Language!

http://www.spellingsociety.org/media/bill.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1523708.stm

Interesting Dave, never knew about that!

Thanks for that, 'pghstochaj' - how would that name be spelled in ITA?!

No seriously Paul, it's disturbing that someone could mess with the language in that way and put all those children through the confusion.

I've never had a problem myself with spelling words 'as they sound'. You just choose the letters based on rules you worked out at an early age. These people that moan about inconsistencies obviously never quite worked out those rules. The strange thing is that people that know English as a second language seem to have taught themselves the rules very well.

About TXT language: I don't think it helps much. People still don't bother to get the point across quickly. I've seen countless cases where the recipient had no idea what the message meant, all because one word had been 'saved'.

snow 2morrow U comin 2 aye

could have much more useful as:

Call me if you're coming snowboarding tomorrow

Shortened to (?):
Call me if UR coming snowbdng 2morrow

Notice how the first message gave no indication of any action being required. The other party sits around waiting for a response, while the recipient doesn't think it's necessary to reply!

"Just my two cents" as the Americans say.

-Alex

Sorry I seem to have missed this. As a supposed 'yoof' myself I'm not a fan of this txtspk stuff, it makes it very hard for me to read and understand. Like Stu I don't even use it on my phone and very rarely on chat. Spelling grammar and punctuation are important for meaning and tone (which is hard enough to pin down on the net as it is), not saying we should all be perfect because millions of people in this country were let down by the school system and have little idea of this but we should make an effort so the forum is accessible to all .

thanks for that paul will have a read of it later

Pity it's not in ITA!

Can we? It would help...

I understand 'txt spk' , but it must be really annoying for those who can't...

I think it would be a very good idea just to have an all out ban on text speak.

I can't understand it and I'd love it if people were encouraged against it. Like I said when I brought it up two days ago.

I say ban text speak. It's a pain in the arse. I understand its use on a mobile phone, but why on a computer?

has Cinqmeister handed you the baton?

I don't even understand the point on text speak on a mobile phone - not with predictive text, anyway....

I is avin to be agreein wiv ya, da text talkin stuff is not da way to go, you as gotta talk gangsta, seems to be da way, innit?

Re-reading this thread nobody is actually arguing that it should be allowed. Maybe a ban just for a trial period would be good. I mean people could just ask nicely if they see it, but it needs to be an 'official' rule to do that...

i am against it in general but i dont think there needs to be a rule against it. i think thats a bit clicky personally and you can usually tell what people are trying to say anyway. i dont like it when people do really confusing long word or sentance abbreviations really but hey are convenient if you don't have much time to post. it took me about 6 months on here to work out what pmsl and imho means. lol (lots of laughs!)

I don't mind u or 2 etc.. instead of the word because it is obvious what is being put across and doesn;t slow down reading.

Funny, I always read lol as standing for 'laughing out loud', although I am not disputing 'lots of laughs' in anyway

never though of it like that. good one! LOL!