Advances in communication such as email, blogging, internet forums, text messaging, and chat rooms have created an alternative language. The first that we all become familiar with are emoticons. Wikipedia defines them as
“a sequence of ordinary printable characters, such as “:-)”, “^_^”, “._.”, “XD”, “X8”, “-_-“, “=D”, “=P”, etc. or a small image, intended to represent a human facial expression and convey an emotion.”
According to the entry in Wikipedia, without emoticons simple text could be misinterpreted.
Then there is SMSLanguage. Check on the Wikipedia link here.
Example
hi m8 u k?-sry i 4gt 2 cal u lst nyt-y dnt we go c film 2moz
Means:
Hi mate. Are you okay? I am sorry that I forgot to call you last night. Why don’t we go and see a film tomorrow?
