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or is a style of obfuscated (cant) Japanese writing popular amongst urban [[Japan]]ese youth. As the name suggests ( meaning "gal"), this writing system was created by and remains primarily employed by young women.
Like the English language phenomenon of SMS language, it is most often used for sending cell phone text messages, but while text is used as a form of informal shorthand, a message typed in usually requires more characters and effort than the same message typed in plain Japanese. Since writing in requires extra effort, and due to the perception of confidentiality, sending messages to a peer is seen as a sign of informality or friendship. The origin of this style is unclear but it has been proposed that magazines targeted at teenage girls first made it popular, and the phenomenon started to gain wider attention in media around 2002.
The style has been met with increasing criticism, as its use continues to expand. Reported instances of girls using the writing in school work, Office lady ("office ladies") adopting the style in the workplace, and being used in karaoke subtitling, are examples of this. Anthropologist Laura Miller has analyzed as an example of gender resistance.Laura Miller. 2011. "Subversive script and novel graphs in Japanese girls' culture." Language & Communication Vol. 31, Issue 1: 16-26.
Several online guides for exist, as well as one published book: (2004).
Katakana is frequently replaced by similar-looking kanji, such as 世 for se or 干 for chi, in a reversal of the process that turned man'yōgana into kana. Kana and romaji may be mixed freely, even within a word, and Latin alphabet in rōmaji may be replaced with similar-looking Cyrillic letters, such as replacing N with И (Cyrillic I). Compound kanji are decomposed into left and right elements, which are written as individual kanji or kana. For example, the kanji 好 in 好き, meaning "like, enjoy" may be split into 女子 (the kanji for woman and child, respectively).
In addition to the basic obfuscation provided by character replacement, another technique used to disguise the content of the message is to use vocabulary and grammar that is uncharacteristic of standard usage. Combined with character substitution, this can make the meaning of the message almost unintelligible to those not "in the know". This is analogous to the use of leet's specialized grammar. However, the flexible nature of the Japanese language means that although phrases sound peculiar to someone expecting formal or even commonly colloquial Japanese, they are often technically still grammatically correct.
For example, the sentence Watashi wa ima totemo ii kibun desu. is "Right now I am feeling very good." in standard normal-polite Japanese. By first rewording this as 「超気持ちいい！」 or Chōkimochi ii! – which roughly translates as "(I have a) Super good feeling!" – and then converting to to get 「走召 氣 持 ち ぃ ぃ !」 or 「于∋─≠モ于ｲｲ！」, the message could prove difficult for those not versed in the style to understand.
| ohayō | 才（よчoぅ | Good morning |
| pokemon | 尓o ヶ 毛 ω | Pokémon |
| Takeshi ga suki | 夕ヶ / ｶゞ 女子(ｷ | I like Takeshi. |
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