The Evolution of Written Language

My wife, Itzel, informed me that in New Zealand, students may now use text-speak, the written form of English that uses abbreviation and drops a lot of capitalization, grammar and punctuation requirements for certain written English tasks.  Text-speak is mostly used on the phone and in chat rooms because you can type in a phrase much more quickly than in complete written English.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/11/11/nz.text.ap/index.html

Text-speak is a perfectly logical extension of written English when viewed in the context of real time (or near real time) written communications.  Text speak is basically the modern equivalent of passing notes in class except that you can pass notes with anyone in the world and while playing multi-player video games.

While I enjoy the satisfaction that comes with the ability to recall what "the rules are" for writing, I'm also not a stickler for following form, especially at the expense of function.  It makes no sense at all to try to T9 a complete and correctly punctuated phrase when a few quick button presses can just as well communicate my message to a friend.  With that said, I believe that allowing text-speak in an academic environment is a tricky proposition if we're to maintain written English in a form that resembles its current state of evolution.  Even more pragmatically, kids need to learn correct written English to improve their chances of success in the business settings.  Using text-speak for work communications could be detrimental to your perceived status unless you've already established yourself as a skilled user of the English language.  That doesn't mean people should bang out Shakespeare every time they send an SMS.  Many blackberry business users are adept at typing extremely terse yet linguistically "correct" communications.  (There are those, like Itzel, who program in text-speak style short cuts that are auto-expanded to the full word or phrase for true efficiency!)

I believe the future of this discussion will include a text-speak standards body that will help to formulate a set of rules and conventions.  Standards are good to avoid confusion although they will need to be flexible enough to keep people focused on content and not on how it's communicated.  In some ways, FAQs that explain text-speak conventions are already serving the function of unofficial standards bodies.  If you're an English major and want to be the Webster of the Internet age, consider starting the "official" text-speak standards body and you will leave your mark on history.