Twitter has added lolcat to its list of supported languages, bringing an extra layer of localisation and personalisation to the service that many users will undoubtedly appreciate.
Lolcat, or lolspeak as it is referred to by some (idiots), has become widely adopted in Western civilisation in recent years. It’s almost exclusively an online language.
The language is very closely associated with the internet lolcat meme that Wikipedia, as our trusted source for many years, states is “an image combining a photograph of a cat with text intended to contribute humour”.
Seeing the important role that lolcat has played since first being introduced to 4chan in 2006, helping develop the internet meme into something truly magnificent that we can all be proud of, and garnering a few laughs (or lols!) along the way, Twitter has officially begun to support the language.
Happeh Fridai! U can nao change ur language 2 lolcat in Settings. Hope u liek it. twitter.com/settings twitter.com/twitter/status…
— Twitter (@twitter) February 8, 2013
You can preview the lolcat language on Twitter here before applying it permanently in your settings (which you will do). Please bear in mind that it’s still in beta so translations may not be 100% accurate.
The language change only affects Twitter’s user interface elements so words like ‘View photo’ (if your previous language was English) are translated into something more meaningful like ‘VIEW FOTO’. Similarly ‘Expand’ is translated to ‘EXPAN. KTHX.’ and ‘View summary’ to ‘VIEW SUMMARY. KTHXBYE!’.
Lolcat is only one more addition to Twitter’s growing list of 34 supported languages, but it’s a testament to Twitter’s plans to become a truly global, and accessible, service.
