21st Century Voice
How do I say something the right way? What tone should I use for this? How can I make this sound, well, like me? And if I do make it sound like me how will it be received?
The question of how to verbally get your point across is as old as communication itself and will go on until communication ends. As children we learn the basics from our parents; how to first make sounds to get their attentions and then words to tell them, “no, I don’t wanna take a nap.” Then we go to school and the basics are expanded upon by our teachers. And after school we continue to learn how to make our point known by being among our peers and experiencing out world.
But what does that voice sound like when you were taught the styles of Bronte, Hemingway, and Faulkner, devoured J.K Rowling, Sherrilyn Kenyon and Sherryl Jordan for fun, but grew up in Generation Text?
Growing up Generation Text
According to David Crystal in his book, Txting: the Gr8 Db8, Filipino urban youths in the late 1990's were the first to be called “Generation Txt (92).” The term itself is given to those born between 1990 and 1999 because they grew up with the cell phone. This is my generation, having been born at the end of ‘91. But I would’t call us Generation Txt.
Sure, we may have grown up as the texting technology was developing and taking off, but that doesn’t make us “that” generation. This idea that a generation can be classified by what technology was developed around the same time would be like saying those born between 1440 and 1450 are called “Generation Printing Press.”
Growing up there was plenty of hype about the bad side of texting.
“If you don’t spell everything out, you won’t be able to spell at all.”
“That thing will rot your brain.”
My mother was the source of the above two examples. She was a great advocate of no technology at the dinner table. Granted, her children didn’t have cell phones until they were in high school sports and the technology in question were our gameboys.
One news personality, John Humprhys, was even quoted by Crystal for his 2007 views on texters(9),
“[texters are:]Vandals who are doing to our language what Genghis Khan did to his neighbors 800 years ago. They are destroying it: pillaging our punctuation; savaging our sentences; raping our vocabulary. And they must be stopped.”
I find this statement slightly over-the-top in the dramatics department. Even Crystal says, “If I had a pound for every time I have heard of someone predicting a language disaster because of some new technology, I should be a very rich man (9).” If this was the case, Crystal would have started making money with the invention of the printing press.
It’s now the spring of 2015, the English language is still going strong and the world is still spinning. Texting will not be the down fall of communication. Will it give the written language a new spice of flavor, yes. But will it kill it? Not likely.
What is going on linguistically?
Nothing that hasn’t been going since the birth of modern language, to tell the truth. There are a few things that make a text unique, but for the most part they use the same format as other written works. And the features that make texting unique predate texting itself. These things have been seen in informal writing on computers and some as far back as the Romans.
Six features of a text
Logograms
They are the first things that a person might notice in a text. Logograms are words that are represented by a single letter, number, typographic symbol or a combination of the three.
Examples of single logograms would be
- “&” → and
- “b” → be
- “2” → to, two or too.
Logograms used in combination with each other might be “B4” meaning before, and “Gr8” → great.
Thoughts and Anecdotal Evidence:
~How do I use it?~
In my high school texting I used &, 2, and b to shorten up what I had to say. This was around 2005 to 2006 and my phone would count the number of character I sent in every text. This coupled with the fact, I think, that my plan was a limited texting plan made me feel like I had to make each character count. Using logograms to shorten things up meant I could say more with the limited space.
This I feel has changed now in my college texting. Currently my phone doesn’t count the characters in my texts and my plan has grown to an unlimited texting plan. When I text now I don’t feel as pressured.
Now to counter act that previous statement. For a summer job a few years ago, all the Summer Staff were given a Verizon flip phone. I found that when I texted on this phone, as compared to my full keyboard phone, I was using “&,” ”2,” and “b” more than I ever had in the past. This system used a multi-push system for texting. Meaning that if I wanted to say “Get gas from shed for mower” I would have to have pressed 4,33,8- 4,2,7777- 333,777,666,6- 7777,44,33,3- 333,666,777- 6,666,9,33,777. That is a lot of button mashing for a very short message. Just by replacing the word “for” with the number 4 would have cut out nine button mashes.
