LINGUISTIC INNOVATIONS IN THE JEJEMON PHENOMENON

_______________________________________

A Final paper

For the fulfillment of the requirements

For the course LING 205N

Sociolinguistics

By

Cacha, Sweet Kristel N.

Tubac, Angelo O.

May 2010
 Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE

INTRODUCTION

Rationale of the study

Language changes constantly. The way we communicate to express

our ideas and thoughts is evolving with time. At this modern era,
people convey their message through different media and in different
forms. Recent technological improvements pave the way for language
innovation. One of which is the computer – mediated communication.

Computer – Mediated Communication (CMC) is defined as any

communicative transaction that occurs through the use of two or more
networked computers. It is the process by which people make,
exchange, and perceive information using networked
telecommunications system (or non-networked computers) that
facilitate encoding, transmitting and decoding messages.
(http://www.december.com/cmc/study/center.html)

Technology often enhances and reflects rather than

precipitating linguistic and social language. (Taglimonte and Denis
2008) Tiempo (2006) also points out that the fast growth of
technology has brought many changes in the language of the people.
Communication which occurs within a computer-mediated format has an
effect on many different aspects of an interaction. Facebook, a
social network site, allows individuals to present themselves, and
establish or maintain connections with others. It also gives
opportunities for users to express themselves innovatively. One of
the noticeable language innovations is the jejemon phenomenon, which
most Facebook users employ.
 Many people in the online communities in the Philippines are
experiencing the jejemon phenomena. According to the
UrbanDictionary.com, a jejemon is someone who has managed to subvert
the English language to the point of incomprehensibility. It is a
term to describe those individuals who have developed their own
language and written text. As a result, users (mostly the younger
generation) of computer-mediated communication, particularly
Facebook, have been influenced by the widespread use of these
occurrences although there have been different responses to this
kind of phenomenon. The jejemon phenomena have varying impact on the
way users of Facebook interact with one another. It is the interest
of the researchers to further understand this phenomenon since it
has been printed in the national newspapers, reported in the
national television network, and the Department of Education has
expressed their disapproval to this phenomenon, however, this type
of writing has been very popular to the younger generation. Thus,
this study is conducted to examine the morphological transformations
employed by the users of the jejemon phenomena and to describe the
patterns depicted in these jejemon style of writings.

Theoretical Background

Developments in electronic instrumentation and computer science

have already altered the way we look at the language (Crystal,1995).
The electronic age has changed our ways of transmitting and
delivering messages. Consequently, due to the advancement of
technology, opportunities for linguistic innovations have become
possible. Yates (1996), as mentioned in Gao (2008), says that a new
medium of communication such as the Internet does not only draw upon
existing linguistic practices, but also generates new forms of
practice.
 Tagliamonte and Denis‘s (2008) study on Computer – Mediated
Communication (CMC) points out that CMC language is on the forefront
of linguistic change and ongoing processes of linguistic changes are
currently under way in the speech community in which teenagers live.

Teenagers use among themselves these ongoing linguistic

processes especially in computer-mediated communication format. As
one form of CMC format, Facebook is an example of a growing number
of websites dedicated to social networking. This combines several
available channels for interacting with other users, including
private one-to-one messages, bulletin board messages, blogs, and
public, or private profile pages, which can include text, images,
videos, and sounds. Facebook is a medium for interaction which
allows users (mostly teenagers) to be dynamic, vivid and creative
especially in the use of language.

In today’s era of advancements, communication is mediated

through technology. Certain transformations in the use of language
are inevitable and can occur due to the limitations of the medium of
interaction. One example is texting, a type of short messaging
service in which each text message is limited to 160 characters. As
a result, an "SMS language" has been developed where words are
shortened in order to fit the 160-character limit. This manner of
communicating is also prevalent in social websites such as Facebook.

