photo from ICanHasCheezburger.com
What is it in photos of cats with humorous captions that can actually make me “bersembur” ketawa on a day when I feel so stressed out?
photo from ICanHasCheezburger.com
I bumped into the website a few months ago as I was busy browsing around wordpress. Behold, a website with cute cats in different poses and a LOL caption to go with it. But not any caption mind you, cats now have their own grammar.
Being a cat lover and a former language and sociology student, this not only struck my funny bone but my interest too.
Anil Dash in his article “Cats Can Has Grammar” provides explanation on how this new language is developing into what he refers to as “Kitty pidgin”.
I was having a conversation with Ben and Ben a few weeks ago where I suggested this consistent grammar for lolcats could be a “cweeole”. Knowing a bit more about such things now, I realize this isn’t a creole but more likely a pidgin language, used to help cats talk to humans. And since “pidgin” is already a cutesy spelling of a mispronunciation, there doesn’t seem to be any really cute way to rename it to reflect its uniqueness. “Kitty pidgin” might be the closest thing we have to a name for this new language – Anil Dash
And since pidgin is a simple and effective form of communication being the grammar as simple as it can be, to this is Kitty pidgin may be true after all.
‘Cats have bad grammar, and it’s funnier that way’ – LinguisticMystic.com
True. I don’t think they photos were funny if the caption were taken out. And the photos with proper grammar weren’t funny either.
But alas, when I share these photos with some of friends, not all agree that they are funny or not many are addicted to them. This subculture has its fans in its own definition
Computer geeks have their own niche in pop culture. Sometimes, something crazed from that niche escapes and runs rampant among the masses – DWIGHT SILVERMAN
I in ur studioz….hedbanz tu ur tunez..
- Lolcat From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- I Can Has Talking Animals?. Open Source (radio show).
- Silverman, Dwight (2007-06-05). I’M IN UR NEWSPAPER WRITIN MAH COLUM.
- im in mai blog, postin’ bout cats: The Cuteness of Grammatical errors. Linguistic Mystic (2007-02-07).
- Anil Dash (2007-04-23). Anil Dash: Cats Can Has Grammar.
- Annalee Newitz (2007-04-27). I’M IN YR X Y-ING YOUR Z — A Grammar of Lolcats.
- Mark Liberman (2007-04-25). Language Log: Kitty Pidgin and asymmetrical tail-wags.
- I has a bucket / Noooo they be stealin’ my bucket (2007-06-05).
- Agger, Michael (2007-05-21). Cat power: You cannot resist lolcats. Slate Magazine.
- Silverman, Dwight (2007-6-6). I’M IN UR NEWSPAPER WRITIN MAH COLUM. Chron.com. Retrieved on 2007-06-06.
External links
- ICanHasCheezburger.com
- Lolcat image gallery
- Macrocats image gallery
- tehcats’ Lolcat image gallery
- Lolcat Generator
- Lolcat in Bahasa
6 Comments
June 12, 2007 at 1:25 pm
that kitty entry..comel laaaaaaaa
thanks 4 hopping to my blog :0)
June 13, 2007 at 2:24 am
oh yeah, oh yeah..that cat..doing the rockin’ thing in the studio..he sure rocks!
June 14, 2007 at 2:31 am
yes, this i canhascheesberger blog is really awesome. Been in the top 1 in wordpress for long alredy
August 3, 2007 at 11:21 am
all the ps2 games
Really nice site you have here. Ive been reading for a while but this post made me want to say 2 thumbs up. Keep up the great work.
August 3, 2007 at 11:59 am
all psp games
Aww… I just found this blog too! Well best of luck with the projects.I’m thinking about doing the same thing very soon.
November 20, 2007 at 6:38 am
[...] superseded all other dialects of English, with the Valley Girl Dialect dying out in 2347 and Kitty Pidgin in [...]