The digital environment offers an extensive array of technological possibilities, encompassing various types of keyboards (e.g., emoji, GIF), voice messages, traditional chat interfaces, AI-generated text or voice, and online linguistic wordplays such as leetspeak. These innovations facilitate the creation of a multitude of neosememes and neolexemes. Such advancements necessitate a reevaluation and potential reinvention of the categories associated with the traditional neologization process, as discussed by Bloomfield & Newmark (1963), Algeo (1993), Katamba (2005), and others. This paper provides a comprehensive review of linguistic creativity within online spaces, with a particular focus on less formal contexts. It examines patterns such as respelling, substitution, and phonological resonance, which are employed to accommodate neologisms that have emerged from digital communication. By analyzing these patterns, the study aims to contribute to contemporary linguistics and documentation of how digital communication reshapes linguistic innovations.
and suffixation with non-standard suffixes take place to create slang expressions: telly → TV, esky
→ eskimo → cold box [
Many of the informal neologisms such as slang, jargon, and specific words on the internet used
on social networks such as ‘instagrammisms’, or ‘tiktokisms’ do utilize traditional word-formation
processes, for example, bingeable ← binge, followship ← follow + -ship, instafam ← Instagram +
family, MUA ← makeup artist, selfie ← self-picture, which is supported by Kulkarni & Wang‘s
(2018) study that concludes that blends, clipping, and reduplicates are dominant word-formation
processes in slang [
Most slang creations are characterized by phonological humor, such as tongue twisters,
malapropisms, puns, and wordplay. However, slang and particular sociolects can also be formed by
other simple productive rules such as inversion/back slang when a word is read backward, such as
in yob ← boy; spoonerisms or deliberate sound transportation, e.g., queer old dean ← dear old queen
[
Online Neologization
In many online neologisms, we can observe phonological resonance [
In word formation, the phonological motivation of a word is usually perceived as
onomatopoeia, sound imitation by words. When investigating relationships between words that are
similar in form or somehow resemble each other, Bauer (2003) refers to their relationship as phonetic
resonance that can be done on multiple levels: “In the number of syllables or the stress pattern (when
provision attracts visual), inalliteration (when petty attracts politics), in assonance (when goose
attracts food) and rhyme (when intense attracts pretence) [
On the internet, despite the digital mediation, a regular text (verbal, written communication)
can be suddenly replied to with a voice message (verbal, oral), a gif, or an emoji (non-verbal, visual),
and so can influence the way words are created. Leetspeak, widely known among the hacking and
gaming communities, is based on substituting graphemes with numerals or symbols in order to create
a secret or "special" language, e.g., n00b ←newbie, h0M3 4l0n3←home alone. Besides using letters
and symbols, the internet and visual media brought an interplay of text and image, which can also
be observed in the neologization of particular word categories. Emojis, a modern form of pictograms,
play an essential role in word creation on the internet. In neologization of the text, they can either
completely replace words: The ☀ is shining; participate in the derivation: Today is ☀y; or
compounding ☀shine. Compounds can be made of two emojis ☀ (meaning sunshine), a word an
emoji: ware (meaning chinaware), or even hyphenated as in: “--puree” (banana-peach-puree)
[
These and other neologization practices observed online are further explored and analyzed based on the patterns to better understand word-formation processes and computer-mediated communication.
In this study, neologisms commonly encountered on TikTok, Instagram, Twitch, and Facebook were collected from various sources, such as blogs, glossaries, or individual social media posts in 2023 and 2024. We targeted online neologisms used on specific platforms and mostly in online communication. We defined neologism as any new word in form or meaning that does not appear in standard dictionaries but may be found in blogs, Urban Dictionary, and similar sources. A word list was made from the reviewed sources, and neologisms were categorized based on their similarities. The words formed solely by typical word-formation processes were excluded from the study. Patterns that repeat in online spaces were further scrutinized. We were left with 76 words that were further analyzed. The majority of the neologisms belonged to slang, algospeak or sociolect. Each neologism was manually assessed and categorized based on the similarities. The following examples, to illustrate the findings, were collected from the cohort of algospeak and other recurring trends: Other neosememes that contained emoji as a replacement of the word can also be considered visual metaphors, e.g., ← breasts, ❄ ← cocaine, and coded as an emoji based on their nicknames because of the visual resemblance (snow ← cocaine), however, they are not completely reliable and are context-based ( ← breasts/buttocks/testicles).
