Standard English, as it was written before the arrival of the text phone and chatroom etc, used to have a grammatical syntax that was almost the unbendable law of writing. Now with messages such as thx 4 th cfee C U later etc etc I just wondered if anyone believes the English language of this style will be adopted as legitimate and that dictionaries (authoritative dictionaries such as the Oxford English (dont know what the authoritative USA dictionary is)) will adopt this style of English quite soon. In other words d'ya thnk wrds lk ths ll B incorporated and standardised too perhaps with a grammatical structure thats fitting?
It may well end up in dictionaries with some kind of special notation to show it is accepted TXT speak-- but I think that most people are more comfortable reading traditionally formatted prose when it comes to something like a novel.
language's a process. its changing all the time, every day ... in a hundred years itll all look different. i think stuff like internet, mobile phone usage aso will play their part as well and someday itll be all listed in dictionairies ^^ not now maybe cause people think this kinda language's not "serious" enough... h4v fn
I think not because it it isn't standardized, can be hard to read, and really isn't appropriate oustide of mobile phones and chat rooms. At least I hope it doesn't...o_o;
I know how ya feel. I don't feel comfortable online unless I can use what I feel is proper spelling and pronouniation. But! Once in awhile di can get creative with it. The hacker type use a font that uses numbers, and letters in combination to form the text. hard to read at first, but once you can read it. You know a new language. Check out Xaosflux's personal forum. Link on main page, "Computer" forum. Face it. The common language in the U.S. is actually a combination of many.
I dont feel at all uncomfortable with that style of language. Ny own thoughts are that I find it easier to type " CU later" than " see you later" and whreas 20 years ago when friends wrote " B back soon" I used to think - " wow cool stylisation" I now think " Y K C U wn U gt Bk" Its almost like the rules of English are breaking down to be replaced by newspeak and I think I can say it may open up great possibilities for writers. ontroversy was caused when a young girl in Britain sat her GCSE exams and was awarded top grades for producing her exams entirely in text speak - I think thats the spirit. You all seem to be saying language is evolving - yeah yr right it is - I wonder do any of you know if whole novels are pdcd in txt spk yet?
Novels generally want to sell to the roadest audeince which is still standrad English. I applaud people moving with culture but a person who can use only txt speak will get a horrible shock in their forst job. I think we need to be bitextual.
It's funny that you should mention this. I read somewhere (either the Sunday Times, the Guardian or the BBC website) that they were planning to rewrite Shakespeare into text speak, so that kids would be more interested in it and would understand the language and relate to it more. What an absolutely fucking ridiculous idea... rewriting the words of the man who coined over 10,000 words in the English Language, most of which we still speak today. Personally, I think it's insulting.
