Are There Two Rs in Grrl? Or Is It Three?

I read two veeeeery interesting articles this morning. (THIS and THIS)

You remember how surprised I was when I found out about all the words Shakespeare made up? Well, here I am yet again, surprised by something involving words. But there's a difference between the surprise I felt then, and the surprise I feel now.

I admired Shakespeare for his creativity.

This makes me want to slap someone with an English textbook.

The board game Scrabble has updated their dictionary. It now includes Myspace, Facebook, Wiki, and Inbox. I'm cool with that. I don't see anything wrong with including those.

But I do see something horrifically wrong with adding "grrl" (or "grrrl," hence my title question), "innit," and "thang." Oh, did I forget to mention "punaany" in that list? Yeah, punaany. (Female genitalia.)

I've only got two things to say about that about that.

First:

That's gross, Scrabble.

Second:

Every time I've encountered that word, it's been spelled P-U-N-A-N-I. So, what's up, Scrabble? Am I allowed to spell words wrong now, too?

But the addition of sexual slang seems almost trivial when compared to their decision to include "innit." For those of you who don't know (it's okay, I didn't know what it was supposed to mean either), "innit" is a condensed version of "isn't it."

I have a few questions, the first of which is a resounding:

Why?

I mean, really--is that necessary? Isn't Scrabble supposed to be about words? Real words? Why is it suddenly okay for a game about WORDS to completely bastardize the English language?

Grrl? Thang? INNIT?!?

This leads me to a little story.

A few days ago, my boyfriend told me about something his younger sister did to get herself into some pretty hot water, both at school and (hopefully) at home. You know how you've got a limited amount of space when typing a text message or tweet, so sometimes you're forced to abbreviate a few words? (As in using U instead of "you.")

She wrote multiple essays in the same fashion. And I'm not talking about using a couple of letters in place of full words--noooooo.

Those essays "lookd lyke dis thru n thru."

So, when I found out Scrabble had introduced several not-words...let's just say it didn't do anything to lessen my pain. As far as I know, the essay thing is an isolated incident, but if things keep going the way they are, I can see the problem spreading. And it almost seems like people are embracing the defilement of the English language, instead of working to teach the younger generations that slang has it's place and it's not in *formal writing.

I mean, we've added LOL and <3 to the dictionary...innit and punaany to Scrabble.

What's next?

Sad to say, but I won't be surprised if next year's additions to the dictionary include "OMGWTFBBQ," "haxorz," "pew pew," and "!!!11."

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a scalding shower to wash away the stink of not-words. (I'll be spending most of it curled up in the corner, crying and biting my knees.)

What are your thoughts on Scrabble's to decision to include slang?

HAPPY WRITING, LOVELIES!

*Using slang in your book is just fine, as long as you don't go overboard with it. But it's never okay in formal writing. You certainly wouldn't use the words "innit" and "thang" in a term paper, would you?