All about “doggo-speak,” the internet’s new canine lexicon
Many dogs live in this world, and the internet loves them all. If you consult the Fédération Cynologique Internationale, the world’s dog-sorting specialists, you will learn about 344 recognized breeds. The internet does not consult the Fédération Cynologique Internationale. It prefers an alternative taxonomy of doggos, puppers, shibbers, yappers, goodboyes, and other domesticated memes, as explained in charts like this:
NPR’s Jessica Boddy has investigated this new language, which she calls “DoggoLingo” or “doggo-speak,” and interviewed doggo influencers like @dog_rates and the founders of the Facebook group Dogspotting. According to Boddy, DoggoLingo is “cutesy” with its suffixes, “uniquely heavy on onomatopoeias like bork, blep, mlem and blop,” and ever-expanding. Any post that catches on among Dogspotting’s 540,000-plus members could bring a new term like “loaf” (big corgi) or “fat boi” into circulation. Older memes have had a lasting impact:
For example, the phrase “doing me a frighten,” used to describe startled dogs, comes from an image posted in late 2015 according to KnowYourMeme.com. In it, a tiny Rottweiler puppy shocks its parent with a flurry of borks. The parent replies, “stop it son, you are doing me a frighten.”