ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Has texting ruined spelling and meaningful expression ?

The use of texting letters is really only applicable to a small number of commonly used phrases.
I'm not that familiar with texting; I don't use texting. When I see the use of texting, I puzzle over it, but once you are enlightened it is not all that hard to identify the meaning, especially if you were to use it frequently.

Using acronyms and such lettering is nothing new. ALP and ANZAC have been around for nearly a century. OK has been in use for ages as has RADAR, SCUBA. BYO has been used for a long time
The old telegrams used to use lettering like texting for the same reason that texting is used ; to save space and cost on the message medium.

There's nothing new under the sun.

And besides, one must have a good knowledge of English in the first place to understand texting. It is not a new language, only an abbreviation of established words.

So I conclude that texting has a minimal effect on spelling and expression, it is only a utility for a specific routine.

Well I think if you could spell in the first place Neville that it wouldn't make a difference but the emails that I seem to get now from my nieces are all full of text type abbreviations and a lot of forums that I read have their comments written using the same terminology and I reckon (I have been wrong before) that they just can't spell - in fact I reckon that a huge % of the population today can't spell - even simple words...my pet hate on eBay are the number of chest of draws that are for sale, and even the local furniture shop here sells chests of draws and the ad he puts in the paper is never corrected by the newspaper either, so I conclude that they either do not proof read or they cannot spell either.

Admittedly though the English language is totally confusing

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on..

English was invented by people not computers and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why when the stars are out they are visible but when the lights are out they are invisible.

PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ?

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this .

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP'

What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night?
U-P - see more bloody texting


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That's an interesting rundown on the paradoxes pf English, Maureen..

Um, not really relevant to what I was saying. People criticize texting as if it was the slippery slope to illiteracy, I don't believe that to be the case, because both the writer and the reader of texting need to have a good working knowledge of English vocabulary and syntax to do texting.

Sorry Nev - don't agree - wish I did - you want to try catching the trains out here and seeing some the the texting gurus who frequent them. If they have a knowledge of anything other than sex, drugs and rock and roll they might be considered to be educated, but they all seem to know how to text and how to use bad language loudly in public spaces. I suspect I am becoming a grumpy old woman

The bogans.. they're all around us Maureen, texting or no texting .
Did I say that ?, oowah

OH hell I knew you were a bad tempered OLD woman but you did not need to let them all know and apart from that I can not understand a LETTER you wrote Maureen

Now Bill - you and I have exchanged many a letter and you have not complained before - tell me what it was I wrote that you didn't understand lovey and I will draw a picture for you