankroll, punishment for making the viewers at home briefly think about stupid, common vowels.
But vowels, up until now, have not been actually without value. Their purpose has been clearly defined and accepted. When we announce we’re going to suss something out, for instance, they keep us from just hissing like a snake.
What we might call the Modern Vowel Massacre seems to have begun sometime in the early aughts, when the band MGMT found some indie-rock fame. In 2009, in People magazine, the band informed us that the proper way to pronounce its name was to simply say the individual letters: M-G-M-T. “The confusion may lie,” the magazine said, “in the fact that the band’s original name was ‘The Management,’ which they shortened to MGMT after discovering that another artist had the rights to it.”
Around the same time, tech companies like Tumblr and Flickr arrived on the scene, dropping e’s both for distinctiveness and because the altered names made it easier to trademark, claim domain names on the internet and conduct other practical business.
Now…
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