This shows that the use of logograms can be dependent on the type of device that you are using.
~Are logograms connected to shorthand writing?~
While I thought that logograms could be a form of shorthand, there doesn’t seem to be an easy connection. It does appear that there is a bigger connection to Egyptian Hieroglyphic and Chinese scripts. That is to say that there is a bigger connection to a Semanto-phonetic writing systems.
Semato from the word semantics according to the Oxford English Dictionary means a branch of linguisitics that is concerned with meaning; and Phonetic meaning the study and classification of sounds. These writing systems use symbols to represent a sound and its meaning. Cultures that use a Semanto-phonetic writing system have no limit to the number of symbols they use. Some, such as the Chinese language, have over tens of thousands of characters.
~What does this do to the user’s “voice?”~
A texter that uses Logograms gives a nod to the past with the connection to the Semanto-phonetic writing systems. The average modern texter isn’t going to know about this heritage, so that nod is missing. Someone who uses Logograms has an efficient voice that takes the shortest, comprehensible path from point A to point B. Or they could be a younger generation making their texts to their parents look like alphabet/symbol soup.
Pictograms
Pictograms are like logograms, but instead of the letters and symbols being read as the sounds they make or their meanings, Pictograms use the letters and symbols to make a picture. While some of these are used to show an emotion in a text, “most others fall under the category of ‘computer art’ (Crystal 39).”
For the most part there are two ways to use a pictogram in a text. They can either take the form of an emoticon such as the smiley and the wink faces. Or, they can be a form of computer art. A larger combination of symbols to make a picture. A heart “❤” or a rose “@( — -‘ — -‘ — -“ are examples of this.
Pictograms can do more than just make art in your typing space. Even before texting was a thing, puzzles would be created completely out of pictures with a message. These puzzles are called Rebus. “A rebus is a message which, in its original definition, consists entirely of pictures that are used to represent the sounds of words, rather than the objects they refer to (Crystal 39).”
Rebus have been found in cultures from the Romans to the Ancient Egyptians. One popular rebus that you might find on Valentine’s Day would be the iconic “I❤ U.”
Thoughts and Anecdotal Evidence:
~Thinking of it as part of a whole.~
In the idea that pictograms are a form of computer art, I like to think of each character in the pictogram as part of a whole. This is the same idea when you look at a dot picture. When you start out close up to the picture all you see is the dot, same with one character on its own. However, as you back away from the dot picture you can see that the dots blur together to make another picture, such as a face or landscape. The same can be said with the computer art pictograms.
~How do I use them?~
As I said before, I see pictograms as emoticons every day depending on who I’m texting with. But, rarely do I use them myself. For me to use emoticons I need to be in a state where I can’t get the words I need to make my point. When I’ve gotten to the “I can’t even…” phase.
The example is an actual text I sent to my mother the week after spring break. I had been bumming that a new job had stopped me from going home, however and opportunity presented itself and I was going home for a visit. The sequence of smiley faces, to me, hold more weight than just saying, “I can’t tell you how happy I am to be coming home!”
~What does this do to the user’s “voice?”~
Would it be too much of a jump to say that pictograms can act as emotional markers in a means of communication where it’s hard to judge the emotion of the sender of the text? Sometimes with texting you can’t tell if a person is mad or joking with you. If they tack on a smirking emoticon does that help clear up some confusion? And if this is true, that emoticons clear up emotions behind a text and are helpful, does that mean that computer art is simply for amusement or unhelpful?
Initialisms (Acronyms)
The use of initialisms and acronyms are not something special to texting. There are examples in the everyday world. While both initialisms and acronyms both deal with the cutting of words down to just the first letter, there is a difference between the two. Initialisms have the letters said as the letter, where acronyms create a word from the letters given. BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), TV (television), CIS (College In the Schools), and NCIS (Navel Crime Investigation Squad), are all examples of initialisms. NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), SCUBA (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus), FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act) are examples of acronyms.
