Researchers want your text messages

An SFU rsrchr wants 2 know how u txt 2 get yr msg across. [via BurnabyNow]

If you can read that, you may want to take part in a study looking at the language of text messaging. Text4Science is a collaboration between researchers at Burnaby's SFU, the University of Montreal and the University of Ottawa, and they want people to donate their text messages to science.

We hope to see how text messages change with languages and dialects," said Christian Guilbault, an associate professor with SFU's French department.

Guilbault said the project's first phase found differences in texting depending on the type of French spoken, and now researchers want to see if the same thing is happening with English speakers.

"There are some differences between the French used in France and in Quebec, so we expect to see significant differences between different dialects in English," he said.

To get involved, forward your text message 202202 via cellphone (your regular charges apply). There's also an online survey to complete at www.text4science.

Read full article.

19-Sep-82: Scott Fahlman at Carnegie Mellon University suggested using :-)

Wired: At precisely 11:44 a.m., Scott Fahlman posts the following electronic message to a computer-science department bulletin board at Carnegie Mellon University:

19-Sep-82 11:44 Scott E Fahlman :-)

From: Scott E Fahlman

I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:

:-)

Read it sideways. Actually, it is probably more economical to mark things that are NOT jokes, given current trends. For this, use:

:-(

Read full article.

Texting 'may help save world's languages'

According to The Herald Sun, in the Philippines, teenagers think it's "cool" to send mobile phone text messages in regional languages that show signs of endangerment, such as Kapampangan.

Technology, long considered a threat to regional languages, now is being seen as a way to keep young people from forsaking their native tongues for dominant languages.

In another example, the "cool" factor is helping to resuscitate Chulym, a nearly moribund Turkic language that's spoken by a dozen or so people in a pocket of remote Central Siberia.

YouTube and Facebook, as well as internet radio and mobile phone texting, are helping minority language groups stave off death.

Read full article. Image and related article from 2009 article in One World South East Asia.

EasySMS app enables illiterate people to read, compose and send text messages

This year during the course of a mobile interaction design class at Lausanne Switzerland's EPFL, students had to come up with an idea for - and design an application on mobile phones - to improve the livelihoods of people living in rural communities in developing countries.

Here is one of their projects: EasySMS which enables illiterate people to read, compose and send text messages.

It has been selected to represent Switzerland in the Microsoft Imagine Cup - a student competition focusing on the Millennium Development Goals.

In their own words:

About 700 million illiterate people in developing countries are currently excluded from the benefits of text messaging. Most of them reside in rural areas in which mobile phone coverage and ownership is growing rapidly and SMS are cheap or even free.

EasySMS application empowers illiterate people to read, compose and send text messages through available text-to-speech solutions to their contacts.

The composition of messages is facilitated through pictograms and previously received messages. Contact identification is aided by visually search-able avatars.

To understand the meaning of each word of the SMSs users receive not only the meaning of the whole message: --> the message is played in a karaoke like style --> each word of the message is a playable button: the user can click on each word to hear it.

Project EasySMS by:

Team Members: Lukas Frelich, Elsa Friscira, Oscar Bolanos

Team Mentor: Hendrik Knoche

Vote for their project at the Imagine Cup 2011 in the People's Choice Video category.

Follow EASYSMS on Twitter and Facebook.

11 Secret Meanings Behind Punctuation in Text Messages

In his first book, 11 Points Guide to Hooking Up, comedy writer Sam Greenspan offers tips for handling punctuation in today's digital messaging world.

Wired has published some excerpts.

Period.

Meaning: You don’t want to keep going back and forth all night. Periods end things. Leaving one out keeps things open.

Exclamation Point!

Meaning: Something between playful and desperate, depending on usage. The first exclamation point is OK … the second is way too overeager … and the third is just flat-out desperate.

Semicolon;

Meaning: You’re trying too hard A semicolon in a text message is the equivalent of putting on makeup to go to the gym.

Read more.

'Damn You, Autocorrect' becomes a book

Hundreds of text-message goofs have been collected by Jillian Madison in the pages of "Damn You, Autocorrect!" - like this one:

"Your mom and I are going to divorce next month."

