SMS language or textese (also known as txt-speak, txtese, chatspeak, txt, txtspk, txtk, txto, texting language, txt lingo, SMSish, or txt talk) is a term for the abbreviations and slang most commonly used due to the necessary brevity of mobile phone text messaging, in particular the widespread SMS (short message service) communication protocol. SMS language is also common on the Internet, including in email and instant messaging. It can be likened to a rebus, using pictures and single letters or numbers to represent whole words (e.g. "i <3 u" which uses the pictogram of a heart for love, and the letter u replaces you).
For words that have no common abbreviation, users most commonly remove the vowels from a word, and the reader is required to interpret a string of consonants by re-adding the vowels (e.g. dictionary becomes dctnry and keyboard becomes kybrd). The reader must interpret the abbreviated words depending on the context in which it is used, as there are many examples of words or phrases that use the same abbreviations (e.g., lol could mean laugh out loud or lots of love, and cryn could mean crayon or cryin(g)). So if someone says ttyl, lol they probably mean talk to you later, lots of love not talk to you later, laugh out loud, and if someone says omg, lol they probably mean oh my god, laugh out loud not oh my god, lots of love. "onw" means "oh no way!" nothing else. Context is key when interpreting textese, and it is precisely this shortfall that critics cite as a reason not to use it (although the English language in general, like most other languages, has many words that have different meanings in different contexts). SMS language does not always obey or follow standard grammar, and additionally the words used are not usually found in standard dictionaries or recognized by language academies.
The advent of predictive text input and smartphones featuring full QWERTY keyboards may contribute to a reduction in the use of SMS language, although this has not yet been noted.
The objective of SMS language is to use the least number of characters needed to convey a comprehensible message, also as many telecommunication companies have an SMS character limit, another benefit of SMS language is to reduce the character count of a message, hence, punctuation, grammar, and capitalization are largely ignored.
The dialect has a few hieroglyphs (codes comprehensible to initiates) and a range of face symbols.[1] According to a study, though it is faster to write it takes more time to read than normal English.[2] According to research done by Dr. Nanagh Kemp of University of Tasmania, the evolution of ‘textese’ is inherently coupled to a strong grasp of grammar and phonetics.[3]
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SMS language is similar to that used by those sending telegraphs that charged by the word; people wanting to save money began shortening their messages to pay a smaller amount. Mostly common is Tomoz instead of Tomorrow which was sent in one of the first SMS.
SMS language is a nascent dialect of English that subverts letters and numbers to produce ultra-concise words and sentiments.[4] The invention of mobile phone messages may be considered as its source, although elliptical styles of writing date back to at least the days of telegraphese, and telegraph operators were reported as using abbreviations similar to those used in modern text to chat amongst themselves between sending official messages dating back 120 years.[5] There are no standard rules for writing SMS languages, and a lot of words can also be shortened, such as "text" being shortened into "txt". Words can also be combined with numbers to make them shorter, such as "later" which changes into "l8r", using the numeral "8" for its phonetic pronunciation. Textese seeks to use the fewest number of letters, and so helps in dealing with the space constraints of text messaging, as well as permitting the sender to type less and to communicate more quickly than one could manage without such shortcuts.
It is similar to Internet slang and Telex speak, and has evolved from the shorthand use in Internet chat rooms to accommodate the small number of characters allowed (early SMS permitted only 160 characters and some carriers charge messages by the number of characters sent), and as a convenient language for the small keyboards on mobile phones.
Welsh journalist and television reporter John Humphrys has criticized SMS language as "wrecking our language". The author cites ambiguous examples such as "lol", which may mean "laughing out loud", "lots of love", or "little old lady" depending on the context in which it is used. Humphrys describes emoticons and textese as "irritating" and essentially lazy behavior, and surmises that "sloppy" habits gained while using textese will result in students' growing ignorance of proper grammar and punctuation.[6]
David Crystal has countered the claims that SMS has a deleterious effect on language with numerous scholarly studies. The findings are summarized in his book Txtng: the Gr8 Db8. Despite scholarly research to the contrary, the popular notion that text messaging is damaging to the linguistic development of young people and to the English language itself persists.[7]
In one American study, researchers found that less than 20% of messages used SMS language. Looking at his own texting history, the study's author, linguist David Crystal, noted just 10% of his messages used SMS language.[8]
There have been some reports in the media of children using SMS language for essays in school. For example:
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