Purposeful misspellings

[orchidfire]

In English, people can often purposefully misspell words, usually for a cutesy effect (as in cat macros - "I can haz cheezburger?" or "ai wubs yu!") or some other effect, usually humorous. Does this effect exist in other languages? How about those that don't follow a Roman alphabet system; what are the equivalents?

Comments

[elleth]

The best that comes to mind regarding German would be the use of various diminuitive suffixes for a cutesy effect, 'Mausi' or 'Hundi' instead of 'Maus' and 'Hund', 'Kindchen' instead of 'Kind', etc. However these are not misspellings, and as far as I noticed not commonly used except by little children or people in love, as some of these (like 'Mausi') also constitute terms of endearment. The general reaction, though? Annoyance.

The other thing I could think of? Onomatopoeia. 'Wauwau' is a dog, 'Mauzi' is a cat, 'Quackquack' could be a duck or a frog depending on whom you ask, etc. Again, though, not commonly used, if you did that in public would probably cost you some credibility as a serious person. :P

Hm. And of course there are borrowings. We also have the acronyms and kawaii-san fangirls, but something like LOLCats in German... I don't think that trend has come here yet. Thank CeilingCat.