A beginner's guide to 'text-speak'
It was only a matter of time before new technology spawned a whole new language. Love it or loathe it - or just feel confused by it - text speak is here to stay.
Txt spk (text speak) evolved from the shorthand used in internet chatrooms and was designed to accommodate the small number of characters allowed for mobile text messages (early text messages permitted only 160 characters), and as a convenient language for the small keypads on mobile phones. It's also quick to do: if you know how. The objective is to use as few characters as possible to create a sentence and so punctuation, capitals and grammar are out. Phonetics and emoticons (images view sideways such as ;o) created out of punctuation marks) are in.
Most of the time text speak involves not using the 5 vowels, A, E, I, O and U. For example YR = YouR...but it can also include Acronyms where the first letter of a word is used, like BFN = Bye For Now.
Single letters can replace words. For instance:
• be becomes b
• see becomes c
• are becomes r
• you becomes u
• why becomes y
• and becomes n
Single digits can replace words. Such as:
• ate becomes 8
• for becomes 4
• to or too becomes 2
• for or Fore becomes 4, so: before becomes b4 and therefore becomes der4
In Britain, we send more than 100 million text messages a day. Around 99 million probably say something like "C U @ pub l8r 2nite?" (See you at pub later tonight?). But it is not all fun and games: in New Zealand, schoolchildren are allowed to use text speak in exams and in Malaysia it has been possible under sharia law for a man to divorce his wife by texting her, so long as his meaning is clear.
Far from being an exact science, text speak style can also be very individual. Psychologists are examining text messages sent by more than 160 members of the public to see if one person's text speak style can be identified in a similar way to their handwriting. Experts at the University of Leicester hope the project will help police conclude whether or not a person sent a text message, which could be crucial when trying to stand up an alibi. Several court cases have involved text messages. In 2002, Stuart Campbell, a lorry driver, was convicted of murdering his 15-year-old niece Danielle Jones after texts sent on her mobile phone were alleged to be his. And in 2006 Christopher Nudds was jailed for the murder of Fred Moss, a traveller, after texts sent from the victim's phone following his death raised suspicion. The words were spelt correctly but Mr Moss was illiterate. You have been warned.
But if we all delete text messages, will this practical new language still be around in 20 years once technology has moved on? Jonathon Green, author of the Cassell Dictionary of Slang, thinks that texting will soon be obsolete as new technologies replace the mobile phone, and he will not be including any examples in his new edition. But the evidence is slowly creeping into other publications. Martin Amis and Will Self have both used the language to varying success in recent novels.
One internationally-read book has even been completely translated into text speak. The Bible may be available in many languages but in Australia the entire 31,173 verses can be downloaded for free and sent by mobile phone. It begins: "In da Bginnin God cre8d da heavens & da earth."
"The old days when the Bible was only available within a sombre black cover with a cross on it are long gone," said a spokesman for The Bible Society in Australia, Michael Chant whose son Michael spent six weeks translating the Bible into text messages.
Meanwhile, to celebrate the launch of Windows Live Hotmail, Microsoft created the first ever national archive of emails in conjunction with the British Library in 2007. The Email Britain book, recording a snapshot of British life by email, will mean that plenty of examples of text speak will be permanently archived for generations to come.