A Glossary: Usage Abbreviations of Mobile Phone SMS

Text messaging has become a way of life for many in the twenty-first century. Indeed, people can be seen in malls, schools, just about everywhere using their mobile phones to send character-based messages to their friends, classmates, family members, and co-workers. This form of communication has become especially popular among young people. For one, it permits them to communicate with others from just about anywhere. And, it permits them to communicate silently, which can be beneficial in noisy environments, like bars and offices, when having an effective conversation on a telephone would be difficult or where extraneous communication must be done quietly, such as in a classroom. It permits them to communicate both synchronously (i.e., two-way communication is occurring simultaneously) and asynchronously (i.e., two-way communication is delayed), thus combining some of the benefits of telephone and e-mail communication. This technology has also given rise to a new language form in which abbreviated spellings, acronyms, and other shorthand notations are almost universally used by its users. It is precisely these features and their use that are at the heart of this research. More specifically, the purpose of this study was to investigate not only how frequently these symbolic expressions are used but also how they are used in terms of the language functions that they signal.English language slang, as it is used in mobile phone text messaging, is referred to as SMS language (SMS Language). According to the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary (2006), slang is defined as very informal words and expressions that are more common in spoken language. According to Goldstuck (2006), SMS language has altered with the times. For example thank you was condensed to tnx and then later shortened to tx.Short Message ServicesSMS is also called textese, phone shorthand (Sutherland: 2002), Txt (Shortis: 2007), texting (Crystal: 2008), SMS Communication (Hard af Segersteg: 2002) txtspk, txtk, texting language, or txt talk. The term, SMS, is used throughout this article. The language used in SMS has been a topic of discussion for various reasons for linguists, grammarians, and generally elders due to the deviations it is taking from the regular language.AbbreviationsUsing abbreviations is another method that can be used to address the problem of a limited number of characters in each SMS message. This technique has the advantage of reducing the number of characters to be typed. There are five methods for generating shortened words in SMS:(1) Using traditional (known) or ad hoc abbreviations: e.g., spose = suppose, mins = minutes(2) Dropping a single letter: e.g., rite = write(3) Using letters, symbols, or numbers to make the appropriate phonetic sound e.g., th@s = that's, gr8 = great(4) Using standard or ad hoc acronyms: e.g., w = with, PWB = Please Write Back(5) Using hybrid methods: e.g., b4 = before.Even abbreviations that are relatively easy for a person to understand are potentially difficult for an automated service to interpret. Consequently, if the SMS-based e-government system will accept abbreviated messages, the local authority should standardize and document all abbreviations used in the system. …