Text talk (sometimes known as "text speak" or "IM-glish") is a phenomenon associated with instant messengers, sms messages often used by teenagers, tweens, and pre-teens, though sometimes it may simply be used by people with an overwhelming love of brevity or excessive laziness.
Sometimes abbreviated to "txt tlk", it's usage is mostly based on the word's phonetics, sometimes including numbers into words, turning "what are you here for?" "I'm waiting for someone" into "wat r u here 4?" "im w8ing 4 some1". Many users of it aren't quite this extreme, but there are some who almost flatly refuse to use actual language.
Many people who are older (or educated) dislike or outright hate text talk. Many people who do dislike it isn't because they can't grasp it, it's a remarkably easy language to learn. It's considered by some to be a gross bastardization of a language. Some others believe that it's a severe form of laziness.
A list of common words converted to text talk and common text talk conventions:
- To, too = 2
- For = 4
- Anything ending in "ate" i.e salivate, manipulate, skate can end in "8"
- Sometimes vowels are removed, as in "txt tlk" and "rly"
- Words are sometimes just shortened, as in "whatev"
- See = c
- Any word ending in "one" can be ended in the numerical "1"
- "You" and "your" can be substituted with the letter "u"
- Capitalizations are often omitted
- "Be" is often abbreviated to "b"
- This is only a short list of common words in "txt tlk", there are still many more out there