Actually it is a dialect, and it isn't just kids.

I guess you are too young to know the context under which txt speak evolved, so I will briefly explain it to you. During the early days of mobile phones, specificily when SMS was first introduced, they were quite expensive and there was a character limit that was quite small (for example, $3 for a 50 char text). Thus it became common practice to abbreviate words; "text" -> "txt" to save characters.

Then there is the second factor, currently the English language is large and non-sensual, there are no governing rules or overarching concepts. Thus phonetic spelling became common, to fix this problem; "see you" -> "cya"

The 3rd catalyst was speed. When speaking we can easily reach 120 WPM, but it takes a very good typist to reach that speed under formal English. Thus the phonetic and character shortening was pushed forward.

This makes "txt speak" a shorthand dialect; people do not write in "txt speak" because they cannot write in formal English, it is because contextually it makes no sense to write in formal English.

Currently the demographic that makes the most use of "txt speak" is around 20-30, this is because they were the first native "txt speak" users. However, teenagers and younger of course use it because it is highly effective.


You could say it is the digital equivalent of Teeline. Though to people like you it seems to be the equivalent of Kansai dialect!


By the way, English is a living language, and you should not reject the new changes simply because of some self-important elitism. Even as recent as 50 years ago English was extremely different. If you go back further, say 200 years, you will find English nearly incomprehensible.

Don't run around complaining that modern English is modern, because that is obvious and a good thing.





Hm, describing Orwells masterpiece as "deep shit" is... interesting...
In this thread, doesn't Brave New World seem far more fitting? ;)