The age of cellphones and the Net takes abbreviation to a whole new lvl

06/22/2002

By DOUG BEDELL / The Dallas Morning News

The teen-dominated world of short text and instant messaging has spawned a lingo that can spin the head of even the most experienced Internet user.

When someone types, "CU L8r 2nt bAb. Hook ^ 4 a mvie @ 10 k?" should you be offended? (Answer: No. It's an invitation: "See you later tonight, babe. Hook up for a movie at 10, OK?")

Now, thanks to a new Canadian online translation service, this esoteric world of strange abbreviations can be navigated even if you are "v old" (very old).

TransL8it president Dan Wilton says his start-up company is an effort to help arrive at a consensus for the electronic shorthand showing up in both cellphone Short Message Service (SMS) and "fixed Web" instant messaging, chat and e-mail.

"We are experiencing a somewhat revolutionary change to the English language here, led by the youth generation," Mr. Wilton says. "There are many standards to this lingo, yet so many older-generation people are disconnected – they can't quite seem to understand it."

The free service will also convert plain sentences to message jive. With a little practice, even uninitiated adults can issue "kewl" invitations, like "wnt 2 go 4 dinR thn hav som chocl@ & a gr8 @mosfER bak @ myn?" ("Want to go for dinner then have some chocolate and a great atmosphere back at mine?")

And they will better understand the response: "itz nevR goN 2 hapN – so y dnt u jst giv it up?"

For the over-25 set, this means never again confusing PCM (please call me) with a sender's initials, or getting upset with notes containing ;) (That's a playful wink conveyed by an "emoticon").

Of course, condensed phrases like IMHO (in my humble opinion) and G2G (got to go) have been incubating for years inside chat rooms and e-mail correspondence. More than 1,000 permutations are now recorded in various online DXNRES (dictionaries).

But the growing worldwide popularity of cellphone-based messaging is pushing people to produce contracted versions of entire sentences, not just phrases. Cellphone screens are so small that thoughts must be conveyed with 160 characters or fewer.

This new, rapid-fire communication over cellular networks has already taken Europe by storm, producing a subculture of young, brutally efficient language-truncators known collectively as Gen-TXT (Generation Text). As Short Message Service comes to North American cellphone networks, experts say, this form of communication will continue to develop as it merges with existing forms of more established Internet-speak.

In fact, the arrival of TransL8it.com illustrates how these new forms of communication – once exclusively the province of giggly prepubescents and nerdy hackers – are infiltrating all segments of society, says Neil Randall of Ontario, Canada, a University of Waterloo English professor and author of the just-released report, "Lingo Online: The Language of the Keyboard Generation."

"This is a hybrid of speech and writing," says Dr. Randall. "What people are trying to do is speak with their fingers. With instant messaging, chat and, to some extent, e-mail, people get into these very quick exchanges.

"If everybody starts using, 'How RU 2day?' " he says, "it naturally and gradually becomes part of the language."

In his report, commissioned by the Web portal msn.ca, Dr. Randall found evidence this process is well under way.

Surveying 1,000 English-speaking Canadians between ages 16 and 54, Dr. Randall found that the acronym LOL (laughing out loud), for example, was recognized by 86 percent of respondents under age 20, 60 percent of people ages 20 to 34, and 28 percent of those 35 or older.

Surprisingly, the survey found that older employees are more likely than younger workers to adopt acronyms and emoticons in their business correspondence, perhaps signaling that they are more at ease with the workplace than their youthful counterparts.

Overall, Dr. Randall reports, 55 percent of online users said they had invented their own short forms and abbreviations while chatting online. In many cases, users find the use of specialty symbols – like (G} to denote a grin – is absolutely essential to creating context for what they're typing.

"When you get into fast communication of any type, the opportunity for misinterpretation just explodes," Dr. Randall says. "If you don't give people those kinds of communication signals, there is a chance they will misunderstand."

It is also apparent that users regard this sort of textual communication as something other than writing. "Interrupt anyone doing this, and they'll say, 'Hold on, I'm talking to somebody,' " Dr. Randall says. "They don't say, 'I'm writing.' That's an important distinction. It means they really think it is closer to the spoken component than anything else."

The prevalence of the shorthand lingo in the United Kingdom, where cellphone users send each other 500 million text bursts each month, has already produced its own additions to the staid Concise Oxford Dictionary. By July 2001, BBLR (be back later), GR8 (great), HAND (have a nice day), CUL8R (see you later) and RUOK (are you OK) had all been admitted to its hallowed pages.

"I think we're going to see much more of that develop over here in the future," Dr. Randall says. "Whether we're ever going to see the great American or Canadian novel written in this fashion, I don't know. But it certainly would be something to behold, wouldn't it?"

E-mail dbedell@dallasnews.com