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The term 'eye dialect' was first coined in 1925 by George P. Krapp in The English Language in America (McArthur 1998). The term was used to describe the phenomenon of unconventional spelling used to reproduce colloquial usage. When one encounters such spellings "the convention violated is one of the eyes, and not of the ear". Furthermore, eye dialect would be used by writers "not to indicate a genuine difference in pronunciation, but the spelling is a friendly nudge to the reader, a knowing look which establishes a sympathetic sense of superiority between the author and reader as contrasted with the humble speaker of dialect". Mrs. Cowell's note: Contemporary writers of color now employ eye dialect to show disdain for the word that's misspelled, e.g. Cherokee writer Qwo-Li Driskill uses "AmeriKKKan" to underscore the racism and cultural genocide happening in a country that pays lip service to justice and equity.

As the topic surrounding gender identity begins to grow, so does questions about appropriate pronouns. The word "they" has been anointed the word of the year in 2015 by the American Dialect Society. Pronouns for those who don't identify under the gender binary system have been becoming increasingly larger. Colleges have started to use words such as "Ze", "E", and "Ey". The Oxford dictionary has also recently added "Mx" (mix) to serve as an alternative to Mr. or Mrs. Most people have learned that it is best to ask a person which pronouns they would like to be used.