Even the use of AM or PM when we tell time are an initialism. These are from the Latin; AM for Ante Meridian “Before midday” and PM for Post Meridian “After midday.”
Crystal has broken how we use acronyms into five different categories (42).
Initials for words: “Y” → yes, “N” → no, “W” → with
Elements of compound words: “GF” → Girlfriend, “Bf” → Boyfriend, “HS” → High School
Phrases: “NP” → No problem, “LOL” → Lots of love or Loads of Laughs
Elliptical and whole sentences: “JK” → Just kidding, “WWJD” →What would Jesus do, “FT” → Face time
Words in expostulations: “OMG” → Oh my gosh
There are thousands of combinations of acronyms and initialisms, but sadly only five percent of those combinations will actually be used on a regular basis.
Thoughts and Anecdotal Evidence:
~How do I use them?~
The first acronym I heard wasn’t in a text or computer message. It was an iconic character from a certain childhood movie that made acronyms cool before texting. I’m talking about Tigger from “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.” I grew up with the 1996 VHS release. Oddly enough the famous “TTFN” → Ta Ta For Now, does not show up in the “House at Pooh Corner,” the book that introduced Tigger to the Hundred Acre Wood, by A. A. Milne. Disney must have decided to add a little word play to the bouncy character.
Maybe this is where the acronym game started with my friends. We made it a code in grade school, trying to come up with a letter combination for any commonly used phrase. I came up with “TMITFTM” →Too much information, thanks for telling me. As a college student, I don’t use this at all. But back then it was fun to come up with new combinations.
When I got to middle school there were paper football notes that would get passed around the lunch table with questions like, “Will you go with me to the stop light dance? Y or N.” A letter would be circled and given back to the sender.
Now as a college student, I do find myself occasionally using initialisms and acronyms. In a couple texts and Facebook messages, I have used “ATM” → at the moment, as a time marker for some of my actions. On campus and to anyone who is from the Bemidji community I can say that I attend “BSU”, → Bemidji State University. And to my friends and family I will occasionally call my internship after college the “DCP”, →the Disney College Program. This one is a little bit harder for people to catch on to seeing how it’s a field specific acronym and not readily used by the public.
~Are there older acronyms than the Latin AM and PM?~
A site, http://english.stackexchange.com/, had a question posted about what was the oldest acronym. One answered that the Jesus fish was one of the first acronyms. The Greek word for the fish is “ἰχθύς” (Ichthys). Here is how the site claims the early Christians broke this down:
ΙΧΘΥΣ
I (I, Iota) : ΙΗΣΟΥΣ (Iêsoûs) « Jesus »
Χ (KH, Khi) : ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ (Khristòs) « Christ » ;
Θ (TH, Theta) : ΘΕΟΥ (Theoû) « God » ;
Υ (U, Upsilon) : ΥΙΟΣ (Huiòs) « Son » ;
Σ (S, Sigma) : ΣΩΤΗΡ (Sôtếr) « Saver ».
I had heard of something like this in Sunday school as a kid. It’s cooler to think about now than just some guy preaching the gospel as he drew an arch with his foot in the sand, only to have another person come along, give another gospel lesson and complete the symbol of the fish.
~Do other languages have acronyms?~
The question, “do other languages have acronyms,” can be answered with a “yes, but.” Languages that are based off of an Alphabetic, Abjad, or Abugida writing system, where each character represents one letter or sound, can have acronyms, initialisms and abbreviations. Those who have a Logographic and Syllabic writing systems would have a harder time with this form or word play.
~What happens when the message receiver doesn’t understand?~
Using acronyms and initialisms is comparable to talking in code. And just like with any code there is the chance that the decoder of the message will be unable to make out its meaning. When this happens the decoder will either voice their confusion and ask what the acronym means, or they’ll pretend to know and continue the conversation. If a question of clarification is asked, I will send another message or text breaking down the letter, essentially spelling out what I meant to say.
