test message spelling

[joko]

I understand the need to shorten words in a text message because of space limitations, but does anyone else find it amusing when people, who are obviously in a 'shortnin' frame of mind, actually make words longer or just mis-spell them but don't actually shorten them? I recently had 'carnt' instead of 'cant' or  'can't' and often get 'woz' for 'was'.

 

[c00ky83]

Or l8ter, or m8te.  Or 2morrow.  Far btr jst miss ltrs out, u stl gt yr msg acrs!

[Chinajan]

Cue my eternal rant.  I hate text language, especially when used on the internet.  I can just about accept shortening of words in a mobile phone text message; there is a limit to the number of characters you can send. But elsewhere it strikes me as lazy and illiterate.  As you point out, some words are actually lengthened.

In a similar vein, it has always seemed to me ironic that the abbreviation for the world wide web has more syllables than the phrase itself.

[Epiphany]

Similarly, Americans "abbreviate" World War Two to "Double U Double U Two".

My theory is that people write in text-speak because they can't spell.

[kaktus]

I don't use text speak myself, but I think the reason for some words are misspelled is because the letters are on different keys on the phone. When using the "dictionary" on the mobile you get suggestions for words which is made of eg. a, s and w. E.g saw and was, when you use the letters o, w, z you only get woz because you have already added that word to the dictionary in the phone. So it's simply an invented mobile word to make the typing faster. I've heard researchers call text speak pretty advanced and that the kids using it are pretty good at language because they can juggle with words the way they do.

I must say than when text speak is used other places than in a text message I get a bit annoyed myself :0)

[mycatis]

I spell everything out in full in text messages, I even put all the punctuation in, (much to my friends amusement) but I just can't bring myself to leave it out.
Saying that, on CB I write differently, but think that's to get across that I'm not being not serious.

[joko]

I just got A

[joko]

I just got a 'messey' a 'driveing miss daisey' and a 'mar' - as in ma for mother! chortle! :D