\|/ 0 0 7 ’5 4 1 1 teh |= |_| 5 5 4 8 0 |_| 7

\/ 0 0 7 ’5 4 1 1 teh = _ 5 5 4 8 0 _ 7
\/ - 4 \ 7 - 4 7 4 > .- ! 1 1 3 ! \ - ! 5 5 - 0 _ .- 3 5 5 0 7 3
7 3 - ) .- 0 6 - 7 3 0 = \/ 4 .- ( - 3 - 4 7 - > 3 .- ( 3 ) 7 0 7 3 - .- 0 7 3 ,
4 \ ) 8 4 7 3 - ) 3 \/ 3 .- 9 \/ 3 9 \ 3 ! \ 5 \/ ! ( - 1 ! ( 0 _ .-
0 = \/ - ! ( - \/ 3 .- 7 _ 3 \ 6 3 ) .- 3 ) \/ 4 5 7 3 - = 1 3 _ .- ; (> .- 0 1 0 6 _ 3 7 0 teh ( 4 \ 7 3 .- 8 _ .- 9 7 4 1 3 5 , 6 3 0 = = .- 3 9 ( - 4 _ ( 3 .- )

whan that aprille in his shojres sote
the droghte of marche hath perced to the rote,
and bathed every veyne in swich licojr
of which vertj engedred was the flejr; (prologje to the canterbjry tales, geoffrey chajcer)

Whan that Aprille in his shoures sote
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engedred was the fleur; (Prologe to The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer)

When April with his sweet showers has
pierced the drought of March to the root,
and bathed every vein is such moisture
as has power to bring forth the flower; (Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer)

So as the title asks “So what is all the woot about?”

Wait, what’s w00t, you ask me -- it’s an interjection like YAYE of course. Don’t tell me, let me guess, you still don’t get it. You’re such a n00b -- OK, then in plain Old English -- (that would be something like neuen) can’t do that either, Middle English then -- neow-oumen. Has to be current English then? OK a newbie -- a noun, new to the game or new to whatever.

High school English

Remember when you were in high school? Seems like a distant shore on the other side of the galaxy to me at times, but I do remember a bit. For some of us that might seem like before the Battle of Hasting in 1066AD, which ushered in the age of Middle English, supplanting Old English -- but to them I guess it was Anglisch or **** you get the idea. Anywho, remember your English teacher constantly lecturing you about the proper use of English and to stick to the grammar. She or he would complain to anyone who would listen that adolescents use of slang was killing the English language.
Not introducing new words via vernacular or slang would be the death knell to the language -- take a look at Classical Latin if you don’t believe me. Then again, an argument has been made that Latin lives on in the Romance language and accounts for about 80-percent of modern English -- so maybe it is better to say it evolved, rather than became a dead language.

History of the English language

English is more of a pickpocket of languages rather than a somewhat pure Romance language or German for that matter. It helps to understand who the English were. I'll give you the short version, but here is one item for more indepth purusal
http://www.brittany-bretagne.com/pg/arthur2.htm

• Are the English people the original settlers of the country we call England.
• Noooo. The group of islands are called -- Great Britian.
• The English are not the English, they are the Anglish. If you are familiar with King Arthur of legend, you know there was a war that destroyed the Round Table and sent the remnants of his kingdom fleeing Britian (Breton). They were fleeing the Anglish, part of the Anglo-Saxon mercenaries hired by competing Bretons (a Celtic tribe) to help ward off attacks by the Irish raiders. The Anglish were Germans. The Breton refugees crossed the English Channel and settled off the coast of France - Brittany -- so they now are French.
• Are the Irish -- well Irish?
• Noooooo. They are Gaels, or more precisely Iberians, who fled the onslaught of the Romans, leaving the coast of Spain and sailed to Erin -- the Emerald Isle. Who lived there before the Iberians -- the Tuath de Danu -- Gaelic for Greeks.
• OK -- now who were the Scots or Hiberians -- where they Scottish?
• Nooooo. They were Irish. A clan of Gaels, raided the northern tip of Great Britian and conquered the Picts. The spoke Pictish -- who were they? Look at another link I will provide a little later on.
• So what did the people before Arthur speak?
• A form of Celtic -- somewhat like the Welsch dialect of today.
• After Arthur -- Old English, a dialect of Anglish with some Old Norse thrown in. (should mention the Romans arrived before Arthur's birth. The real Arthur is believed to be the son of a Roman provinical governor and a Breton mother.

Etymological linguists believe English is derived from a parent langauge that includes pretty much every language that developed in Europe and into India. It is known as Indoeuropean. What survives of it in modern usage are phonemes, small sounds that have meaning -- a, the, etc. How do they know?

Remember Darth Vader -- Lucas was playing with us from the start. In that name the whole plot of the movie is revealed. How?

What is Darth? Made-up without meaning? Try putting the words dark and death together -- Darth. OK, OK, so we know he is dark(side) of the force and brings death. How about Vader?

Hmmmm. Give up?

How's your Hindi -- Vader? How about Latin -- Pater? How about German -- Vater? How about Spanish -- Padre? Enough already -- it's father. Mother, Mater, Madre, etc. Sister is interesting in that it is Old Norse. Schwester is the German. Sororis in Latin. Hebrew and Arabic dialects are also included in the family. Further east, Chinese is the basis for Japanese, etc. But you get the drift, these are the clues. For more info -- http://www.wordorigins.org/histeng.htm

If you want to hear some Old English go to http://www.kami.demon.co.uk/gesithas/readings/readings.html

Or if you want to see what a modern English word looks like in Old English go to Just for kicks -- see if you can get someone to translate this: http://wandership.ca/projects/eow/

Necesse erat pensum domesticum meum, quod incidit in rabiem pensi deleri. (This happened to the original version of this post I had completed yesterday). Capiamus Cerevisiam!

L337 escapes the lab

Isn't L337 confined securely to the chatroom? Say w00t to your kids and watch their reactions. Watch any NCIS lately? Next time county how many times someone calls a team member a n00b. Or listen to the parlance between the n00b and the Goth forensic lab princess -- she is kinda cute -- wait, I'm sure there is a L337r way to say it. Be back in a minute........ ahhh --
( _ 7 3.... :) me happy.

Only time will tell what, if any, lasting impact L337 and its progeny might have on English. In 500 years, I doubt anyone would understand any of what I am writing now, unless the specialized in (what would they call it -- pre-cosmic string lingo). Language changes, get used to it. No one dialect is any better than another when used between consenting decoders.

Here are a few more helpful links including your own little translator of L337.

http://www.softempire.com/leet-speak.html

http://www.urbandictionary.com

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/children/kidtalk.mspx

Diabolus me goegit peccare!

Resistere irritum est. Praeparate vos ad translationem in modum subiunctivum.