I’m not sure how this post will turn out, but I thought it would be fun to talk to you about a language I have picked up gradually during my life. The language is called l33t sp3@k (elite speak in English) and is the universal language of all people who are 1337!

What is 1337 you ask? That is a good question. I’ll start with my personal definition, and then send you a link to Wikipedia so that you can read the official definition (likely written by some guy in his underwear in ‘Jersey).

I believe that 1337 stems from the hacker community. Here, you start off simply being a hacker (or h@x0r), and then when you attain a certain level of prominence, you become a 1337 h@x0r (1337 for short). Here’s Wikipedia’s definition. It then spread throughout the hacker/IRC (Online Chat)/Multiplayer gaming community to the point that it completely supplanted normal English.

For me, the transition from normal English to 1337 was a gradual process. I saw words here and there that were either blatantly misspelled, or just looked weird, and I guess I accepted them for what they were. It wasn’t until college when I started hanging out with my friend Tim Cook that I finally realized that a brand new language had developed in the hacker community! The first time he used the term pwn3d (owned), I was in complete awe. He was my Mr. Miyagi, and I enlisted him to show me his ways.

After some training, I started using basic 1337 terms in my online conversations. Simple things like teh instead of the, and n00b (short for newbie) whenever someone asked me a stupid question. Then somehow for a short period of time 1337 hit mainstream, and people were actually talking back to me in 1337! It started with Brandon asking me all kinds of questions, and ended with my roommates (online multiplayer video game freaks) using 1337 terms in casual conversation!

A whole new world was opening up, and I was somewhere in the middle. I knew about 1337 well before these n00bs, but they were suddenly surpassing my knowledge, and taking things to a new level. When it came down to fight or flight, I ran away from 1337 and never looked back. While I still continued to use my favorite words (teh, l33t (same as 1337), n00b and of course pwn3d), I never increased my knowledge beyond that point.

In fact, my love of l33t laid dormant for several years until about a week ago, when I discovered the 1337 Leetspeak plugin for WordPress. I haven’t even tried out, but basically it allows me to enclose any text that I want in a 1337 tag, and that text will be converted to 1337 $p3@k. I was immediately intrigued by such a trivial plugin (honestly, someone spent time making this?) so I decided to give it a try. Here it goes

Thi5 p4r4gr4ph w45 writt3n in p14in Eng1i5h by m3, in 4n 4tt3mpt t0 5h0wc453 th3 p0w3r5 0f b3ing 4n 31it3 h4ck3r. S33, I h4v3 1itt13 kn0w13dg3 0f th3 p0w3r 0f 31it3 5p34k. H0w3v3r, thi5 p1ugin f0r W0rdPr355 4110w5 m3 t0 f4k3 my kn0w13dg3 13v31 4nd 0wn 3v3ry 0n3 0f y0u with my 31it3n355!

That’s the l33t version of my paragraph. Here is the original:

This paragraph was written in plain English by me, in an attempt to showcase the powers of being an elite hacker. See, I have little knowledge of the power of elite speak. However, this plugin for WordPress allows me to fake my knowledge level and own every one of you with my eliteness!

That’s it, I just wanted to show you how awesome Leetspeak is. If you want me to translate something for you, let me know and I’ll send it back 133t5p34k f0r y0u t0 3nj0y.

UPDATE: Ok, so I didn’t get a chance to see the l33t translation until after I posted. This plugin sort of sucks! It simply replaces letters with numbers. It doesn’t even convert elite to 1337, even though the plugin is called 1337!!! Sorry to waste your time with this post!