Ôèëîëîãè÷åñêèå íàóêè / 3. Òåîðåòè÷åñêèå è ìåòîäîëîãè÷åñêèå ïðîáëåìû èññëåäîâàíèÿ ÿçûêà

Vakhotskyi M.M.

Bukovinian State Medical University, Chernivtsi, Ukraine

INTENTIONAL MISSPELLING AS A SATIRIC MEANS

IN MODERN ENGLISH

 

A satiric misspelling is an intentional misspelling of a word, phrase or name for 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). 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 USA leftists sometimes used Amerika rather than America in referring to the United States.  It is still used as a political statement today. It is likely that this was originally an allusion to the German spelling of the word, 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.

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

The dollar sign ($) can be inserted in the place of the letter S, the euro sign (ˆ) 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:

·                    App£e (for Apple Inc.) used in a similar way as Micro$oft, but with the Apple company. Relates to the allegation that the company charges high prices for their products. Also criticized for taking advantage of loyal customers and upgrading products annually for an expensive price, and for pervasive use of software patents as a means to corner the market and stifle innovation (patent trolling). Similarly, $teve Job$ is used for company’s former chief executives just like "Bill Gate$" is used for Microsoft's former chief executive.

·                    Bu$h – for George W. Bush, or any member of the Bush family.

·                    Co$ or $cientology – for the Church of Scientology: Used by opponents to the Church of Scientology to imply that the religion is founded solely on financial rather than spiritual motives.

·                    E$$o or ˆ$$o – for Esso or Exxon Mobile: used by the UK-based Stop Esso campaign encouraging people to boycott Esso, in protest against Esso's opposition to the Kyoto Protocol.

·                    Hill$ong – for Hillsong Church: used by people against the Hillsong Church to state that they are only existent to take offerings to be used for worker's luxury rather than Christian-like charitable uses.

·                    kla$$ – for class: used to draw attention to the belief that American citizens are widely and unfairly ranked solely on terms of their material wealth.

·                    Micro$oft, M$, M$FT – for Microsoft): used to emphasize the allegation that Microsoft has business practices that focus on making money rather than producing good products or looking after the end user's needs and interests. Orac£e – for Oracle Corporation: used by critics of Oracle Corporation after they acquired Sun Microsystems and their habit of being a patent troll (used in a similar way as M$ and App£e). "£arry ˆ££i$on" is also used to insult Oracle Corporation in a similar way as "Bill Gate$”.

·                    Ru$$ia – for Russia: used in reference to perceived corruption in the country.

·                    $ocialism – for Socialism: critics have pointed out that the idea of socialism has been exploited for profit, by politicians, corporations and artists. In particular as a criticism of Michael Moore.

·                    Uncle $am – for Uncle Sam.

·                    United $tates, United $tate$, U$, U$A – for United States.

·                    Wa$hington – for Washington.

·                    ₩indo₩$ – for Microsoft Windows: used by critics of Microsoft Windows in a similar way as Micro$oft.

·                    "Green Chri$tma$", a song by Stan Freberg, satirizing over-commercialization of Chri$tma$.

·                    Ke$ha: pop music artist. She specifically began styling her name this way to show that she would not work without compensation after Florids failed to do so for her part on "Right Round”.

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.

It is often used to combine feminine and masculine words in Spanish in an attempt to form a gender neutral alternative. For example, Latin@ might be used in place of Latino/Latina.

Typically names ending in “o” are the masculine equivalent of feminine names ending in A. But in other cases, there are different reasons for this. In other cases, “o” is in the middle of a word when the pronunciation of an ending "a" or hard-vowel U is in place of a hard or soft O sound.

Californ-I/O', a nickname for the San Francisco Bay Area since places like San Jose have heavy computer industry in which I/O refers to the input/output mechanics of computers, and that California itself is also referred to as Californ-I-A with surf culture.

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:

After the controversial 2000 US Presidential elections, the alleged improprieties of the election prompted the use of such titles as "pResident" and "(p)resident" for George W. Bush. The same effects were also used for Bill Clinton during and after Clinton's impeachment hearings. These devices were intended to suggest that the president was merely the resident of the White House rather than the legitimate president of the US, though all US presidents in general were a "r"esident of the United States in the beginning.

Similarly, the controversial US law, the USA PATRIOT Act is sometimes called the "patRiot Act", "(pat)Riot Act", "PAT Riot Act", "PAT RIOT Act", or "You Sap At Riot Act" by its opponents.

The perception that membership in the United Nations is counter to US interests and sovereignty is denoted by the terms "Un-ited Nations" or "EU-nited Nations" (similarity to EU – European Union). Similarly, the perception that the United Nations is ineffectual (castrated) is denoted by the term "EUN-ited Nations" (similarity to eunuch).

Feminist theologian Mary Daly has used a slash to make a point about patriarchy: "gyn/ecology", "stag/nation", "the/rapist".

F(r)iends; sometimes the so-called "friends" of some people possess qualities of fiends.

The British political satire magazine Private Eye has a long standing theme of insulting the law firm Carte-Ruck by replacing the R with an F to read Carter-Fuck. The law firm once requested that Private Eye cease spelling its name like that to which the magazine, true to form, started spelling it "Farter-Fuck".

f(r)ee, what is seen as a "free" product has external costs that defeat the status of it being free. For instance, when somebody wins a free ocean cruise with Carnival, certain expenses like airplane tickets, or cost of gasoline for getting from places miles away from the coast to the cruise ship port can negate the deal.

C(h)itroen (actually C is an S in this case), a term used to insinuate that Citroen cars are "shit".

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. Alternatively, the English spelling Brazil is used in Portuguese pieces of text as a way to denote Anti-Americanism or Anti-globalization sentiment.

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 "It is a kollege stoodent," "Hookt on Foniks Wurks Fur Mee!" or some such, suggesting that college students are ignorant.

Plays on acronyms are also common, when the full name that the acronym in question stands for is spelled out but one of the words in that above full name is replaced by another word highlighting a controversial aspect of what said acronym is about. For example, Richard Stallman and other FSF executives often refer to DRM as “digital” restrictions management", a reference to the tendency for DRM to stifle the end user's ability to reshare music or write CDs more than a certain number of times.

 

References:

1.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satiric_misspelling

2.     Lipton J. Internet Domain Names, Trademarks and Free Speech / Jacqueline Lipton. – Cheltenham, 2010. – 325 p.

3.     Simpson P. On the Discourse of Satire: Towards a Stylistic Model of Satirical Humour / Paul Simpson. – Philadelphia: John Benjamins B.V., 2003. – 243 p.

4.     Griffin D.H. Satire: A Critical Reintroduction / Dustin H. Griffin. – Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky, 1994. – 247 p.

5.     Dickson-Carr D. African American Satire: The Sacredly Profane Novel / Darryl Dickson-Carr. – Missouri, 2001. – 226 p.