Showing my age and how uncool i am but what does this mean?

[Qmark78]

'My Bad'

[Ethel]

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?da te=20000111

[jump79]

Basically, my mistake.

[unruliejulie]

God, don't ya just hate the **** the kids talk these days? What happened to the good old English language. And i'm not ancient, 37!

[DaSwede]

I always thought it sounds like something in between baby talk and 'mea culpa.' (Mea maxima culpa would then be My big bad, I suppose...)

[Mr Songman]

What indeed happened to the good old English language?

Don't "YA" wonder? :)

[kafers]

ok it means your mistake. and just because us teens ect don't always stick to the old english terminology dosn't neccessarily mean that we're stupid.

[DaSwede]

kafers makes a good point. I vividly remember a morning paper article written a few years ago by one of the most renowned experts in the Swedish language. She showed, for about 15-20 common words, how their meaning and usage had changed over the past century, and by quoting 'upset, honourable citizens' of those days she made it very clear how the usages they fought against were exactly the same usages that 'upset, honourable citizens' of today fight to defend from supposed language vandals... Very illuminating.

Louis De Geer (historic Swede, won't bore you with details) said someting along the lines of how mistaken we are in thinking that we can control language and pass laws on how it may be used. He argued that language is an organism that can only be observed.

Myself, I react against usages which invite misunderstandings.

[unruliejulie]

Ok Mr songman, well spotted, i don't think thats quite in the same context as whole sentences where no-one knows what they actually mean! I don't think we'd need a question asking what ya means!