Twitter?

I'm another old fart that hates the bad spelling or text speak, it makes me cringe when I'm reading some of those posts and trying to decipher them into English.

It makes me despair for the education system these days if they can't even teach people how to spell and even if you can't spell through no fault of your own there is no excuse when most forums and other places have spell checking available.

I think it's just another case of the "Generation Gap", every generation tends to have their own language quirks, it happened in the forties and every decade since, the big difference now is that it's changed, due to the Internet and mobile phone use, into a written language.

Of course the use of abbreviated language on mobile phones made sense, although with the availability of "t9" on modern mobiles this need is less now, and the fact that us oldies use phones and the web brings us more into contact with the speech of the younger set.

I suppose I treat it as part of the flavor of modern life, I try to use English myself whilst posting but understand if someone else chooses to use a variant of the language.

What would the world be without a bit of colour (or should that be color ).

Maybe google should add that to their translator options

Hello Gary,

What does annoy me more than the use of "text speak" by users, by choice, is the fact that my spell checker, in Firefox, My British English spell checker , actually corrects my spelling of "colour" with "color" and others too

Now I know the UK and US are " two nations separated by a common language " but why won't my spellchecker speak English

Hi Nigel,

I agree with you. If I were living in the UK, I'd probably just ignore those flags, but it shouldn't do that. I have also noticed that sometimes, not often, words I know are spelled right are flagged. You can add items to the dictionary also.

There are localized builds of Fx that you can get (and should be getting when you download from the web) that should work correctly - but if you are using the en-US version of Fx and en-GB spell check libraries, it should still work.

I think the problem comes in when you have the en-GB localized version of Fx and it installs (by default, and stupidly as well) the en-US spell check libraries.

Oh, and I am in the middle of the generation. You're forgetting one of the main reasons why this becomes a social meme - not because it is 'kewl' to write like that, but because it helps keep people in the know in the loop - and helps keep ppl out of the loop as well.

How many of these teens are texting on their phones and talking about things the run the gamut from illicit activities to puppy love to teen angst, and yet are able to keep the info from their parents not only via means of clearing msgs, etc. but by use of a secret 'code' or sorts that only someone with the decoding skills would know (IOW, only another teen who knows the rules and understands use would be able to decipher).

Now, a lot of the ones going around on the Internet, including the still funny "All ur bases R belong to us!" are actually picked up because someone who read that laughed their arse off and decided to use it, slightly mockingly (well, at first it was much more than slightly). Don't believe me? Check out Engrish.com....we still do it.

Finally, code words, shortening, etc is nothing new - in the 70s we had jive talking, in the 60s there were the greasers and such, in the 50s there was McCarthyism (Sorry, had to throw that one in for laughs) etc. - every generation has had its share of Daddieohs and Be cools and lolz and hipness. It's nothing new - and it will continue on.

The sad part is that so many of the adults complaining today (and even trying to *justify* that it was not as bad back in their day) are the same ones that, as kids, adolescents and teens, were employing their own version of the same techniques, although in a different medium, back in the day.

I did it, and I still do - and will continue to do so.

JG - the (non)-linguistics expert - signing off.

OK, now on to the mention of 1984 - just one little comment - 1984 is lived out on a daily basis every single day by most people of the world, in more microcosmic versions - the "Tall tale" is a prime example of this - the tale is embellished repeatedly until it begins to resemble less the original story and more a complete fanciful journey into never land - and yet people do it every single day.

It's why the adage "History is written by the victors" stands true.