"What? Why?" came the reply. "Call me please."

"I wrote Disney, and this phone changed it," the father then claimed. "We are going to Disney."

The book is meant to be "just a little mood lifter," Madison says. "But if there is a deeper message that readers can take from the book, it's, 'Think before you send.' You'll be glad you did."

Her web site (damnyouautocorrect.com) launched in November and became an overnight sensation.

Read full article in The News Tribune

My personal favorite: type "Next" on your iPhone and it comes out "NeXT", like the logo of Steve Job's computer company NeXT founded in 1995.

Related, sort of:

-- Predictive text error leads man to kill mate

-- SMS language sparks off unusually spelt baby names trend!

Spain's Telefonica unveils new mobile messaging system

According to FoxNews, the research and development arm of Spanish telecom giant Telefonica has developed a faster and more affordable mobile messaging service that is scheduled for rollout in Latin America in the second quarter of 2011.

Developed in collaboration with Huawei Technologies, Telefonica's network services provider in Latin America, the new system - dubbed "Tokes" and billed as a "new way to communicate through SMS" - allows users to quickly send short phrases with an accompanying icon.

Far fewer keystrokes are needed to send a toke saying "I've arrived," "I'm busy" or "Hello" than are needed to send a traditional SMS conveying the same message, while the cost per toke is just one euro-cent (less than 2 cents).

In a press release, Telefonica said that when tokes are received on a handset in which the application has been installed, they are played according to the preferences of the user receiving the message.

"When a user receives a toke, the handset vibrates in a specific way, making it possible to know which message has been set without having to look at the mobile."

If the application has not been installed on the phone receiving the message, "an SMS will be sent notifying the user that it has been sent and inviting him to download the application," the press release said.

Studies indicate that Tokes, which can be used on mid-range and low-end mobile devices and even on the oldest cellphones, will be well received in Latin America, where Telefonica has a strong foothold.

Read full article.

Modern Dating: What's Lost in Texting

Judith Acosta, for the Huffington Post on language modification, reflecting changes in our culture and in our collective consciousness.

The minimization of communication is no accident. It comes as a consequence of minimal thinking, lethargy and indifference. To some, this is the death knell of American and Western civilization, the end of democracy as we know it (which requires active and informed participation by all citizens), the end of the broadest literacy rate in the history of mankind and the end of equality of opportunity (for this too, takes an active, watchful and observant eye).

Read full article.

The 'Straight Talking Report finds that people lie when texting

The 'Straight Talking Report', a survey commissioned by insurance group, Direct Line - the first UK insurance company to use the telephone as its main channel of communication - found that people are more likely to be dishonest when chatting using technology, such as Twitter, than they would be face to face.

Just one in five people (20%) profess to being more truthful on Twitter or text, compared to a third (31%) who state that they are more frank when speaking to someone in the flesh.

Read full article in Cellular-News.

Msg is clear as joy of txt proves gr8 for society

Far from being rbsh, it is actually gr8 for society. Experts believe that new forms of communication such as mobile phone texting, email and instant messaging are helping us stay in touch with each other.

And a new study has shown that far from being a scourge of grammar and correct spelling, users of instant messaging and texting are actually much more likely to use the Queen's English than the abbreviations that annoy purists.

[via News.scotsman.com]

A global perspective of the "texting gap"

Naomi S. Baron, author of Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World, is Professor of Linguistics at American University in Washington, DC., putting our concern about the "texting gap" into a global perspective on OupBlog via Ypulse.

"Viewed from the other side of the Atlantic, text messaging by adolescents in the United States seems reminiscent of the early days of desktop publishing. Once we reveled in experiments with point size, font style, and color. The results were often graphic disasters, as we failed to heed the Delphic warning, "Nothing in Excess." Gradually word processing became a workaday tool, and our documents calmed down.

In Europe, text messaging (generally known as SMS) first appeared in 1993, giving young people a decade more experience with the medium than their American counterparts. What is still often a toy in America, played on with youthful abandon, has settled into a pedestrian appliance elsewhere, particularly as teen mature into young adults."