The changes of the language use by the younger generations are

noticeable not only in the way they speak but also in their written
communication. Teenagers, who are more exposed to technological
advancements such as the internet, create innovations in their
language and such innovations are accepted and shared by their
speech community. These linguistic innovations are usually prompted
by the use of CMC, in this study, the use of Facebook. According to
Tecson (2008) “transformations may result in language styles”. These
transformations are evident in the language used by the jejemon
extremist.

One among the many innovations in language styles is the

jejemon style of writing. Jejemon is defined by Urban Dictionary as
one who has managed to subvert the English language to the point of
incomprehensibility and who has developed their own language and
written text. This jejemon phenomenon is a style of writing shared
among many teenagers in some social networks like Facebook,
mutilply.com, and etc.

In Facebook, the jejemon style is often visible in the

different walls of the Facebook users, where they made comments
about the post of their friends and usually this will lead into a
thread of conversation.

The Jejemon phenomenon began in the different Facebook and

multiple.com accounts from different users. Consequently, it
captured the attention of many on April 14, 2010 when an internet
post showing a fake poster of Binay labeled as “Jejemon Binay”. The
post indicated that he was the Jejemon's preferred vice presidential
candidate. Later the use of word Jejemon to refer such people made
rounds in various Filipino internet message boards.

The jejemon style of writing originated from short-handed

typing through the short messaging service. The language of the
Jejemons, called Jejenese, is derived from English, Filipino and
their code-switched variant Taglish. Their alphabet, Jejebet, uses
the Roman alphabet, including the Arabic numerals and other special
characters. Words are created by rearranged letters in a word,
alternating capitalization, over-usage of the letters H, X or Z and
mixture of numeric characters and our normal alphabet
(wikepedia.com). Such stylistic expressions may involve
morphological transformations.

According to Tecson (2008), morphological transformations are

the changes that a word undergoes. One morphological transformation
is clipping and novel spelling which is the dropping of sounds and
replacement of letters is with sounds similar to those that are
deleted. (e.g. pasenxa ‘pasensya’ ,ndi ‘hindi’) Next is the letter
+ numbers to represent words which is the changing of some of the
characters of a word with the use of letters and numbers.
(e.g.h8‘hate’, and2 ‘nandito’) Another modification is phonological
substitution which is the use of graphemes to represent fricatives
“x” and “c” and closely similar to clipping and novel spelling. In
addition, transformation can also include omission or shortening of
an entire word or words. Formulaic expressions are a feature in
which the style of one’s writing is determined on how one can turn
an expression into a more stylish way. The shorter the expressions
are made, the more stylish the writer is (e.g nmn ‘naman’, aQ
‘ako’)Emoticons are also included in which non-words or symbols are
used to communicate meanings, e.g “:) for a smiling face or :( for
a sad face. They are used to convey one’s feelings. Moreover,
morphological transformations are not only restricted with the use
of words and letters but also with the unconventional use of
punctuation marks. The overuse of punctuation marks is used to
emphasize intensity of feeling of the user. (e.g. y U mAke me fil xo
gAga Ba wiD yaH..!!!???!! ) Although the multiple uses of
punctuation marks are considered unusual, the use of period is not.
Ellipsis is the use of the period three times within or after the
sentence. It is used for the omission from an expression of a word
clearly implied, a pause, or marks to show omission.

Crystal (2001) as cited in Claros(2009) asserts that new forms

of communication have triggered an evolution in concepts such as a
spoken and written language. Facebook and other mediated
communication communities have in recent years exploded in
popularity. These social networks not only create a virtual
environment for friends to communicate no matter the time or
physical location but also pave the way for linguistic innovations
to take place.

Statement of the Problem

This study intends to describe and analyze the phenomenon of

Jejemon in different Facebook accounts.
Specifically, the study seeks to answer the following
questions:

1. What types of morphological transformation are found in the

selected computer – mediated communication as mentioned by
Tecson (2008)?

a. clipping and novel spelling

b. letters + numbers to represent words
c. phonological substitution
d. emoticons/ emotext
e. formulaic expressions
f. ellipsis

2. What are the noticeable patterns in the jejemon style of

writings?
Significance of the Study

This study would be beneficial to the following:

To the students who major in Applied Linguistics and other

areas of language study that may acquire data done locally for
future studies concerning language innovations.

