Cacography
Encyclopedia
Cacography is deliberate comic misspelling, a type of humour
similar to malapropism
.
The term in the sense of "poor spelling
, accentuation
, and punctuation
" is a semantic antonym
to orthography
, and in the sense of "poor handwriting
" it is an etymological antonym to the word calligraphy
: cacography is from Greek
κακός (kakos "bad") + γραφή (graphe "writing").
A common usage of cacography was to caricature
illiterate speakers.
cacography of particular, systematic types, see articles Padonki
and Udaff
. One way of corruption is phonetic spelling of Russian words, i.e., an exaggerated way of "natural" erring, e.g., Ниасилил (Niasilil) – "didn't cope with (to read in full)" (correct spelling: не осилил, ne osilil), a typical response to a long and/or boring post. Another way is grotesque hypercorrection
: the word is spelled in such a way that when pronounced, it sounds in a correct way. An example is a Russian internet meme
Preved
, which is pronounced as and intends to mean, privet, i.e., "hello
" or "hi". In 2005 philologist Gasan Guseinov suggested the neologism Эрратив (errativ, i.e., "errative") to refer to the phenomenon.
Humour
Humour or humor is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement...
similar to malapropism
Malapropism
A malapropism is an act of misusing or the habitual misuse of similar sounding words, especially with humorous results. An example is Yogi Berra's statement: "Texas has a lot of electrical votes," rather than "electoral votes".-Etymology:...
.
The term in the sense of "poor spelling
Spelling
Spelling is the writing of one or more words with letters and diacritics. In addition, the term often, but not always, means an accepted standard spelling or the process of naming the letters...
, accentuation
Diacritic
A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the acute and grave are often called accents...
, and punctuation
Punctuation
Punctuation marks are symbols that indicate the structure and organization of written language, as well as intonation and pauses to be observed when reading aloud.In written English, punctuation is vital to disambiguate the meaning of sentences...
" is a semantic antonym
Antonym
In lexical semantics, opposites are words that lie in an inherently incompatible binary relationship as in the opposite pairs male : female, long : short, up : down, and precede : follow. The notion of incompatibility here refers to the fact that one word in an opposite pair entails that it is not...
to orthography
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
, and in the sense of "poor handwriting
Handwriting
Handwriting is a person's particular & individual style of writing with pen or pencil, which contrasts with "Hand" which is an impersonal and formalised writing style in several historical varieties...
" it is an etymological antonym to the word calligraphy
Calligraphy
Calligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...
: cacography is from Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
κακός (kakos "bad") + γραφή (graphe "writing").
A common usage of cacography was to caricature
Caricature
A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...
illiterate speakers.
Russian internet
The Russian internet culture witnessed an explosive growth of Russian languageRussian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
cacography of particular, systematic types, see articles Padonki
Padonki
Padonki is a counter-culture subculture within the Russian-speaking Internet community most famous for using their slang Olbanian language or padonkaffsky jargon...
and Udaff
Udaff
Udaff.com , or the resource is a Russian Padonki counter-culture site devoted to publishing short stories. Although technically anything can be posted on the site, it is pre-moderated by its creator, so boring or homosexual-sympathetic stories will most likely will end up in "/dev/null"...
. One way of corruption is phonetic spelling of Russian words, i.e., an exaggerated way of "natural" erring, e.g., Ниасилил (Niasilil) – "didn't cope with (to read in full)" (correct spelling: не осилил, ne osilil), a typical response to a long and/or boring post. Another way is grotesque hypercorrection
Hypercorrection
In linguistics or usage, hypercorrection is a non-standard usage that results from the over-application of a perceived rule of grammar or a usage prescription...
: the word is spelled in such a way that when pronounced, it sounds in a correct way. An example is a Russian internet meme
Meme
A meme is "an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena...
Preved
Preved
Preved is a term used in the Padonkaffsky jargon, a meme in the Russian-speaking Internet which developed out of a heavily-circulated picture, and consists of choosing alternative spellings for words for comic effect...
, which is pronounced as and intends to mean, privet, i.e., "hello
Hello
Hello is a salutation or greeting in the English language. It is attested in writing as early as the 1830s.-First use:Hello, with that spelling, was used in publications as early as 1833. These include an 1833 American book called The Sketches and Eccentricities of Col...
" or "hi". In 2005 philologist Gasan Guseinov suggested the neologism Эрратив (errativ, i.e., "errative") to refer to the phenomenon.
See also
- CatachresisCatachresisCatachresis is "misapplication of a word, especially in a mixed metaphor" according to the Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory...
- Gaffe
- Typographical errorTypographical errorA typographical error is a mistake made in, originally, the manual type-setting of printed material, or more recently, the typing process. The term includes errors due to mechanical failure or slips of the hand or finger, but usually excludes errors of ignorance, such as spelling errors...
- Corruption (linguistics)
- Eye dialectEye dialectEye dialect is the use of non-standard spelling for speech to draw attention to pronunciation. The term was originally coined by George P. Krapp to refer to the literary technique of using non-standard spelling that implies a pronunciation of the given word that is actually standard, such as...