SMS language sparks off unusually spelt baby names trend!

The popular SMS and email phonetic spellings have not only corrupted the English language, but have also sparked a trend of unusually spelt baby names, according to Thaindian News.

"Most parents these days are drawing on the cool SMS and email spellings, by eschewing traditional spellings for versions such as Alex-Zander, Cam’ron, Emma-Lee, Ozkah, Thaillah and Ameleiyah.

Social analyst Mark McCrindle looked at Australian births in 2007 and discovered that the name Jayden was registered spelt in 12 ways, Aidan in nine ways, and Amelia and Tahlia in eight ways.

The name Lachlan had five other versions - Lochlyn, Lochlin, Lochlen, Lochlain and Lauchlan.

“The use of a ‘y’ instead of an ‘i’ has hit epidemic proportions, as has the use of ‘k’ over ‘c’ like in the names Jaykob and Lynkon, double letters like Siimon and Chriss and hyphens like Emma-Lee,” News.com.au quoted McCrindle, of private research agency McCrindle Research, as saying.

He added that the increasing trend could be attributed to the phonetic spelling in email and text messaging and to parents wanting their children to be prominent."

Textonyms: Sophisticated pig latin

According to Reuters, a more sophisticated version of pig latin is being developed by mobile phone-addicted kids based on the predictive text of their treasured handsets.

"Key words are replaced by the first alternative that comes up on a mobile phone using predictive text -- changing "cool" into "book", "awake" into "cycle", "beer" into adds", "pub" into "sub" and "barmaid" into "carnage".

Some of the most popular textonyms show intriguing links between the originally intended word and the one the predictive text throws up -- "eat" becomes "fat" and "kiss" becomes "lips", "home" is "good" and the vodka brand "Smirnoff" becomes "poison".

The replacement words -- technically paragrams, but commonly known as extonyms, adaptonyms or cellodromes -- are becoming part of regular teen banter.

And the older generation -- many of whom already struggle with simple text language -- are being thrown into yet deeper confusion."

Do text messages disappear or are they permanently stored somewhere?

Do text messages disappear — like oral conversations — or are they permanently logged somewhere for potential retrieval — like e-mail usually is? A good question raised by the Associated Press.

"For standard consumer text-messaging technology, the answer is largely that they disappear. According to Verizon Wireless spokeswoman Erica Sevilla, "Unless you have something stored on your phone or on a recipients' phone, it does not stay on our network for a long period."

AT&T Inc. keeps text messages for up to 72 hours until delivery is successful, spokesman Howard Riefs said. "If a message can't be delivered, it is removed from the system and can't be retrieved."

Ethiopians get texting in Amharic

A new range of mobile phones has just gone on sale in Ethiopia, with the onscreen menu in Amharic, and the ability to send SMS text messages in the Geez script - used for Amharic and other languages in the region. The BBC reports.

This is something of a breakthrough in a country where until recently text messaging was not allowed in any language.

Ethiopians had been able to send and receive messages in the past, but during the violent election protests in 2005 the service stopped working without explanation.

Now text messaging is back.

Smexting: Texting while smoking

From Wired Jargon Watch via MobHappy:

Smexting v. Texting while smoking, often outside a bar.

The phenomenon is being spurred by smoking bans, most recently in the UK.

The British mobile carrier Orange reported a surge in texting when the ban went into effect, but the company claims that people were smexting friends who might help them to quit. What are they smoking?

Parents Fuming Over Text Message Homework

Some parents in Grand Prairie, Texas, are fuming after a math teacher allegedly sent sixth-grade students home with a lesson on text messaging abbreviations that included such terms as “Nude in Front of the Computer,” among other questionable phrases. myFox reports.

Sixth graders at Jackson Middle School were assigned by a math teacher to decode twenty popular text messaging abbreviations.

Some of the other codes included POS: Parent Over Shoulder and KPC: Keeping Parents Clueless.

Students were also directed to a Web site that included such codes as GYPO: Get Your Pants Off and IWSN: I Want Sex Now”.

David Pogue's new online shorthand

Online shorthand like LOL or OMG came about because it's so hard to type full English words on a cellphone keypad, explains everyone's favorite David Pogue. But Pogue thinks kids have outgrown these acronyms.

