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March 03, 2003
SMS takes over - your language
SMS takes over - your language: This is an excerpt from a Scottish schoolgirl's written report of her Summer holidays:
She wrote the whole report using the SMS language that is popular with people who message each other using their phones - because this was easier than writing normal English. If this is true (I have no other source as yet) - Then Be afraid.
My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we usd 2 go 2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 :-@ kds FTF. ILNY, its gr8.
Need a translation?: "My summer holidays were a complete waste of time. Before, we used to go to New York to see my brother, his girlfriend and their three screaming kids face to face. I love New York, it's a great place."
Posted by Matthew at March 3, 2003 05:56 PM
Comments
i'm 15 and im doing a project on the new language of sms, and this article was exactly what i was looking for! if anybody has access to the whole essay that this schoolgirl wrote in sms language, i would be very grateful if they sent it to me so i could use it in my article, thanks!!
h. dyer
Posted by: h. dyer at February 24, 2004 05:18 AM
Is the effect of sms the degradation of language.
Is the shorting of words,dropping of vowels and speeling words how they sound minimising the vocabularly of the future generations. Will the next generation be able to understand literature of the 19th century, like the the Bronte sisters and Tennyson? When reading a classic novel will they have to read a dictionary with it to understand the language. This isn't to say that sms is totally bad, i use it myself but truely what effect is it having on language.
Posted by: Jess at March 28, 2004 12:38 PM
hi foks(!?),
I am Naveen Halemane. I'm really interested in what you have been commenting. I have registered myself for a Doctoral Thesis on A LINGUISTIC APPRAOCH TO E-ENGLISH in Central Institute of Indian Langauages, Mysore, Karnataka, INDIA. Here i am dealing with the language used in E-Mail and SMS. These 'deviations' should not be called Mistakes. Because the time and patience do not go with the IT world where only brisk communication can yield fruits. We can also assume that this is the revolutionary step against the Wayward, Capricious World Language. Pronunciation and Spelling do not have co-ordination or even Logic. An interesting Book in this regard can be David Crystal's INTERNET AND LANGUAGE. Almost all Indian languages have alphabets which are pronounced in a particular way wherever they occur. I presume many more languages of the world can be like this. The sound /k/ is /k/ wherever it occurs. 'See' is pronounced as 'C' because it conveys the same message laconically.
Your comments can enrich my studies. Thank you.
NAVEEN HALEMANE, INDIA
Posted by: Naveen Halemane at June 16, 2004 07:34 AM