Tone indicator

This article is about the symbols appended to text to portray intent. For phonetic tone representation, see Tone (linguistics) § Phonetic notation. For other uses, see Tone.

A tone indicator or tone tag is a symbol attached to a sentence or message sent in a textual form, such as over the internet, to explicitly state the intonation or intent of the message, especially when it may be otherwise ambiguous. Tone indicators start with a forward slash (/), followed by a short series of letters, usually a shortening of another word. Examples include /j, meaning "joking"; /srs, meaning "serious"; or /s, meaning "sarcastic".

History

Early attempts to create tone indicators stemmed from the difficulty of denoting irony in print media, and so several irony punctuation marks were proposed. The percontation point (⸮; a reversed question mark) was proposed by Henry Denham in the 1580s to denote a rhetorical question, but usage died out by the 1700s. In 1668, John Wilkins proposed the irony mark, using an inverted exclamation mark (¡) to denote an ironic statement. Various other punctuation marks were proposed over the following centuries to denote irony, but none gained popular usage. In 1982, the emoticon was created to be used to denote jokes (with :-)) or things that are not jokes (with :-().

The syntax of modern tone indicators stems from /s, which has long been used on the internet to denote sarcasm. This symbol is an abbreviated version of the earlier /sarcasm, itself a simplification of </sarcasm>, the form of a humorous XML closing tag marking the end of a "sarcasm" block, and therefore placed at the end of a sarcastic passage.

Internet usage

On the internet, one or more tone indicators may be placed at the end of a message. A tone indicator on the internet often takes the form of a forward slash (/) followed by an abbreviation of a relevant adjective; alternatively, a more detailed textual description (e. g., / friendly, caring about your well-being) may be used. For example, /srs may be attached to the end of a message to indicate that the message is meant to be interpreted in a serious manner, as opposed to, for example, being a joke (which is commonly represented as /j). Tone indicators are used to explicitly state the author's intent, instead of leaving the message up to interpretation.

List of common tone indicators on the internet

Abbreviation	Meaning
/j	joking
/hj	half joking
/bj	bad joke
/js	just saying
/s or /sarc	sarcastic / sarcasm
/srs	serious
/nsrs	not serious
/lh	light hearted
/hlh	half light hearted
/g or /gen	genuine
/i	ironic
/ui	unironic
/vu	very upset
/ij	inside joke
/ref	reference
/t	teasing
/nm	not mad
/lu	a little upset
/nf	not forced
/nbh	nobody here; nobody in this conversation
/nsb	not subtweeting; not referring to anybody
/nay	not at you
/ay	at you
/nbr	not being rude
/nv or /nav	not venting/not a vent
/ot	off topic
/th	threat
/cb	clickbait
/f	fake
/q	quote
/l or /ly or /lyr	lyrics
/c	copypasta
/m	metaphor / metaphorically
/li	literal / literally
/rt or /rh	rhetorical question
/hyp	hyperbole
/e	excited
/ex	exaggeration
/p or /pl	platonic
/r	romantic
/a	alterous / affectionately
/sx or /x	sexual intent
/nsx	non-sexual intent
/ns	non-sexual intent or not sure
/pc or /pos	positive connotation
/nc or /neg	negative connotation
/neu	neutral / neutral connotation
/nh	not hostile
/npa	not passive aggressive
/st	still thinking
/mj	mainly/mostly joking
/ma	messing around
/hsrs	half serious
/hs	half sarcastic
/dr	don't reply
/dkm	don't kill me
/cwh	coping with humor
/cr	cringey
/cur	curious
/mhly	misheard lyrics
/msrs	mostly serious
/ms	mostly sarcastic
/non	nonsense
/genq or /gq	genuine question
/jbt	joking but true

See also

• Internet slang
• Poe's law