Interestingly, emoji representations can be double coded in some cases. For example, if you send someone a brain within a context when you talk about education and learning, the means a smart person but in another context, it might mean oral sex.
Emojis and their linguistic functions are currently subject to investigation and analyses (Siever et al., 2019; Seargeant, 2019; Albert, 2020; Veszelski, 2017; Guntuku et al.,2019; Thurlow & Jaroski, 2020, etc.). However, emojis as such are not the main focus of this study but rather a source for new word formation processes mentioned below.
One of the dominant word-formation neologization processes recurring on the internet and in the
analyzed sample is creative respelling. One of the first scholars to operate with the term online is
Kemmer (2003) [
Lexemes used online do not necessarily respect grammar or orthographic rules. On the contrary, they utilize misspellings and other non-standard variations to fool the computer or other playful purposes. The creative respelling is arbitrary; however, there are some patterns that can be followed (see below). Standard dictionaries choose standardized spelling, e.g., noob, but on the internet, it is also spelled as n00b. The latter variant is commonly found on the internet or in gaming glossaries.
Sound and rhythm are always considered when typing. Therefore, the phonetic sphere is
always associated with graphic representations when using non-standard language. In this context,
Crystal (2018) mentions replacing “a word-element by a similar-sounding item, as in ecruiting
(recruiting), ecruiter, e-lance (free-lance), and etailing (retailing)”. And thus creating a double meaning.
Ecruiting can be understood as in CMC electronic recruiting but also as general recruiting in all
environments. (When uttering “They’re recruiting,” an elision and omission occurs [ðɛr əˈkrut ɪŋ])
[
Creative respelling in cyberspace draws mainly from leetspeak. It utilizes a wide range of leetspeak substitutions to code the words and thus create neologisms. Some of the creations are relatively stable, and some of them are unstable. Other ways of changing the form of the lexeme include metathesis or other types of metaplasms.
Although the term metaplasm in linguistics refers to the transportation, alteration, and modification of sounds, letters, and grammatical or rhetorical structures, modern linguistics calls for more up-to-date terminology that is easier to use and remember. Therefore, we suggest a fresh and more organized terminology for classifying non-standard internet neologisms.
The diagram below shows a division of creative respelling based on the similarities in the neologization processes.
Creative
Respelling Substitution
Scramble Intentional
Unintentional
Intentional
Unintentional Leet speak coding phonetic coding
Text to speech typo perfect
imperfect
In our proposal, the umbrella term creative respelling contains two main categories. ‘Substitution,’
where letters are substituted by other symbols, and ‘scramble,’ where the letters stay the same, but
their order is altered. Calhoun and Fawcett (2023) described linguistic processes to create censored
words (some of the words in our sample) and organized them based on similar patterns. In their
study they referred to creative respelling as ‘lexical replacement’ with the following subcategories
‘semantic dissimilarity:’ accounting ←sex work; ‘semantic dissimilarity with phonetic similarity:’
5
shrek work ← sex work; ‘semantic similarity:’ blank Google docs ← white people. Another category
was ‘innovative phonological patterns:’ applying attested phonological rules to unlikely words: sessy
← sexy; swap vowels within phonemic inventory: droogs ← drugs [
The substitution of letters in the online world is mostly intentional, as the users are trying to either obfuscate the algorithm and use replacement as a kind of censorship or to sound creative or extravagant. The intentional substitution is done via leetspeak coding: Ir@n ← Iran, que3r ← queer, disa@bled ← disabled, depressi0n ← depression, or phonetic replacement of the letter with the same or similar-sounding letter/phoneme: thyn ← thin, seggs ← sex, tig tog ← TikTok. Substitution can be done by a coexistence of phonetic coding and leetspeak: Yt ← white, ouid ← weed, GYAT ← god(damn) 80HD ← ADHD. The case of yt/YT/Yt and Yf ← wife is even more special. Not only are the words coded in the sounds, but they are also shortened to only two letters resembling an abbreviation. Yt, Yf, 80HD, create a perfect phonetic homonymy with already existing lexemes, unlike, for example, seggs or tigtog, where the resemblance of the sounds is similar but not entirely identical, thus resulting in an imperfect phonetic substitution.
