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Want to know a bit more about the internet before memes existed, penspinning and how all of this is somehow related to linguistics?
𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱!
𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱!
Let's first do a crash course on the origins of penspinning. You all know the trick in this video, and some of you may even be able to do it.
Around 1975 this and other simple tricks started getting popular in Japan, some formal studies about it too (1989). It was known as ペン回し, (literally, "spinning pens") and was hated by everyone who had to suffer the sound of the pen constantly falling, just like today.
However, in 1994-95 things got very interesting. The WWW exploded in popularity and many people created their own pages, a man called Hideaki Kondo among them. In 「My history of penspinning」he listed many tricks and got thousands of views. https://web.archive.org/web/19980113074311/http://www.tcp-ip.or.jp/~konhide/pen.htm
Many people learned about penspinning from his page and he became quite known in Japan.
This video is such a treat: Hideaki Kondo on the Japanese TV (to commemorate for 21 years of history of penspinning)
This video is such a treat: Hideaki Kondo on the Japanese TV (to commemorate for 21 years of history of penspinning)
Flash forward to 2004, penspinning starts getting less popular in Japan since "they already learned all the difficult tricks". Oh boy... 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠
Even though forums still exist today, they have changed drastically. Smaller forums existed scattered in the web without the need to be centralized in a huge platform to have frequent activity (like Reddit or Discord nowadays)
On 2003, pendolsa (a korean forum and store) opened, shortly followed by UPSB, a community for all english speaking countries.
This is a promotional video from 2003 by KAM, an UPSB member which also had his own website. Don't forget about him because he will be important later.
This is a promotional video from 2003 by KAM, an UPSB member which also had his own website. Don't forget about him because he will be important later.
Penspinning developed very fast after these communities were created. In just four years there were already enough communities and spinners to make the first world tournament.
Here's a video from the 2010 world cup. His name is Peem, from thailand (THPSC)
Here's a video from the 2010 world cup. His name is Peem, from thailand (THPSC)
Each community had their "big names" and a characteristic style. Peem and many other thai spinners were very well known for their aerial and continuous tricks, which attracted many new people to the hobby as well.
Uh... So you're still there? I'm sure that when you woke up today you didn't think "today's the day, I'm going to learn about the history of penspinning" and yet here we are
One particularly beautiful thing about this is how we could witness languages being developed in real time.
Around 2003, various different spinners named the tricks they knew in their personal pages. Some of those names were given by Kam and Hideaki, which we already met.
Around 2003, various different spinners named the tricks they knew in their personal pages. Some of those names were given by Kam and Hideaki, which we already met.
This table is a mess but don't worry, I'll break it down for you. We can see the original names given to many of the tricks, as well as the names still used ~20 years later in each region.
It can be seen how Kam (admin of UPSB) and Hideaki Kondoh (japanese referent) had HUGE influence on the names used decades later in each region. We also see how other "languages" died due to their lack of influence, and also how there were some cultural exchanges between them.
For example, many tricks started with the same names. Many others started with different names but then fused in USA/Europe and Japan due to cultural exchange. Others just remained separate in each region.
Grammar arised naturally in both english and japanese naming, both distinct in their structure. Here there are some tables summing up english penspinning grammar.
These grammar rules also represented how each community view penspinning. English rules were less intuitive but very flexible, allowing for the description of almost all tricks. Japanese rules were more strict but intuitive, referring to the flow and style of the movements.
So we have two independent language families, great. Guess what? We also have distinct languages derived from those! Let's briefly talk about thai and formal notation.
(I missed a lot of countries in the scheme, I know...)
(I missed a lot of countries in the scheme, I know...)
When Peem popularized his style he used new names and slightly modified the english structure to make aerials and continuous tricks easier to write down, avoiding many convoluted modifiers. Commonly used tricks were given cool new names like Pun Kan, Hai Tua and Swivel.
In Europe, mainly FPSB (French community) and SPSC (Spanish community) developed an even more convoluted naming system, which allowed for a lot of creativity.
Here's a video from Fel2Fram (FPSB) for the 2012 world cup finals.
Here's a video from Fel2Fram (FPSB) for the 2012 world cup finals.
By the way, the 2012 world cup was a team tournament, and it was 3vs3. The finals was FPSB vs UPSB.
i.suk (also the one at the start of the thread) was the one battling Fel2Fram.
France won 3-0.
i.suk (also the one at the start of the thread) was the one battling Fel2Fram.
France won 3-0.
If you were wondering if I spun, yes of course! Here's one video from the 2014 World Cup, also vs UPSB (I won the match 
) There are some bits of notation written on the slowmo at the end.
) There are some bits of notation written on the slowmo at the end.
Before wrapping up, let's see a few more videos that prove how absurdly good some people are at this thing.
This is A13X, from France (FPSB) for the 2013 world tournament semifinals.
In my opinion this is his greatest combo, but the finals one has a lot to talk about...
This is A13X, from France (FPSB) for the 2013 world tournament semifinals.
In my opinion this is his greatest combo, but the finals one has a lot to talk about...
This is A13X's 2013 world tournament combo for the finals.
The first spin and the one near the middle of the video were absurdly difficult and forced the rest of the tricks to be a bit subpar.
The first spin and the one near the middle of the video were absurdly difficult and forced the rest of the tricks to be a bit subpar.
This was his opponent, Sutomo from Japan (JEB). In the end the Japanese hadn't learnt "all the difficult tricks", but they were insanely good spinners nonetheless!
Sutomo won the tournament on what would remain as one of the most controversial matches of penspinning. All the drama affected A13X a lot. He quit spinning and made a series of videos on how to extract a magnetron from a microwave. Good times.
At the end of 2018, UPSB was closed. As I already hinted, the rise of mass social media hurt a lot the activity on small forums, which were crucial to all of these dynamics.
However, saying that "penspinning is dead now" would be wrong, just like it was wrong on 2004 Japan.
However, saying that "penspinning is dead now" would be wrong, just like it was wrong on 2004 Japan.
What I think is beautiful is how we can see its development from the start and see how their interactions and points of view were faithfully projected onto languages. It serves as a small model to see how in real life languages must change too, reflecting evolution in our society
𝗘𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱If you read all of this and you liked it, thank you so much! A retweet would be appreciated so I can reach more people
And please stay at home!
Bonus clip #1:
This is Precel, from Poland (PPP) for the 2012 World Cup
This is Precel, from Poland (PPP) for the 2012 World Cup
Bonus clip #2:
This is snow, from Hong Kong (HKPSA) for the 2011 World Tournament
This is snow, from Hong Kong (HKPSA) for the 2011 World Tournament
