View Single Post
  #18 (permalink)  
Old 06-30-2006, 07:09 PM
caubeck
Intellectual
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 147

I'm an English teacher with a passion for linguistics and phonetics. However, I would not condemn the abbreviation of the language that we see in mobile phones and internet posts. Not so harshly, at least.

The first reason is that in history there has never been such a high number of literate English speakers as now. Many of those who write as badly as in the example in 2006 probably wouldn't have been able to write at all in 1906 or 1856.

Secondly, this new system of dropping letters and playing with sounds will not lead to the fall of the English language. We're experiencing a time of transition. We'll see conflict and chaos at first, before "web abbreviated" or "mobile" English evolves into a mode of communication in its own right, with its rules and standards.

Anyone showing difficulty distinguishing "real English" from "mobile English" and their corresponding contexts and usage probably would never have had much of a grasp of the former anyway.
 
Reply With Quote