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'Will u b @ the cnr b4 8 2nite?' A sentence that would strike horror into the heart of any English teacher, and would be guaranteed to fail you an English exam. Yet thousand's of text messages like this are sent every day. So why has this form of communication caught on so well and what will it do to the English language?

The past fifteen or twenty years has seen such an explosion in mobile telephony that it is now possible to make contact with friends and family wherever you are in the world, no more searching for phone booths or going through several exchanges to reach somebody on the other side of the world. It is just as easy, and usually cheaper, to text; making this the primary source of communication for young people.

This has made staying in touch much easier. Where hospitals would once have paged doctors, and waited for them to ring in, before telling them their elderly patient was critical, they can now text or phone them immediately. Where parents would once worry about their children's whereabouts after school they can now text to ask them where they are and what time they would be home. Just a couple of the benefits text messaging has brought with it.

However, this boon has also introduced a deterioration in the language. I have friends who now write in 'text speak'. They email me with shortened and distorted language that is more reminiscent of a spy-masters cipher than an everyday greeting. One friend even writes an on-line Blog that is peppered with these types of broken words. So is text messaging making us lazy?

There is a growing movement who argue that the English language is terribly convoluted, with the difference between the spoken and written language being significantly marked. They claim it would be much easier for foreign language students to learn English if it was written more phonetically, similar to the abbreviations of text messaging. As a writer I find this idea appalling. How could we use words to conjure up fantastic images in the readers mind if those words are just a jumble of letters without the myriad connotations they carry?

Historically, English is a fluid language that has been influenced by many different cultures and nationalities over the years and continues to change. However, the English used for text messaging could never replace the richness and variety of the language, as we currently know it. I believe the adoption of text English could only dilute the language and make it inferior to the incredible lexicon we use at present. I might be biased but I think this would be a terrible loss to society so, writers, let's make a stand, take up our pens and keep our language safe!

Learn more about this author, Tim O'Dell.
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