W@ would da gr8 poet William Butler Y8s have made of da news dat txt spk is chngin da way da yung ppl rite? Easter, 1916 mite 2day read like dis: He, 2, has bin chngd in his turn, Trans4med utterly, A trrble buty is born.
Da st8 chief examiner sez dat da standard of English is droppin cos "text messaging, with its use of phonetic spelling and little or no punctuation, seems to pose a threat to traditional conventions in writing". He sez dat xam answers r 2 short cos "candidates seemed unduly reliant on short sentences, simple tenses and a limited vocabulary".
N response, da Assoc of Secondary Teachers in Irel& sez der is no need to panic, dat "rigidity or conformity with received standards is not the first port of call in judging a piece of writing or, indeed, speaking" & dat "language changes as the world changes: it cannot be set in aspic".
It is tru dat der is a chng in da way we commnc8. Da Irish sent 4.4bn txts last yr, or 1,053 txt 4 evry 1 in the St8. We own approx 4.5m mob phones, & cos 96% of 11-12 yr olds hav a phone, in little tym Irish teens have lrnd to adapt 2 abbrev8d lingo. Dey find it ez 2 switch between txt spk & traditional langwge.
It is a fascin8n trend, a gr8 shift in da way ppl rite & 1 dat has bin driven by nu tech. B4, tho, txt spk woz ltd 2 txt msgs & Bebo sites. Now it is affecting both Jr Cert and Levn Cert xams. Dis mns it is bginnin to dsplace Stablished use of English, ncludn da logicl & conceptual found8ions of da langwge.
Da rulz of English grammr r bein ignored & may b 4gotten. Dis cant b good 4 educ8nal standrdz, or 4 how yung ppl undrst& da language dey spk & rite evry day. Txtin is best regRded as a parllel funcshnl langwge with its oan rules & wit, rather dan 1 dat by in10tion or de4llt dsplces convenshnl English.
& in da long term, it cud affect da lingo of biz and even cultr. Will ppl pay 2 c an actor deliva da gr8 line: "2b or not 2b, dat d Q."
1 day, mayB, all of Da Irish Times will b rtn lyk dis. But not on Mdm's woch! 4 now, txting is still just as hard to rite as it is 2 read. Which is da rison y dis editorial is on da shrt side.