I guess it all started when Edison shouted "Hello" into the mouthpiece instead of a usual "Greeting, how are you doing today?" or "So and so here, how can I help you today?". The days of faster communication evolved and we started shrinking every sentence and word. I remember learning how to write a letter at school. I had to give the correct date and time and then I had to address it properly and then I had to say what the letter was about (i.e. subject) and then the letter content and so on. It was all lengthy, bloody lengthy. I hated that. How good it would have been if these days of faster communication existed in those days.
Being lazy always, I loved it when I heard about shorthand. That was another form of shrinking. But that was difficult because only the person who wrote that could read that or someone who knew shorthand. Then came the world of Internet and it swept away all the old practices and brought in the new way of shrinking the English language. Internet was itself faster means of communication and with shrinking of what we send across Internet, things became much faster. Internet language has a character set of its own. So let us just call this as Internet language as of now. Below, you would see some tips to learn/master this language.
If I remember it right, ’2’ instead of ’to’ or ’too’ was the first of shrinking that I did. That is the 1st lesson when it comes 2 abbreviations on the net. Use numbers. In fact even when I proposed to a girl, I wrote a program and its output was ’143’. How quickly and easily you can communicate when you use numbers! A 10x might not always represent the zoom on digital cameras; it could sometimes refer to ’Thanks’ as well. Remember this number rule, it will help you 4ever. Any1 who 4gets this rule will have difficulties in future.
Next lesson is where you can replace alphabets that produce the sound of the word. A ’u’ would suffice 4 a ’You’. A ’c’ would be enough instead of a ’See’. That way u can chop off many unwanted characters. But, unless u have an eye 2 c where these can b used, u cannot master d Internet language. U can b sure of using this, because any1 who reads will b able 2 understand anyways.
V could easily replace letters 4 words. Now, v should replace words by shorter words with wrong spelling. Dis cud b a lil tuf bcoz v hav 2 rite like how v speak. But it shud not take 2 long if v spend sum time 4 it. 1 of d difficult things bout english is dat, ritin is difrent 4rm speakin. Dis leson wud bridge dat gap 4ever. In a way, v r not 1ly conveyin faster but also makin d language better!
If v r in a grp of common ppl, v can use caps. A Microsoft wud b MS and a Mouthshut wud b MS as well. V r gud at dat neways. RRC is 1 gud xample. Dis bcame very important after long hindi movie names. RHTDM, KANK, K3G, etc. dat 1 day v mite need ISO standards. Not jus 4 casual use, but v use dis CAPS in ofis as wel lyk FYI, FYA and so on.
Vocabulary is very imp in net lang. U canot enter a chat room without gud vocab. Bcos d chat spills in2 mail v shud now b used 2 common stuf like LOL and ROTFL. Bt, u shud c d BFs and GFs chat. U wud b stunned. OMG! even wen u c u cant understand nethin. If u dont want 2 b left 1derin, u hav 2 improve ur vocab ASAP. BTW, der r lots of online links 2 help u improve on dis.
Wile it makes ritin easy, readin gets tuf. AFAIK, its better 2 keep dis Internet lingo out 4rm official communication. D more v use dis, der r lotsa chances dat u cud rite a mail 2 ur boss like dis. U wud den b FUBAR.
Anything that is clear and elaborate is much easier to read. That makes reading interesting as well. Is online lingo about Keeping It Short and Simple (KISS)? Clearly, no! For the sake of pace and ease of typing, we are all getting into an unnecessary habit. As a consequence, we might need new dictionaries tomorrow, Mouthshut might have to reduce the word limits further, the spellchecker and grammar checker in MS-Word (or Star Writer!) will not work, and the joy of reading and writing would go away. Let us forget this nonsense Internet lingo. Let us type them all fully and clearly.
EOM :)
Cheers!
Envyram