To the teachers that they may become aware of the effects of

jejemon to the characteristics of spoken and written aspects of
communication and also its educational implications

To the future researchers that they may realize and appreciate

that features of such language transformation may make way to new
ideas for future studies that may further expand the studies made on
CMC.

To the linguists whose studies are focused language innovations

and various sociolects, that they may find relevance or difference
of their study to this study.

Limitations of the study

This study is conducted for only a very limited length of time,

because of time constraints only 12 posts were collected to identify
the morphological transformations and the patterns prevalent in the
phenomenon.

The conclusions made are only isolated to the context of this

study. Other generalizations may not be suitable to conclude for the
entire attributes of the jejemon phenomenon.
Research Methodology

This study is qualitative in nature. It aims to describe and

analyze the morphological transformations and the noticeable
patterns in the jejemon style of writings in different Facebook
accounts. The researchers conducted the study by identifying the
jejemon occurrences in the different Facebook accounts. After the
occurrences were identified, the corpuses were analyzed according to
the morphological transformations and the noticeable patterns in the
jejemon style of writings.

Research Data
Twelve posts of jejemon phrases in different Facebook accounts
are used as the corpus of the study.

Research Procedure

Gathering of Data. The researchers looked into the different walls

of different Facebook users to identify the jejemon occurrences.
Twelve posts were seen. These posts were analyzed in order to
identify the different morphological transformations like clipping
and novel spelling, letters + numbers to represent words,
phonological substitution, emoticons/ emotext, formulaic
expressions, ellipsis, and other word formations. The noticeable
patterns of the jejemon writing were also considered. After the
analysis, the data gathered were tabulated in order to get the
frequency and the percentage of the total occurrences of the
identified morphological transformation. Textual analysis was also
done to further explain the noticeable patterns of jejemon writings.

Treatment of Data. The data gathered are classified and categorized

according to its morphological transformation category. The data was
tabulated in order to get the frequency and the percentage of the
occurrences of the morphological transformations. An analysis was
also done to explain the noticeable patterns of the jejemon
phenomenon.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

Jejemon phenomenon is defined in this study as young people who are

part of the subculture, deliberately exaggerate ordinary words by
adding or subtracting letters, by using a mixture of capitalized and
not capitalized letters in words, and even adding numbers.

Facebook is a social networking website launched in February 2004

and operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can add
friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles
to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join
networks organized by workplace, school, or college. The website's
name stems from the colloquial name of books given to students at
the start of the academic year by university administrations in the
US with the intention of helping students to get to know each other
better. Anyone over the age of 13 can become a Facebook user
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook)

Capitalization in this study refers to the writing of a word as

a majuscule (upper-case letter).

Unconventional use of letters is the exaggerated and extravagant use

of letters to the extent that it will draw confusion to the readers,
especially those who do not belong to the same sub-culture.
 CHAPTER 2

PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA

This study aims to describe and analyze the linguistic

features, specifically, morphological transformations from different
Facebook accounts. This chapter deals with the presentation,
analysis and interpretation of data based on the results collected
on the morphological transformations and the noticeable patterns
found in the jejemon phenomenon. In addition, other prevalent
features of the jejemon style of writing – jejenese, were also
described.

Table 1. Over-all Morphological Transformations

Morphological Transformation Frequency Percent (%)
Clipping and Novel Words 35 36.08%
Letters and Numbers to Represent Words 10 10.31%
Phonological Substitution 11 11.34%
Emoticons / Emotext 2 2.06%
Formulaic Expressions 0 0
Ellipsis 39 40.21%
Total 97 100 %

As shown in Table 1, the ellipsis received the highest

percentage of 40.21% wherein it is used to denote an unfinished
statement, to indicate deleted material, and to mark hesitation. On
the other hand, the formulaic expression which is used to emphasize
the content words was not seen in any of the 12 corpuses.

