Sponsor's Message

Clearly however, the designers of modern mobile phones are very much aware that the vast majority of folks are more than happy to leave out some of the more subtle forms of punctuation. Indeed, my little $149 Motorola requires *TEN* keypresses to produce an apostrophe -- that really slows me down when using contractions such as "don't" or "can't".

Now just before everyone starts firing off emails pointing out how many grammar, spelling and other errors appear in this column, I have to say that it's always written to a very tight deadline so sometimes things squeak through.

Now have your say Got something to say about today's column, or want to see what others think?  Visit The Forums While you're here, why not visit the Aardvark Hall of Shame and perhaps make your own nomination. 7

There are those who complain that the arrival of SMS, IM, email and other forms of "quick and dirty" communications has badly damaged the English language but I say "who cares?"

I'm not a purist and am glad to see the language evolving to meet the demands of modern communications media. Just because I'm stupid enough not to drop my vowels and punctuation when txting doesn't mean that those who prefer a more cryptic prose are committing any kind of crime.

So long as you can understand what's being said then it's really not an issue -- but only when we're talking about informal communications.

More formal writing, such as manuals and reference works however, should maintain a reasonable adherence with the language standards that we've been taught. I certainly don't want to read a long piece of prose in modern SMSglish -- that would be, at best very tiring and most likely somewhat confusing in places.

So what do we do with SMSglish and other variations brought about by modern electronic media?

Should the abbreviations and styles involved actually be taught in our schools so as to once again introduce some consistency and standards -- so as to limit the potential for confusion?

How long, I wonder, before we see this shorthand version of English appearing in our every-day spoken language?

With mobile calls being charged by the minute (at an extortionate rate in NZ), perhaps the younger generation will wise up to the fact the "The Queen's English" is a rather slow and verbose language to speak. Maybe we'll see some shorter yet cryptic version sliding into everyday use.

There has always been a language barrier associated with the age barrier, has TXTing and email raised this hurdle even higher?

And here's a thought...

The main force behind the emergence of SMSglish is probably the lousy ergonomics of your average cellphone's keyboard. Fitting 52 upper and lower-case characters plus punctuation and 10 numerals onto a tiny numeric keypad has meant that typing out prose is awkward and cumbersome.

Does anyone remember those keyboards that were touted back in the 1980s which allowed one-hand touch-typing through the use of simultaneously pressed keys?

Shaped a bit like a mouse, these keyboards could be held in the palm of your hand and had five buttons, one for each finger and your thumb. Through a clever combination of key depressions using a selection of one, two or three buttons pressed at the same time, the entire functionality of a full keyboard could be reproduced and typing speeds (it was claimed) equalled or exceeded that of the good old QWERTY.

I wonder how long before a mobile phone maker twigs tot he fact that young folks are very adept at learning new skills and that building a mobile phone into such a device would dramatically improve the speed of TXTing while also reducing the risk of RSI of the TXTing thumb?

Tell us all and see what others have to say in The Aardvark Forums

If you feel that this is a good thing and/or you hold a "geniune affection" for yours truly -- then you are welcome to gift me some money using the buttons provided. In gifting this money you accept that no goods, service or other consideration is offered, provided, accepted or anticipated in return. Just click on the button to gift whatever you can afford. NOTE: PayPal bills in US dollars so don't accidentally gift more than what you were intending :-)

Contacting Aardvark
I'm always happy to hear from readers, whether they're delivering brickbats, bouquets or news tip-offs. If you'd like to contact me directly, please this form. If you're happy for me to republish your comments then please be sure and select For Publication.

Other media organisations seeking more information or republication rights are also invited to contact me.

Just add a couple of lines of JavaScript to your pages and you can get a free summary of Aardvark's daily commentary -- automatically updated each and every week-day.

Aardvark also makes a summary of this daily column available via XML using the RSS format. More details can be found here.

Contact me if you decide to use either of these feeds and have any problems.

Linking Policy
Want to link to this site? Check out Aardvark's Linking Policy.

Did you tell someone else about Aardvark today? If not then do it now!