~What does this do to the user’s “voice?”~
By using acronyms and initialisms it sets you apart as part of a group. All those who know what the letter combinations mean are part of that group. On the other hand to those who aren’t part of the group, do not know what the acronym means, this could make the sender seem snobbish.
The use of acronyms and initialisms can also make the user’s voice seem playful, if the example of Tigger’s “TTFN” can be used as evidence. The urge is there to make new acronyms with friends and to see who can come up with the most outlandish one.
Omitting Letters
While acronyms cut all letters in a word except the first, this texting feature tends to cut letters either in the middle, “contractions”, or at the end, “clippings.” Vowels are the most common thing to cut but silent consonants at the end of words are also likely victims. While the idea of cutting vowels may see strange to English speakers, the fact is there is a writing system that is nothing but constants. The Abjad writing system or “consonantal alphabet” is used by the Hebrew and Arabic languages.
Ths ln dsnt hv ny wls, bt f y cn rd ths thn whts th prblm?
The line above doesn’t have any vowels, yet I bet you were still able to read it.
Where the example above seems a little extreme in the cutting of letters there are other examples for the omitting of letters. Mr. and Mrs. are examples that we see on a daily basis. Crystal also pulls out some examples from the text poetry contest that he talks about in his book (46).
“plsed” → pleased
“comin” → coming
“rite” → write
“msg” → message
“txtin” → texting
“mtg” → meeting
Thoughts and Anecdotal Evidence:
~Do I do this?~
When I text I don’t think I use this feature very often. I might tell someone good night as, “nite,” but this is with close friends who are about my same age. The parents get a more formal good night. But this omitting of letters isn’t something exclusive to texting. In planners I have written hour as “hr,” substituted “mtg” for meeting and used to write assigned pages for homework as “pgs.” In all these cases I have been rushed to write something down before I forget it or need to go someplace else, such as the next class of the day.
~When did this start?~
Perhaps no one can say when the omitting of letters was started, but we can expect this feature not to go away. Crystal found by looking through old copies of the Oxford English Dictionary words with abbreviations that on one uses any more. It seems to suggest that these things tend to come and go with the times, so we can expect new omittings of letters to replace the ones no longer used.
~What does this do to the user’s “voice?”~
A user that has this feature in their text could be showing a regional dialect. The example “Comin” and “txtin” help to support this theory. However, using this feature can also show that the person could be going for efficiency. The words that have had letters omitted are still readable. Depending on the type of phone the sender of the message is using, omitting the letter could save on the number of buttons that need to be pressed. The shortened versions of message and meeting work to support this.
Nonstandard spelling
This is the feature that has texting critics screaming about bad spelling. To tell the truth here; to be able to text one needs to have basic reading and writing skills to make the technology work. While there may be unusual moves in spelling, some are intentional. Crystal suggests that people are consciously manipulating the spelling of things rather than just making “rookie” mistakes. A form of word play.
And where some critics think this is a new botching of the English language, Crystal found a couple of the below spellings in old copies of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Cos is there from 1828, wot from 1829, luv from 1898, thanx from 1936 and ya from 1941. Wot received a fresh lease on life at the end of the Second World War, when watcher Chad began to peer over walls, and we learned the catch-phrase ‘Wot, no__?” (the blank being filled by whatever product was in short supply.) (49)
Thoughts and Anecdotal Evidence:
~When do I use it?~
Out of six features of texting, this is probably the one I unintentionally use the most. Let me start out by saying that I was never a strong speller; growing up and to this day I still rely heavily on spell check to catch me. But the fact that I’m not a great speller has nothing to do with using nonstandard spelling in texts. To be able to use nonstandard spelling, one first needs to have a grasp of conventional spelling. So it’s ok for me to say proudly, “I’m hooked on phonics.”
