Low English

... While today's class is chiefly concerned with the English dialect of the so-called "Low" variety, every major language used in Megacorpolis has their own version of it. Or as the kids might say these days...

— Professor Gunther Bork, Neuro-Linguist and trying to convince his class that he's cool and hip.

Low English is a dialect of written English, predominantly used entirely online. It is a mish-mash of short-hands, heavy slang, pop-culture references, memes (both legal and illegal), and emojis. To the uninitiated (usually old or corporate people), the results barely resemble the English language. But to Low English users, each part has an integral and agreed-upon meaning established through a sort of Darwinian linguistics process.
As culture changes and fresh trends sweep through the Megacorpolis, old terms either die or become enshrined. New references take their place in the Low English lexicon, drawing from the latest movies, music, celebrity gossip, and other media. For this reason, Low English is generally thought of as a positive market force by many of the Megacorporations as it demands consumption. Only by staying current can someone hope to understand Low English, and frequent users tend to be voracious consumers.

Low English is almost entirely written, mainly because it sounds ridiculous when spoken aloud. Offline use is limited to a few particular sub-cultures, such as various hackers or gamer-cults, used as a way of distinguishing themselves from everyone else. Some corporations, ever eager to exploit a new market, are experimenting with AR displays that would allow speech to be quickly translated into Low English.

Some underground groups use Low English to mask their communications, often adding their own ciphers on top. It is highly effective, often in part because most such groups don't really have anything important to say.

Megacorporations and mercenary-police often maintain Low English interpreters, although many inside such organizations hold those assignments in very low regard.

Using Low English

Slang, short-hands, and references are at the heart of Low English. A word can be reduced to a couple of letters that sound about the same. Events or sentences are replaced with a reference to something in the latest Megafoot movie. Not every sentence of Low English will look like the raving of a loon, but as a conversation goes on, the layers of memes and pop-culture will invariably become an impenetrable maze. Why waste all that text when a sad face emoji communicates the same idea?
Some call it lazy, others call it efficient. In Low English, the two are often considered the same.

High English
Not nearly as interesting to many scholars, the so-called High English is really just regular, everyday English.
While some professors exist that it is still a fascinating, beautiful thing, most people are far more interested in studying Low English. This fact is bemoaned to no end by those who consider Low English a terrible degeneration of language.

CAUTION: EUCLID WARNING

Due to its heavy use of memes, Low English users are especially vulnerable to Infohazards. Entire sub-forums on the Megacorpolis web can fall prey to insidious Infohazards before they can be contained and quarantined for processing. Since many Infohazards are inherently memetic, they can spread like a plague.
For this reason, many corporate-run websites and forums will only allow screened memes to be posted on their platforms. So-called illegal memes have no such screening and no safeguards, which adds to their appeal in the eyes of those who use them.

Some scholars think that Low English is the next evolution of language, representing a purer and more efficient form of communication. There is considerable resistance from those who use Low English for any sort of recognition. That would ruin the appeal.