h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So you'd like to see some sort of statistic then, maybe, proportion of people who passed English GCSE who also had a mobile phone? I don't think you'll find evidence of too much damage. *I* managed to get an A* whilst also txting like there was no tomorrow.

Ahh well, clearly that constitutes definitive proof that there are no detrimental effects.

Anyway, I, for one, will be continuing to use full sentences in my text messages.

I also use full sentences and words in text messages. That's a personal choice, not a comment on the validity of other systems. The primary idea here, after all, is effective communication.

Note to Jimster:
America has taken many simple words and made them unnecessarily complex. For example:

Burgle - to steal from a house
Burglar - someone who burgals
Burglarize - the action performed by a burgalar, or just "Burgle"

What next - Burglarizer? Burglarization? Burglarizationism? Burglarizationismisticly?

Hi Researcher 19766 (we really must do something about getting you a nice name)

I totally agree with you on that one. Not keen on many of those 'ize' words to be honest, but the general development of American-English is recognised as, generally, being a bit closer to original English than modern English (which in the case of 's' spellings is influenced by the French apparently).

There's a cracking book on the growth of the American language by Bill Bryson called Mother Tongue, by the way.

Jimster
(who's a Brit, in case there's any confusion there)

That book's fantastic, I completely agree. Definitely worth reading if you're at all interested in any of this. Come to think of it, just about everything by Bill Bryson is worth reading

Made in America is an equally good book on the origins of the American language If you can call it that .

But when it costs 5p to sent 160 characters, even if what i want to say is longer, it is still cheaper than phoning someone, when for example my phone charges me 30p/min for the 1st 3 mins talk time. Plus, if u ring someone u are more likely to have a longer chat and spend more money than the cost of a few txt messages. It really depends on the kind of phone u have. Anyway, shortening words for txt is all very logical and can be fun! I still know how to write my essays properly!

Well, exactly. That's the point I've been trying to make all along

Sorry, Jimster, but my parents picked this name for me so I am stuck with it.

Call me 197606 if it helps. They don't like the abbreviation, but that's tough!

197606

Can't I just call you 197ie?

Jims

Made in America's superb. All those accepted truths like the pilgrims on Plymouth Rock - shattered as myths. Fantastic.

to the person who said that "evolution is when words enter the language from a foreign language..."
this is not the only case of language evolution!! all languages evolve over time, with or without foreign influence. the innumerable changes between middle english (of chaucer's era) and modern english are not wholly limited to imported vocabulary. there have been significant grammatical changes, as weel as vocabulary generated within the language itself.

sorry if i offend, but i really think that anyone who whines about texting being "dangerous" or detrimental to the survival of the english (or any other) language is being awfully silly.
at every single technological invention, conservative ppl have thrown up their hands in horror, crying "this means the end of the world as we know it" (photography will kill painting, television will kill reading, computers will kill handwriting, texting will kill the english language, etc.) nonsense.
the english language has survived onslaughts from foreign vocabulary, the invention of the printing press, the american/british split, faulkner, burroughs, kerouac, ebonics, australian slang that no one can understand (sorry), and many many other attackers. i think it will survive the calamity that is SMS

I couldn't agree with you any more! amen

I hate text abbreviations, and the culture around them. A lot of people actually think that they only really appeared when mobiels became popular. In fact, many abbreviations used today first appeared in the 1970s, when computers could send messages restrivted to a mere 30 or so letters. People using these couldn't avoid shortening stuff, and so made up things like 'WTF' and 'RTFM.'

However, with a whole 160 characters, you have more than enough space to send any reasonable message. I always use full spellings, and send surprisingly long messages, for example 'Sorry, that's no good. Can we meet on Sunday at three o'clock instead?' can in fact be sent on a mobile. The most annoying thing is when a ten-character message is abbreviated allegedly to save space, but it's really just because people don't kbnow how to type correctly.

Wait, scratch that last comment. The MOST annoying thing is when people spell 'was' as 'woz.' This does not reduce the message length, and in fact takes longer to type. This reinforces my view that texters are simply out to misspell words as much as possible, not really to shorten them.

Recently in Ireland, a teacher received this essay from a girl about her summer holidays: "my smmr hols wr a CWOT. w sd C my bro & 3 =0 kds..." etc. He couldn't read it. Now tell me that texting has no degenerate effect on people.

When I take notes in lectures, I do not find text abbreviations even slightly useful. Instead, I rephrase stuff, occasioanlly use a shorter synonym, but never a wrong word (I do regard s*** as a perfectly valid synonym for faeces.)

In Italy, a girl recently had to go to a doctor to have thumb surgery after she hurt it by texting too much. So now they're bad for your health as well. Hmmm....

I for one refuse to text in this stupid way,it is disgusting,and should words like say thousand start with f you know like fousand or instead of three it's free and so on.If you watch programmes like eastenders girls have become gills i though that was something fish had to help them breath.

Yeah, your right. Shortening in text messages should be banned or there should be an auto-correction that points out the correct spelling. All in the sake of proper English.

And while we're, sorry, we are at it: all people who speak some horrific varieties of English should be banned as well. Away with all those folks from Norwich or Bristol or London or anywhere you like, because they are a danger to the English language.

And, oh, foreigners speaken English should be banned, too, and foreign languages and small children who can't speak "proper" English, since they might cause a change in language.

Yeah, demanding bans on all kinds of stuff makes you feel good.

Yes it would be good,maybe we could add smart alec's to the list too.