The times I use nonstandard spelling are when I’m texting or chatting with friends over Facebook and Skype. Because they are already used to the way I speak in person, the jumps I make with my spelling are not so odd. Occasionally I’ll use “cuz,” “wat,” “fone,” “thx,” “sorta,” “gotcha,” and “gonna.” This however is only with friends.
Parents, Bosses and Teachers are always messaged with proper spelling and as correct of grammar as possible.
~When to spell it proper or nonstandard?~
This seems like it should be a simple black and white thing, but the fact is that some do get confused about how to spell things in certain instances. When you’re writing it’s important to keep the audience in mind.
1. Am I writing for those in my peer group? Is this for someone in the same boat as you or is this for someone who is in charge of you career or grade.
2. What is the situation that this will address? Is it for academics, work, a casual dinner party with colleagues, or informal get together with friends?
3. What face of yourself do you want to present? Do you want to be taken seriously?
Unless you are informally hanging out with your friends, standard spelling should be used in your work. A friend will forgive and most likely not judge you. A Boss or Teacher may question why you were hired and think less of you in the work place, or in the case of the teacher lower your grade on the assignment.
Using nonstandard spelling in the professional environment would be like being given an important business pitch with the higher-ups by your Boss and showing up late and dressed in sweat pants. It reflects poorly on you and those who had faith in you.
~When did the non-standard spelling start?~
A better question would be, “when will it end?” Looking back through the history or the English language, there have been attempts to standardize how things are spelt. James Howell in his book Grammar written in 1662 suggested a few minor changes to the spelling of some words. Sadly even today with 350 years to build on Howell’s suggestions and spelling boards to help move things along, we as the English language are no closer to a standardized spelling than we were back in the days of Chaucer.
For texters deciding how to spell something, for now just do as your grade school teachers taught you. Unless a supreme decision is handed down, your best judgment will have to do.
~What does this do to the user’s “voice?”~
This is a tougher one to consider when it comes to what does using this feature do to the user’s voice. While the quick answer is that it makes the user seem uneducated because of the poor spelling of the message. This is what the critics would like to say away. While this could be the case if it was used to someone in a higher position, such as your Boss, among peers it does something different.
The use of this feature shows a use of dialect. In American, the short term for mother is spelled mom; however in England it’s mum. Now if a texter sent mum but was in American this would be a non-standard spelling. While it may seem out of place, this nods to where the person my be from or has just visited.
Shortenings
This is similar to abreviations, however when using a shortening in texting one of the meaningful bits of the word is dropped. There are two types of shortenings, also called contractions. ~list compiled at une.edu
1. Grammatical contractions join together two words to make a single word. Examples: it’s (it is, it has); don’t (do not); can’t (cannot); you’ll (you will); should’ve (should have); would’ve (would have); we’re (we are); aren’t (are not); isn’t (is not), shan’t (shall not); let’s (let us); who’s (who is, who has); they’re; (they are); doesn’t (does not)
2. Single word contractions are the shortened form of words that begin and end with the same letters as the original word, and do NOT have a full-stop. Generally speaking, you should avoid using these in your writing unless they are commonly used in a particular field of study (discipline) or used in a reference list or in-text citation. Examples: govt (government); dept (department), Cwth (Commonwealth), Qld (Queensland)
Some of these were mentioned by Crystal in his book such as Gov, but the rest are so common place in everyday language, that I over looked them.
Critics on this sort of wordplay go back further than Johnathan Swift, who thought using abbreviations was a, “barbarous custom (52).” Now given that Swift was known for his satire, how far can we run with that statement?
Pretty far to tell the truth. After looking through “Gulliver’s Travels” and “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland Being a Burden on Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick”, I was beginning to think that Swift didn’t use them at all. However, in “A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General,” Swift uses “he’s” and “thing’s.” Perhaps he just used them to keep with the measure of his poem, but the fact that Swift used two contractions dampens his previous statement.
