Internet:

"The Collection of all the connected networks in the world, although it is sometimes better called WorldNet or just the Net. More specifically, the Internet is the set of networks that communicate via TCP/IP. If you're still confused, go back and read chapters 1 through 8." -From The Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh

"Specifically, the world-wide "network of networks" that are connected to each other, using the IP protocol and other similar protocols. The Internet provides file transfer, remote login, electronic mail, news, and other services." -From The Whole Internet Catalog & User's Guide

"The Information SuperHighway!" -Andrew Friedman, '96, muscially quoting the famous cliche.

English is everywhere on the Internet. For example, finding a site on the World Wide Web that is entirely in a language other than English is actually a challenge. Most sites have a "Click here for English version" which will take you to an identical page as the one you started at, only the text will be in English. IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is an aspect of the Internet which allows people to textually talk in real-time (simultaneously exchanging words with each other). When you connect to IRC and examine the list of chat rooms, or channels as they are called on IRC, glancing simply at the titles you will see that most of them are in English. There is a Germany channel, an Italy channel, and so on, you can enter these rooms and find people chatting in other languages as well as English, but, ask a question in English and you will be answered in English. The terminology used to describe the Internet itself is in English - "TCP/IP" stands for "Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol."

What effect has the Internet had on English?
This is the question that I propose to at least partially answer in terms of the Dartmouth College community. English is chameleon-like in its ability to adapt to its surrondings. Or rather, we are not averse to bending English to our purposes and to streamline our speech. English on the Internet is not immune. In this predominantly text-based environment, people have created new words, invented new ways to inflect their language, and even integrated facial expressions into everyday Internet communications. It is this form of English or Netspeak, how it affects English off the Internet, and where it's going, which I intend to examine here.

My intention here is to explore written communication in Dartmouth's tiny corner of the Internet, examining characteristics specific to Dartmouth as well as dealing with larger, more general aspects of English as found on the Internet. In these pages, I have written about everything from acronyms to *zzzzzzzz* and many things (but by no means everything in between. However, it is a beginning, a small part of what could potentially become a more comprehensive project on the English Language as manifested on the Internet. For now, it is only a general attempt to explain Dartmouth's blitzmail and Internet vocabulary and analyze the language usage of people here.