Occasionally, the substitution might be unintentional. Le$bean ← lesbian, originally intentionally substituted, is now pronounced as le dollar bean and has become a new code word for lesbian. The change happened on social media, where users tend to use text-to-speech functions to automatically generate the voice for their videos to either not use their voice, use standard pronunciation, or other reasons. Here, it is demonstrated that the computers have not been trained for creative respelling to some extent yet. The speech community enjoyed this witty unintentional code, “standardized” it and, have been using it ever since. Similarly, if people did not know how to read abbreviations, some words would be subjects to similar traits, such as LGBTQ, pronounced as an initialism. If pronounced as an acronym, it would sound like leg booty, another algospeak neologism and code word the language community adopted. ⭐
The next creative way of phonetic substitution is formed by emojis. P ← pstar ← pornstar is an intriguing example. The star emoji perfectly iconically represents the word star. However, in the case of fa ← faggot, the morpheme -got was replaced by a similarly sounding and looking symbol baguette. For the speaker, the clipping of ba from baguette is a subconscious process. The speaker knows that it should be done in order to understand what is intended by the lexeme. Such word-emoji blends to create a brand-new neologization process category that needs to be further explored.
Scrambles, unlike substitutions, utilize the same letters that can be intentionally and unintentionally shuffled. When letters are scrambled unintentionally, they can be considered a typographical mistake, in short, a typo. A typo, such as teh ← the, became a part of lolspeak and was adopted by a wide range of language users. Scrambles such as the blink in lio ← link in bio can resemble spoonerisms. However, in this case, the newly formed phrase does not bear a new meaning as in the example queer old dean ← deer old queen. Words with scrambled letters or metathesis, such as pron ← porn, are produced on purpose, and thus categorized as intentional scrambles.
The internet slang, algospeak or slang in general might utilize various word formation
processes simultaneously. The intentionality always depends on the message that is conveyed. The
creative respelling serves many genres. If it is for humorous purposes, we can also refer to it as a
satiric misspelling. When sounding more colloquial we can call it eyedialect [
There are numerous examples of online lexical innovation which need to be further investigated, for example, recently, within Slovak online chat forums, the term ruský, which denotes Russian, has been intentionally respelled as ruSSky. This alteration covertly incorporates the abbreviation SS, alluding to the Schutzstaffel, a paramilitary organization known for its 'protection squadron' activities during the Second World War. This linguistic modification reflects underlying political sentiments.
For now, we can conclude that similar lexical creations present an understudied lexical field as
they tend to be considered ephemeral or nonce expressions. However, as Díaz Hormigo (2012) points
out that extra-linguistic motivations (e.g., social and cultural) should be taken into account to map
the creation, diffusion, and acceptability of new lexical units [
As the internet changed not only the way we communicate but also how we do many quotidian activities, the same applies to creating new words. Informal lexis is often considered unstable and more difficult to organize; however, with global access to the internet, non-standard words are becoming more widespread and considered an 'internet standard.' Expanding on the traditional word-formation processes, we suggested a new and more organized way of word-formation terminology to classify non-standard internet neologisms that can create a new ground for lexicological investigations with larger samples. Moreover, new ways of creating words, such as in algospeak, stem from socio-cultural traits. The appearance of internet neologisms is also tied to the purpose of their use, and, therefore, it is unavoidable to study internet neologisms from both their structure, meaning, and intention of usage. Furthermore, understanding the mechanisms and the conveyed messages behind such lexical creativity can enhance communication transparency among relatives, friends, and across generations. Identifying and decoding these expressions can facilitate necessary support when discussing taboo topics. Additionally, predicting such lexical patterns can aid corpus linguistics analysis in recognizing these expressions, thereby contributing to studying less formal or non-standard language varieties and everyday communication.
During the preparation of this work, the author used Grammarly and MS Copilot in order to: Grammar and spelling check. After using these tool(s)/service(s), the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the publication’s content.