Thoughts and Anecdotal Evidence:
~How do I use it?~
I might have used this one more when I was in grade school and provided with an “agenda book.” Homework was a daily given back then and who wants to write English, Science and Geography over and over? So I would shorten those subjects to “Engl”, “Sci” and “Geo.” This trend of shortening the subject titles continued into high school with “Brit Lit” → British Literature and “Econ” → Economics And I still do it in college, “Am Lit” -> American Literature, “Bio” → Biology and “Chem” → Chemistry. But this isn’t texting, Facebook or Skype.
Do I even use shortenings in my texts? I believe for now the answer is no. This could be another case where the type of phone plays a part in the use of this feature. If I have to button mash to get my message across I would be more likely to cut off some bits. Even when it would be easy to cut off the “day” part of the days of the week, or the endings of the months, I don’t with my full key-board and auto insert.
That is just for the single word contractions. When it comes to using contractions to bring two words together into one, well you’ll find that I do it all the time. Even in this here assignment. It’s been drilled in at this point that you never use contractions in academic writing. Seventeen years of schooling would encourage me to go back and change all the contractions back to their separate words. This however would change the voice of this work and would no longer sound like, well, me.
~When did this start?~
I’m not going to be the last person to use contractions in writing, but todayifoundout.com may have found the first contractions in the English language. The site points to the invasions of Britain by the Anglo Saxons around the 5th century. The Celtish style Old English was introduced to Germanic runes and its alphabet. With the runes and alphabet also came a few contractions readily used by the invaders.
“is not” (nis, today, “isn’t”)
“did not have” (ne haefde)
“was not” (ne waes, today “wasn’t”)
“would not” (wolde, today “wouldn’t).
~What does this do to the user’s “voice?”~
This feature, depending on if it’s used or not, can give the users voice a formal or informal sound. When you read a book from the age of Bronte and Swift you get a sense of a higher style of rhetoric. They do not use contractions, which gives the feel like they slowed down and put a great deal of thought into what they were going to say. These works read slower than a work that does use contractions. Compare this to the modern voice of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight. In preface alone there are six contractions. This, to me, make the speaker in the text seem to be speaking fairly fast.
Now for something unique
The six features talked about above all have connections to other literary moves made though out the years. There is how ever a few things that are specifically unique to texting. This is the new level of word play that appears in texting.
Crystal points out on page 53 of Txting: the Gr8 Db8, that the initialisms IMO, “in my opinion,” isn’t new to the word play game. What it has grown into though is what’s interesting.
IMHO → in my humble opinion
IMCO → in my considered opinion
IMHBCO → in my humble but correct opinion
IMNSHO → in my not so humble opinion
Crystal attributes this to texters “upping the ante” and pushing the limits as to what text can do.
Wrapping it all up
Having looked the six features found in texting over, this doesn't sounds like the end of language to me. If anything this has more nods to the past than the trumpet calls of the written language’s destruction. All the six features found my David Crystal have examples found in pre-text cultures.
Logograms hail from Semanto-phonetic writing systems which have language examples dating back to Ancient Egypt and China. Pictograms have an origin in the 17th century. The Jesus fish could have been a play on one of the worlds first acronyms. There are two current languages that are voweless, so the omitting of letters will not be the cause of the written langauge’s down fall. There is no standard form of spelling, that therefore clears nonstandard spellings from being the killer of language. Contracting two words together or cutting bits off words is as old as the Anglo-Saxon invasion of England.
If all of these features haven’t brought down their example languages, its highly unlikely that together they will bring down the written language as we know it.
As for finding my voice while being part of Generation Text. If this, what ever this is, a paper, a web post, article, has said anything its the fact that one can still find their own voice no matter what time they live in.
As for me, I can study the styles of Bronte, Faulkner, and Hemingway till my heart’s content. I can devour all the New York Best Sellers until I’m blue in the face. But in the end its up to me to find my own voice in my texts and in my other works.