So here, with his compliments, are a few proposals: an updated list of online acronyms. Terrific.

* GI -- Google it

* MOP -- Mac or PC?

* FCAO -- five conversations at once

* IIOYT -- is it on YouTube?

* DYFH -- did you Facebook him/her?

* BIOI -- buy it on iTunes

* TWD -- typing while driving

* SML -- send me the link

* RHB -- read his/her blog

And a personal favorite:

* MBLO -- much better-looking online

[via SwissMiss]

Iranian linguistic centre wants Farsi term for SMS

An Iranian linguistic centre has called for the use of a Farsi term for mobile-phone text-messaging, or SMS, earthTimes reports via SMSTextNews.

"The Farhangestan, the country's linguistic watchdog centre responsible for presenting genuine Persian vocabulary, has approved the Farsi term payamak (little message) for SMS.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had last year ordered the government and official organizations to avoid using Western terms and replace them with relevant Farsi translations given by the Farhangestan.

... Before and after the 1979 Islamic revolution, Western terms - mainly French and English - were gradually adopted by speakers of the language, causing deep concern among Tehran's rulers over the so- called "Western cultural invasion" which is also considered a political threat.

Western terms already Persianized include the equivalent in Farsi of "telephone which you carry with yourself" for mobile phone and "long-distance-writing" for fax. "

Texting 101 For Parents

The NY Times reports that Cingular Wireless is organizing a series of nationwide "texting bees" designed to give parents a crash course on the basics of texting. [via Information Week.]

"Cingular also hopes the classes will help it boost sales of handsets and use of text messaging among parents."

Multilingual Mobile Messengers

Justin Oberman on mopocket, has an interesting post on "the development of a new multilingual mobile messenger that will translate English text messages into multiple languages which can then be sent to any cell phone or mobile device in the world... no matter what character set it's programmed to use." [via Smart Mobs].

"So far, the software can display characters from 14 Indian languages as well as 57 different languages from around the world sans any type of common standards.

It's being developed by Geneva Software Technologies in Bangalore India."

"Texting" and "Text Message" in the Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary has officially listed texting (texting, n.) and text message (text message, v.) in their latest update on June 15th. Seems odd though that "texting" is classified as a noun and "text message" a verb.

And Google (Google, v.) has officially been listed as a verb.

[via Search Engine Journal via digg]

Pic-Talk

Geek.com reports on an Israeli company called Zlango that has developed a new mobile language--also called Zlango--that consists of over 200 icons.

In their own words:

Zlango has created a new, inspiring messaging platform which transforms SMS into an expressive, juicy, colorful icon-based experience.

Most important words, concepts or feelings can be expressed by an available icon. It’s text-less texting! If you still require text - it can be easily added anywhere in the message, just like typing an ordinary SMS.

200-year-old love poem uses text-speak

A startling sheet of ornate love poetry written by a Welsh emigrant more than 200 years ago has been uncovered at an American museum reports ICWales.

"The parchment, covered in fine calligraphic script and detailing Hugh Pugh's doomed love for Mary Fisher, hung on a family's wall for generations.

It offers a unique insight into the rites of courtship in the American colonies and tells a moving story about a young schoolteacher's love and the 20-year-old woman who ultimately spurned him.

And while academics today bemoan the damaging effect that email and text messaging is having on teenagers' communication skills, it seems that there were similar trends back in 1801. Instead of writing out some words in full, Pugh has replaced them with abbreviations like "CU" in a startling precursor to today's teen text-speak.

"It's quite unique," said Ingrid Bogel, the centre's executive director. "It's different from anything I've seen."

The Pleasures of the Text

The New York Times sums up the appeal of text messaging worldwide, with some interesting insight:

"The Chinese language is particularly well-suited to the telephone keypad, because in Mandarin the names of the numbers are also close to the sounds of certain words; to say "I love you," for example, all you have to do is press 520.

In China, moreover, many people believe that to leave voice mail is rude, and it's a loss of face to make a call to someone important and have it answered by an underling. Text messages preserve everyone's dignity by eliminating the human voice.