Clipping and Novel Words

 Occurrences of clipping and use of novel words are frequently
used in the data. This type was often employed for the convenience
on the part of the users. Clipping was characterized by the omission
of some letters, usually vowels. Although the words were shorter,
they can still be understood when read. Novel words were
characterized by replacement of letters with sounds to those that
are deleted. Tiempo (2006) and Tecson (2008) pointed out that these
features were used for time saving reasons.
E.g.
1. "dont lyk pipol hu r very: PLASTIKS, pa EPAL, LIARS and
anything na mga BAD ATTITUDE
2. pra wlng awai eh di wlang paki alamanan !!
3. gS2 p0wh nMiNG luMbz sA amInG Outer shelL P0wh ~ We wnT 2 reVeal
~ 2 D world HU WE wnt 2 BE ~ P0wh.

Letters and Numbers to Represent Words

Another feature evident in the data was the use of numbers and
letters to represent words. There were no specific factors that were
found to justify the use of such features. This was normally done to
come up with a speedy and easy way of relaying the message. Letters
and numbers were usually substitutes for words that have similar
sounds.
E.g.
1. teaqa aa|Lisz atou d2 mena weak and2 auco tsa mena weak
2. it'S harD 2 piCk uP d piEceS oF my liFe…. veRy complicated
3. like hu r vry gud.... (Huh? Who?)!!! "and if u want me to ur
friend, jaz aDD me uP"

Phonological Substitution
 Phonological substitution which is the use of graphemes to
represent similar sounding letter/s is also noticeable in the data.
This feature is similar to clipping and novel spelling. In order to
save time, Facebook users minimize the usage of excessive use of
words by simply substituting the words that can be represented by a
single sound symbol.
E.g.
1. psenxa na ha !! qng maxadong OVER an JEJEMON !!.. TAMAAA ! c kua
LUCKY...
2. xkul,,den s outside n,,eh care nio jejemon na an gagamitin qchu
3. "dont lyk pipol hu r very: PLASTIKS, pa EPAL, LIARS and anything
na mga BAD ATTITUDE

Emoticon
Emoticon is used to convey one’s feelings with the use of non-
words or symbols. This was not frequently used in the data. Since
facebook users cannot talk face-to-face on the internet, using
emoticons or special symbols to describe one’s feeling and facial
expression is essential and preferred for expressing the
communication and the mood of the participant. For this case, :P was
used to tease and :) , to express a happy mood.
E.g.
11 maluluxaw nua laat nan mena anti-jejemon/jejebuster !!hmp!!WTF
!!:P
2. i pRoTeCT my fRieNdS...aNd pRoTeCt YoUrs :)

Formulaic Expresssions
Formulaic Expressions occur when function words are dropped to
give more importance to content words. In this study, there were no
observable occurrences of formulaic expression that took place.

Ellipsis
 Ellipsis is the repetitive use of period. This feature is the
most used in the data. Hacker(2003)as cited in Raclaw(2006) in his
study on Ellipsis as a Discourse Marker in Computer-Mediated
Communication, pointed out that speakers made use of the ellipsis in
ways that went beyond its traditional uses within writing: to
indicate deleted material, to mark hesitation, or to suggest
unfinished thoughts. Ellipsis is also used as a conjoining marker
and as a pragmatic marker to separate textual play (Raclaw, 2006) as
in the case of this study.
E.g.
1. YoU MuZ ReMEmBeR eVeRYtHinGs hAs a reasons ... DoNt ! DArE
mE COz YoU DoNt knOw wHaT CaN I dO
2. it'S harD 2 piCk uP d piEceS oF my liFe…. veRy comPlicaTed
... buT noT noW..
4. mild jejemon lharn aman an gmit qchu !!...kk??

