WITH its astounding rise in popularity since 2001, text messaging has been widely deplored as the ruin of teens, language and perhaps civilisation itself. Yet the reality is far less dire.
Thereās no evidence that texting damages writing skills; on the contrary, academic studies ā as well as creative phenomena such as text poetry ā indicate that texters can actually be talented writers. In any case, texting isnāt as innovative as you might think: abbreviations are hardly new and a highly text-associated word like āwotā dates from 1829. Thanks to Crystal for dispelling the hysteria.
David Crystal has provided some examples of txtspk: can you guess what they mean (answers below)?
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Hereās one to start you off: ātwz d bst of x, twz d wst of xā
Answer: āIt was the best of times, it was the worst of timesā ā Charles Dickensā A Tale of Two Cities
- (/)pnc, HHkrs GYd 2T glxE
- 1st amgst =
- dad@hvn, ur spshl
- ggggUK4gg
- LEmntry, my dEr wtson.
- 4scr + 7a ugo r 4fthrs brt 4th on this cn10nt a nu nAshn cnCvd in lbRT + ddc8d 2 th prop tht (evRE1) r crE8d =
- 2b? nt2b? = ???
- fr ur ii only
Think youāve worked them out? Here are the answers:
- āāDonāt panicā, Hitchhikerās Guide to the Galaxyā ā Douglas Adams
- āFirst among equalsā
- āOur Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy nameā
- āA horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!ā ā Shakespeare, Richard III
- āElementary, my dear Watsonā ā attributed to Sherlock Holmes
- āFourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.ā ā Abraham Lincoln, the Gettysburg address
- āTo be or not to be, that is the questionā ā Shakespeare, Hamlet
- For Your Eyes Only ā James Bond short story collection by Ian Fleming
Txtng: The Gr8 Db8
Oxford University Press