SMS LANGUAGE AND ITS EFFECT ON LANGUAGE COMPETENCY

In todays technology oriented world, there is a mobile phone in everyones hand. Laptops and I-Pads
are more common than books. The new generation is fond of playing games; not outside as they used
to, but in a virtual world. It is thus not a surprise that the way people now communicate has changed
as well. Instead of letters, telegrams and notes, people in the modern world exchange messages
nowadays through sms, BBM, email and status updates. All of these involve the use of a special new
language known as textese or sms language
Keeping the messages short and to-the-point, has always been IN. In the past people used
telegrams to send brief messages which used only the words essential to make the message
understandable. The sentences were bare of all extra words, punctuations and ever prepositions.
But not everyone could send a telegram; there were special machines for it not accessible to
everyone and one needed a telegram operator to write the message.
If one wanted to tell a friend by telegram, that he had found the perfect life partner, whom he
considered the best companion for the rest of his life and whom he wanted to marry, at the same
time inviting the friend to the wedding ceremony, the telegram would look like this:
FOUND TRUE LOVE COME TO WEDDING.!!
Today mobiles and computers have made it even easier to share such news and internet is full of
Apps and software to make the messages more personalized and interesting. Also there is much
more of message sharing than ever before. Everyone shares everything with everyone else. If you
go to dinner, there is a status update; if you fall, there is an update; if you go to the bathroom,
there is an update!! With a smiley of course .
So what exactly is such an excess exchange of information is doing to our language and our brains??
For one thing it is making our words and sentences even shorter. If I wrt lk ths, I knw u wl
undrstnd! This is what I mean by sms language or textese. We drop the vowels, we throw away the
prepositions and we skip any sort of punctuation. Viola!! What is left of the language is sms
language!!!!
That is not all. Sometimes entire sentences and phrases are packed into smaller packages of
abbreviations, which are then used excessively. For instance, take LOL. Contrary to what my
father thinks, LOL is not an abbreviation for Lollipop, those sweets at the end of short plastic
sticks every child loves. It is an abbreviated form of laugh out loud, like hey dude, u are so funny
that I am laughing out loud. In reality, no one is laughing out that loud, but it is used just to make
the others feel better about themselves!
Similar is the case with tc. Everyone now knows that TC means ticket checker (thanks to a
certain train movie), but in sms speak it means take care. It could also mean too cute or thats
classy, but no! In sms language it means take care and thats that!! No one can change it.
How these abbreviations evolved is another debate altogether, but for now lets presume that most
of these abbreviations are widely used and understood by most, like:

OMG!! So many?!
But this is just a preview; the real list is much longer and getting still longer day by day.
So how is this new language affecting the old one? Many recent researches in Pakistan and all over
the world have shown concern that this new sms speak and textese is negatively affecting our
formal language skills. They say that people, especially students, use sms speak in their written
work so much that it is hard for them to write normally. Students even use it in their examinations
and formal assignments to the concern of teachers everywhere. Even now as I write this article, I
want to just skip the whole spelling thing and punctuations and just get to the point. Wd b so ez!! ;)
The following table shows the titles of some such researches. Yu can google them if you want to
read them yourself ( which I doubt ).
Salia Tagliamonte and Derek Denis (2008) : LINGUISTIC RUIN? LOL! INSTANT
MESSAGING AND TEEN LANGUAGE
David crystal (2008) : Txting frNd or foe?
Guy merchant (2001) : Teenagers in Cyber Space
David crystal (2005) The Scope of Internet Linguistic
Muhammad Shaban Rafi(2002): SMS Text Analysis: Language, Gender and Current
Practices
Abdullah , Mardziah Hayati(2003) article The Impact of electronic communication on
Writing
Wood, Plester, Bowyer (2008) Texting and Literacy
Anupam khatpalia The effects of Text messaging


Some of these researches say that sms language is destroying the students writing skills and even
writing ability. Some say that the students have become over fond of the use of non-standardized
As far as I remember : AFAIR
Love :LUV
Today : 2day
Before : bf4
See u : C U
At : @
As soon as possible : ASAP
At a moment :ATM
thanks : THNX
Youre on your own :YOYO
Today : 2day
Please : Plz
About : Abt
Are : R
Because : Bcos
For : 4
In : N
Is : S
Morning : Morn
Night : Ni8
To : 2
What : Wat
Night: n8
Great: g8
abbreviations, reduced endings and linguistic shortcuts. Also in sms language auxiliary verbs [is, am,
are etc.] are completely ignored and sometimes even verbs and pronouns are ignored (e.g. going 2
dinner; which means I am going to take dinner). Another minus for the sms language is the use of
numerals instead of letters. gr8 and gn8 are commonly used instead of the longer great and
goodnight. This seriously distorts the Standard English language, and students begin to ignore
working on learning and improving their spellings, grammar and pronunciation.
On the other hand, some advocates of sms language are of the opinion that the more students
write, the better it is for them. Writing more gives them the confidence to use and manipulate the
language and create interesting new ways to form sentences. These personalized ways of writing
involve and engage students in studies and written work. It also develops communicative skills and
language proficiency, even if the spellings are not directly addressed. This in turn increases the
literacy level of the population who use English in sms. For academic purposes, sms short terms and
abbreviations help in effective note taking and preparing rough drafts.
It is evident that there would forever remain disagreement as to which of the above two views is
the more convincing one. Those are in favor would never admit to its negative effects and vice
versa. But there is also a third view about sms language that is fast emerging and gaining many
supporters.
According to this new approach, sms or texting is not written language at all! Surprised? Let me
explain.
According to linguist John McWhorter, man used language primarily through speech or talking.
Writing is a skill which was developed very late. He illustrates this point with an example; if man has
been using language for 24 hours, writing only came along at 11:07 PM!! Hence written language came
at a very late stage in language development and is not such a critical aspect of language. It is
inevitable that new changes in language use would keep on occurring. Texting is one such change.
In the past, man did not have the ability to communicate instantly through written language. Letters
and telegrams took very long to reach the recipient and a dialogue could not be conducted through
it. All this changed with the coming of the mobile phones and texting. Now text messaging and
information exchange allows people to connect to others instantaneously. Chat and sms are used to
continuously communicate through language almost as if the two persons are talking. Even more than
two persons can be involved in the same sms stream or thread. These kinds of texts involve using
language that is closer to speech than it is to what we know as written language. It lacks capital
letters and punctuations and formal sentence structures. But if one gives it a thought, neither do
people pay attention to these things while talking. Do you ever pause to consider where to use a full
stop or capital letter in oral speech? No, no one does.
In this sense texting is similar to oral speech. It shares many features of spoken language.
Therefore linguists like McWhorter call texting fingered speech. It is speech but the new
technology has allowed man to use this speech through the use of written letters. This is the next
step in language evolution. It increases the cognitive abilities of the users and is almost as useful as
learning a new language or bilingualism.
Texting is almost an unstoppable phenomenon and its use is increasing day by day. Linguists have
therefore termed it as a miracle happening right in front of us. They say that this phase in language
development will be looked back by people 20 or 30 years down the line as the birth and origin of a
new aspect of language. We must therefore embrace it, study it and incorporate it in our language
repertoire.
Of course students and people in general should be made aware of the differences between texting
and formal writing. The two should be dealt with as separate subjects and not mixed together. Still,
who knows; may be in the near future there would be a new subject taught in our educational
institutions called TXTSPK!
Lets wait and see .





Percentage of kids using sms language in their work