This may be the universal attraction of text-messaging, in fact: it's a kind of avoidance mechanism that preserves the feeling of communication - the immediacy - without, for the most part, the burden of actual intimacy or substance.

Local Languages on cell phones

This is interesting, from CIOL, on how Nokia and Samsung are developping cell phones which support several local languages in India .

"With local language computing becoming a reality, the trend of providing local/regional language support is becoming increasingly popular with mobile phones.

"According to Nokia India Pvt Ltd MD Sanjeev Sharma, “All entry and mid-range phones from Nokia support Hindi. Other phones support Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil and Bengali while the Nokia 6030 supports nine-language user interface. With this, we cover about 80 percent of the Indian population.�

He added, “Currently, phones supporting local languages are being sold in the States where that specific language is being spoken. The company is planning to market some phones, which support all the regional languages, all over India. For this, the company is currently studying the demand pattern.�

Samsung is also providing local language support on many of its phones. Samsung D500, besides supporting messaging in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Bengali and Punjabi, also supports menu in Gujarati and Kannada.

The Samsung N700 supports five different regional languages and features a multi-language dictionary to support easy and intuitive SMS."

Grrr! Watch Out for Orexiaorexia

The new "disease" about to sweep the nation is Orexiaorexia. Fun from Fox News.

"Our biggest Grrrs will come when some unoriginal news copywriter starts putting an "orexia" or "orexic" at the end of every addictive condition, much like the suffix "-gate" is added to every scandal.

The birth of the term "tanorexia - which describes people who can't get dark enough - and its skin-damaging effects are the least of our problems.

We news consumers will now be subjected to words like "colarexic" for kids who drink too much cola. "Shoporexic" will replace the equally unoriginal shopaholic and "pokerexia" will describe those who can't stop playing Texas hold'em.

"Textorexia" describes the constant text messaging that occurs on cell phones, two-way pagers and Blackberries.

"DIYorexics" are people who are addicted to "Extreme Makeover" and other home improvement shows.

"Videorexia" will refer to PlayStation 2 and Xbox addicts, as well as MTV junkies.

"Travelexia" describes people who take more than two vacations every year.

"Weborexics" are people who are constantly online."

McCartney abhors SMS abbreviations!

Verbatim

“I like to spell everything properly when I text, but I do like predictive text.

"It is the surrealist in me that likes it because I was sending someone a message saying, ‘Thank you from Paul and Heather' and it came out ‘Paul and heavier'. As she was eight months pregnant at the time, it came out rather accurately,” The Sun quoted him as saying."

[via New Kerala]

Prince Prince attacks 'voguish' GCSE text message studies

Prince Charles told a gathering of teachers they were performing "daily miracles" in the classroom but the "voguish preoccupation" with making subjects relevant - including plans to allow children to study text messaging as part of GCSE English Studies - were damaging the prospects of future generations, reports The Guardian.

"Why ... has it been suggested in some quarters that people be asked to discuss the use of texting and instant messaging and whether such developments require a significant change to the teaching of English?" he wondered".

Scholar and Futurist predicts the end of the written word

William Crossman, a futurist and an English instructor at Vista Community College in Berkeley, believes that reading and writing are doomed, reports Inside Bay Area.

"The respected scholar gives the written word until 2050 to become a curiosity of the past.

Crossman believes that talking computers, which we already have in a primitive form, will be storing and retrieving information for us rather than paper and text. We'll be talking to them and getting our information by asking questions rather than by checking our files or libraries.

Crossman, unlike others, does not wring his hands over this. He sees it as a positive.

When asked why we would give up what many consider to be culture's shining achievement — literacy and written language — Crossman says it's inevitable — text is merely one stage of our evolution, and it's on the way out.

He points to the phonograph, telephone, television, video, movies, and instant and text messaging lingo as proof of our culture's unconscious rebellion against text.

He cites statistics that show that IQ scores worldwide are getting higher as literacy rates are plummeting. Children especially just don't want to learn to read and write, and this is not just for the socioeconomic reasons people tend to ascribe to it, he contends."