when a simple ha won’t do there’s always hahahaaaa, haaahaaa, hahahahaha

June 5, 2020 9:23 AM

Whoooaaa Duuuuude: Why We Stretch Words in Tweets and Texts (Wired): "Stretchability is a powerful linguistic device that visually punches up a written word, imparting a wide range of emotions. That goes for the gooooooaaaaaaal of a soccer announcer, a teenager’s exasperated finallyyyyy, and a surfer’s aweeeeeesome. And booooy are they popular on Twitter. Writing today [May 27] in the journal PLOS One, the researchers detail how they combed through 100 billion tweets, mapping how often these words are stretched, and how far they are elongated—haha versus hahahahaaaa, for example. [...] That can be particularly powerful on a platform like Twitter, whose inherent brevity doesn’t exactly encourage nuanced communication. Those extra letters add some oomph to a brief message, making it more attention-grabbing. “You're taking what we would think of as the dictionary text and you're turning it into something visual,” says Danforth. “It can't be ignored when you see 20 As in a row.”

Hahahahaha, Duuuuude, Yeeessss!: A two-parameter characterization of stretchable words and the dynamics of mistypings and misspellings (PLOS One)

posted by not_the_water (29 comments total)

ayayayayyyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyayayayayayyaylolololololololollllllllllooooooooololololoohohohohohohohohohohohohohohohohhlalalalalalalalalalaya
posted by Fizz at 9:29 AM on June 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

I love stuff like this. A good read if you're interested in how the internet and language interact is Because Internet. It's not been the case until recently we get to watch language evolve in real time. Being able to comb through an analyze casual uses of language like we find on twitter are a goldmine for linguists. Thanks for posting.
posted by elwoodwiles at 9:41 AM on June 5, 2020 [7 favorites]

I’m pretty sure this graph predates Twitter.

I seem to recall a set of urls that involved extra a’s in khaaaan but I can’t remember how.
posted by nat at 10:00 AM on June 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

there is no cabaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal
posted by lalochezia at 10:05 AM on June 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

The many letter E's in "shit" from Wendell Pierce
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 10:18 AM on June 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

aweeeeeesome

And right there is my pet-peeve with this device. You have to repeat the letter of the sound that's being stretched. It should be "awwwwesome."

Whenever I read someone say "I loveeee x", my brain immediately says, "you lovey x?"
posted by explosion at 10:21 AM on June 5, 2020 [25 favorites]

I haven't read the text, but : isn't it because English uses stretching vowels for emphasis ?
posted by nicolin at 10:22 AM on June 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

i'm with explosion on this, sometimes stretching vowels just doesn't work. I run it to trouble trying to express exasperation with a stretched "god", you can't say gooooooood, that's good, so I say godddddddddd
posted by FirstMateKate at 10:23 AM on June 5, 2020 [8 favorites]

Best if used as minimally as poosible.
posted by sammyo at 10:25 AM on June 5, 2020

express exasperation with a stretched "god"

gaaaaaahd, it's not that hard. Just have to spell things phonetically and give the language a pass on having ridiculous spelling.
posted by explosion at 10:32 AM on June 5, 2020 [10 favorites]

“I’ve found myself recently in texts to friends or messages to coworkers doing thaaanks with three As, to signify some sort of excitement and appreciation without having to use a stupid exclamation mark.”

Maybe it’s those Middle English university courses talking, but I hear this in my head as “thahnks.”
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:44 AM on June 5, 2020

See also: heyyyyy
posted by mhum at 10:58 AM on June 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

the researchers detail how they combed through 100 billion tweets

I'm momentarily wonderstruck by the age of big data. In grad school I sometimes plotted individual data points with pen on paper. They have 100 000 000 000 data points. I can't adequately stretch my wow without breaking my keyboard.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:06 AM on June 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig data, surely.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:16 AM on June 5, 2020 [4 favorites]

Best if used as minimally as poosible.

Whaat he saaid.
posted by y2karl at 11:25 AM on June 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

That's just, like, your opinion, maaaaan.
posted by Evilspork at 11:27 AM on June 5, 2020 [5 favorites]

B(i*10^11)g data
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:29 AM on June 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

The many letter E's in "shit" from Wendell Pierce

Pierce played Detective Bunk. That's the character of Clay Davis, played by Isiah Whitlock Jr.
posted by sideshow at 11:36 AM on June 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

aweeeeeesome

And right there is my pet-peeve with this device. You have to repeat the letter of the sound that's being stretched. It should be "awwwwesome."

Whenever I read someone say "I loveeee x", my brain immediately says, "you lovey x?"

Ah, that's funny, because your "awwwwesome" reads just as incorrect to me! I'd write it as "aaaawesome," because the vowel sound is the sound that's stretched. When someone repeats a consonant, I read it as "aw-wuh-wuh-wuh-some."
posted by erinfern at 2:25 PM on June 5, 2020

"aw-wuh-wuh-wuh-some."

That's what your dog says you are.
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:25 PM on June 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

I remember long ago reading a guide to choosing written pornography which suggested that when browsing for these 'one-handed' books you were better off avoiding those which used this device when quoting the ecstatic moanings of the characters.
posted by Rash at 4:09 PM on June 5, 2020

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:29 PM on June 5, 2020

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhm...
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:48 PM on June 5, 2020

lol
posted by TrishaU at 6:35 PM on June 5, 2020

It would actually be quite interesting to see a graph of awesome along the lines of the one for goal in the article. All the phonemic sounds in awesome are continuants, meaning you can stretch any one of them out for as long as it takes for the air in your lungs to run out. By the way, the letters 'awe' correspond with just one vowel (or perhaps a diphthong, a blending of two vowels) in the phonemic transcription of the word, so stretching any one of them out makes sense to represent a stretching of that initial vowel sound. Strangely, though, I feel like I would usually elongate awesome by duplicating that final e ('awesomeeeee') even though, phonemically, there is no vowel sound after the m: the e is a silent letter. I guess when I elongate awesome out loud, I usually drag out that final m, but 'awesommmmme' looks weird to me, so I must have unconsciously decided to go with the adjacent e instead.
posted by Panthalassa at 9:04 PM on June 5, 2020

Omg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
posted by Cardinal Fang at 11:59 PM on June 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

I have a friend that uses lolllllll. It took me a while to stop seeing that as laughing out loud loud loud loud loud loud. But now I just imagine her saying “lulllllllll” which I think is worse since it’s a spoken textism with dragged characters.
posted by LizBoBiz at 9:20 AM on June 6, 2020

lol looks like a referee indicating a successful field goal. "It's good!"
looooooool looks like a monstrosity which should not be.
posted by xedrik at 10:23 AM on June 6, 2020

One usage I see often is "lololol", which looks to me like either "laughing out loud out laughing out loud" or "laughing out loud out loud out loud", neither of which makes sense.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:32 PM on June 6, 2020