JEJENESE
The language of the Jejemons, called Jejenese, is derived
from English, Filipino and their code-switched variant Taglish.
Their alphabet, Jejebet, uses the Roman alphabet, including
the Arabic numerals and other special characters. Words are created
by re-arranging letters in a word, alternating capitalization, over-
usage of the letters and mixture of numeric characters and our Roman
alphabet (wikipedia.com)
The data consisted of words that do not follow the conventional
style of writing. The following are the observed characteristics of
jejenese:
1. Insertion of unnecessary numbers and letters
It was observed all through out the corpus that jejemons
inserted unnecessary numbers and letters in writing their
posts. These insertions made the words very complicated and no
explicit pattern as to the definite position of inserted
numbers and letters.
 a. phfue or p0w ‘po’
b. aqchu or aq0uh ‘ako’
c. mHEii ‘me’

2. Unique orthography based on how the words sound

One of the distinctive characteristics of jejenese is its
unique approach to orthography, using substitutions of other
characters, letters or otherwise, to represent a letter or
letters in a word. The use of letters and numbers closely
resemble (to varying degrees) the sound for which they stand.
In this case, “hello” is spelled as eHyUoew or in other cases
“eow” and a variety of similar-sounding derivatives.

a. eHyUoeW fPuoEh .. qCkEimUsXztUaH qCkeYuOeh????

‘hello po... kamusta na kayo?’

b. PhAtTtii AhcKQeOWh nHaAHhhAaWhAhH.....!

ShH3EehtTh…! ‘ pati ako nawawal….. Shit…!’

c. sVi qEw nAMn.. mAdAnDa aqEw

‘sabi ko naman..maganda ako’

3. Unconventional use of punctuations

Punctuations like question marks and exclamation points

were the ones used in an exaggerated manner. They were used to
express emotions and/or emphasis.

a. psenxa na ha !! qng maxadong OVER an JEJEMON !!..

TAMAAA ! kua LUCKY... ahm...pra wlng awai eh di
wlang paki alamanan !! cguro nmn naiintindihan
nio an type quh ??!!...

b. eHyUoeW fPuoEh
..qCkEimUsXztUaHqCkeYuOeh????
4. Numbers to substitute letters

Replacement of letters with numbers is distinct to

jejenese. Jejemons tend to substitute letters with numbers that
relatively look similar. In this case, letter A to number 4 and
letter E to number 3.

a. bzt4h ‘basta’
b. aj3j3j3 . ‘ajejeje’
c. g34hin ‘gayahin’

5. Alternate use of lower and upper case

The combination of the lower and upper case letters is

another characteristic of a jejenese. There was no
particular pattern as to the use of the lower and upper
case letters.

a. WE wnT 2 BE~ P0wh. AnD becaUSE Of tHIZ,~ 0L D~

0THEr JeJEm0nZ Came AWTz 2 P0whz. iSNT iT gREaT,
n0h?
b. d aQ mAartE!(pWerA LnG iF tiNO2pAk aQ!)
c. psenxa na ha !! qng maxadong OVER an JEJEMON !!..
TAMAAA ! c kua LUCKY...

6. Use of onomatopoeic lexis/emotional language

Most of the emotional language of the jejenese comes from

“jeje”, the Spanish spelling of “hehe”, denoting laughter. The
“hmp!” indicated irritation or annoyance and lastly “ajujuju”
indicating fake sadness or tears due to the smiley face that
comes after it.

a. tnx pfowh jejeje

b. maluluxaw nua laat nan mena anti-
jejemon/jejebuster !!hmp!!WTF !!:P
c. ajujuju :)
7. Lengthening of vowels and consonants

The lengthening of letters also illustrated emphasis.

It could represent sustained utterance of the speaker in order
to catch the hearer’s attention.

α. TAMAAA ! c kua LUCKY...

