Beep, beep, beep - get the message

By Christina Okoli

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ARE you GR8, 1DRFL, :-) , :-( , or just confused

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Well, while the world was busy sightseeing in cyberspace, a new generation of mobile phone devotees were busy creating a whole new language.

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The phenomenon of text messaging via mobile phones has quietly bulldozed its way into the English language, without so much as a beep.

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Last Christmas, mobile phone companies were crippled by the sheer number of :-)Xms messages (happy Xmas), that were sent over the airwaves. But if that isn't a true enough indication of the popularity of this craze then wait until you hear what was the top selling book of 2000.

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According to figures recently published by the Bookseller Magazine,�a 96 page text-message bible outsold�J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter titles, and Margaret Atwood's Booker Prize winner.

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The book entitled Wan2talk retails at only 99p and lists 1,000 abbreviations, such as gr8 for great and 1drfl for wonderful and 'emoticons' such as, :-) for happy and :-( for sad. These, along with countless others, are designed to help text message senders save space and reduce the amount of typing they have to do. Text messaging is also viewed as the cheaper option to a quick phone call,�with some phone companies offering the service for free.

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Wan2talk �published by Michael O'Mara, had weekly sales of more than 36,000 in the run-up to Christmas. The text-message dictionary became the third highest selling book of last year, beaten only by The Guinness Book of Records and Jamie Oliver's Naked Chef.

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However, in tandem with the book's success, some of the abbreviations it lists, such as GAL which stands for Get a life, and ATB which stands for All the best, are now widely heard across school playgrounds and college common rooms all over the country.

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In fact, text message speak has become so popular that the authors of the Oxford English Dictionary are reserving a place in upcoming editions of the publication, should these terms continue to be so widely used.

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Check out some of the abbreviations:

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cool..................c%l

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date....................d8

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great..................gr8

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heavy..............hevE

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land...................L&

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loopy................l%P

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message.......m$ ge

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nothing............nufN

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often.................ofN

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party................pRT

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ready................reD

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single..............sngL

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today...............2dA

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waiting.............w8N

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yes....................yS

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Phrases

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Been there, done that.....................BTDT

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Enough said....................................nuf Z

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I'm going to be late....................Gona b l8

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No problem........................................NP

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Please call me.................................PCM

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Want to see a movie ........wan2 C a moV

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Lots of love/ Laugh out loud.................LOL

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Emoticons

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Happy.................����: -)

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Very happy.........����: -))

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Sad....................��� : -(

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Drunk..................�� : *)

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Laughing...........��� : -D

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Shocked / Wow...� : -O

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