Language Lessons, Post 1 - OMG!

So, the other day my mother (hi mom!) sent me an email about the new U2 video and the first line of her email was "Oh my gawd!!". This made me laugh and I responded by asking if she had actually written the email (there were a couple other things like that which made me think that someone else had written it). She responded by asking if there was something wrong with saying that and basically did I have a problem with it. My response was, "no no, i say it all the time, i just thought it was funny, you sound like you're, yaknow, like 15. but if you really want to be kewl it should be 'OMG!!' or if it's something unbelievable but at the same time somewhat humorous (like, say, our VP shooting a man in the face) 'Oh. mah. gawd.'" (sorry about the double quotes, I'm anal like that, being a programmer it is important to follow "nesting" rules and with a mom who was an editor (hi mom...again) you tend to pay attention to that type of stuff, hmmm, sounds like another post).

So, then I started really thinking about the phrase. It has become such a part of the intartubes landscape that it is almost invisible, but what does it really mean and how is it that I associate different meanings to it depending on how it is presented and am I right to assign these different meanings to the same phrase and finally what is the origin of it that allows it to have so many different meanings?
Let's start with the basic different variations (I say basic because the spellings can vary):

Oh. Mah. gawd. - I start with this variation because I think it is the most indicative of the origins of the phrase as it has entered the pop culture lexicon. It seems that the phrase began with Valleyspeak, a way of speaking, almost it's own dialect, of teenagers (mostly girls) of the Valley (San Fernando Valley) in California. Valleyspeak was popularized in the 1980's by Frank Zappa's Valley Girl released in 1982 and the movie Valley Girl released in 1983. But, I don't think it became the ubiquitous, almost invisible phrase that it currently is until 1992 with Sir Mix-A-Lot's song Baby Got Back which famously starts with two valley girls and one says to the other "Oh. Mah. Gawd. Becky, look at her butt..." Classic. And when the song went to #1 that was it. Today, the use of periods differentiates this version from the others by emphasizing the full stops after every word (the use of periods probably borrowed from the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons), it usually indicates an element of disgust but since it is associated with Valleyspeak there is often an element of irony.

Ohmygod - this variation is not much in use but by running the words together I think it more readily portrays a sense of horror or disbelieving awe. I would use this version if I saw an accident or if it turned out that the city of New York was actually an alien spaceship and one day slowly lifted off and headed for another planet, think the beginning of Welcome to the Jungle by Guns 'n Roses. I could also see it being used as overly excited, running the words together into one, although in that sense I would expect it to be spelled, ohmigod or ohmigawd.

OMG - this is currently the most popular variation and originates from the chatroom/IM world. Since it is so widely used it is harder to define an overarching meaning like the previous two versions but generally I would say it expresses incredulous, unbelieving surprise, as in "OMG! the VP shot a man in the face!". The other use is to express disbelief as in "OMG! He did not just say that."

OMFG - this is simply a more extreme version of OMG, meaning "Oh my fucking god"

ZOMG - finally this variation comes from the gamer/hacker world. There are a number of theories regarding its origin. One is that it is just a typo, when going to press the shift key to uppercase OMG the z key is also pressed. Another theory, which I am more inclined to agree with, is that it comes from the online gaming world and means "Zombies, oh my god." This variation mostly has the same meanings and connotations as OMG but is used to indicate inclusion in the gaming world or l33t speakers.

So, I know this was long (I could go on for another 20 minutes. I ain't proud...or tired.) but I had a good time writing it and I hope you had a good time reading it.

Here are a couple other interesting things I found in my research:
This really has nothing to do with the topic but OMG!
The OMG Particle