β. Ayuneeeee! Ops, wala akong sinabi...!
χ. Tsssssssss. Kayo ang nagpapababa ng kahulugan ng
pagiging rocker

8. Substitution of spelling

Jejemons change the spelling as long as it looks like the

original word; so the lines and loops of letters and numbers
are exploited. It is usually employed for aesthetic appeal.

a. maq ‘mag’
b. qumaqayhat ‘gumagaya’
c. waq ‘wag’

Aside from the previously stated attributes which were

also stated in the prior studies of Tecson (2008), there were

eight observed characteristics which are identified in this

study. These eight characteristics made the jejemon phenomenon

distinctive from the rest of the other styles of writing that

had emerged. This leads to the relentless popularity of jejemon

in the different schools.

 CHAPTER 3

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter summarizes the findings gathered in the study, the

conclusions drawn from the findings and recommendations based on the
results relevant to this study. Likewise, this study might serve as
a useful tool for future researchers whose field of concentration is
of similar nature.

Summary of Findings

The purpose of this study was to describe and analyze the

phenomenon of Jejemon in different Facebook accounts. Specifically,
the study determines the different morphological transformation
(Tecson 2008), and other features distinct to jejenese – the
language of jejemon.

The morphological transformations included in the study were: a.

clipping and novel spelling; b. letters + numbers to represent
words; c. phonological substitution; d. emoticons/ emotext; e.
formulaic expressions and f. ellipsis.

Distinct features of jejenese were also evident in the data.

These were: a. Insertion of unnecessary numbers and letters; b.
Unique orthography based on how words sound; c. Unconventional use
of punctuations; d. Numbers to substitute letters; e. Alternate use
of the lower and upper case letters; f. Use of onomatopoeic
lexis/emotional language; g. Lengthening of vowels and consonants
and lastly, h. Substitution of spelling.

Based on the gathered data, the researchers came up with the

following findings:
 The various morphological transformations illustrated the
linguistic innovations that existed in the jejenese. Most of the
linguistic features demonstrated were employed to convey one’s
emotion, to catch attention; or to express creative flare. These
morphological transformations did not show any time-saving
techniques unlike the SMS language- where the manner of jejenese
writing originated. Unlike texters who found it tiring to compose
complete words and found it easier to shorten their text, jejemons
do otherwise. Jejemon writing – jejenese, is characterized by
addition, insertion and, exaggeration of the use of the characters.

Other linguistic features, which dominated in the data, are

distinct to the jejenese. They are distinguished solely by the way
jejemons (users of jejenese) construct written words and sentences.
Jejenese is characterized by exaggerated aesthetics incorporated in
textual representation.

Conclusion

Based on the findings of the study, the following

generalizations may be stated:

The Morphological Transformation evident in jejenese were not

necessarily employed to provide convenient facility of the language.
In fact, the jejemon language has no defined rules or patterns.
There are countless ways to spell words and sentences—breaking them
apart, compounding them, mixing English and Filipino.

Because of insufficient knowledge on the phenomenon, the

parameters to be considered a jejemon are still unclear. The common
notion about jejemons is that they are inferior in intelligence.
However, the Manila Standard Today online article by Ed Biado
pointed out that ,contrary to some beliefs, especially those
expressed in urbandictionary.com, jejemons are not of inferior
intellect (“...jejemons are individuals with low IQ...”). They exist
in exclusive schools, science high schools and some of them are even
on the honor roll.

However, there are many like the English teachers, who believe
that indulging in jejemonism impairs the youth’s language skills,
especially when used repeatedly in extensive amounts.

The rapid development of Internet communication has created a

huge impact on the language. Nevertheless, Gao (2007) pointed out
that when the society changes, language mirrors the reality of that
society that will also undergo transformation.

Recommendation

These are the researchers’ recommendations based on the study

conducted:

1. Future researchers can contemplate and do further research

on other linguistic innovation phenomena evident in
computer-mediated communication.

2. There should also be an avenue for research on other

networking sites (another research environment).

3. Interested researcher of Jejemon phenomena may also

consider a large number of corpuses in order to further
understand the other features, especially those that were
not found in this study.

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