Many people are shocked by abbreviations used in text messages or SMS, such as 'U R L8', meaning 'you are late'. Is there any justification in the values that our literary custom is being ruined and that young people are going to be disadvantaged by their unawareness of right spelling? Actually, we people are using short cut words eg. we use cu instead of see you. Today, teenagers are not so aware about pronuncing the correct words. They are just using english language but they dont know properly how to pronounce the english word correctly or accurately.
While in no way advocating that this type of writing should change the system we have in place today. There are certain ways which can make our langauge better whether it is written or spoken.
Firstly, the English language is a large mess when it comes to spelling. There are few rules, and even the ones that exist have too many exceptions. Teaching children to read using the phonics method can only help them to read a small number of words, the majority need to be learned by sight. The same for foreign learners of English. Few of my students, including those at middle and advanced level can utter correctly the word 'women'.
Another good or better eg. would be words that contain the letters 'ough'- ought, though, through, rough, bough, and thorough are all pronounced or uttered in a different way.
The writer George Bernard Shaw wanted the English alphabet to be revised so that every sound had its own character. George Bernard Shaw notably argued that 'ghoti' could be pronounced 'fish' in current English, the 'gh' as in 'enough', the 'o' like 'women' and the 'ti' as in 'station'. Not unexpectedly, however, his proposed 'Shavian' alphabet of few forty or more letters was never taken seriously or sincerely.
Secondly, simplification of spelling has already started in the United States, largely due to the work of their famous lexicographer, Noah Webster. He argued that extra (that is, unpronounced) letters could be removed, like the 'u' in 'colour', 'favour' and the 'ough' in 'through' which is now written 'thru'.
Thirdly, what is so shocking about using symbols for words anyway? Difficult hieroglyphics of the Egyptians and languages like Chinese only have characters which represent words or ideas, not a phonetic alphabet like ours. Also, the idea or thought of dropping vowels is not new. There are some languages that have an alphabet of only consonants, the reader knows how to pronounce the word from his oral learning of that word.
If we were serious about preserving the written practice of our language, rather than complaining about the pitiable state of youngsters' writing we should seriously consider revising the silly way we spell our words so that spelling more exactly reflects pronunciation. By so doing, text language would remain in its place where it is useful, and not fall over into other areas of written language. So, one should kept in mind that language should be speak properly and words should be pronounce properly. In the same manner, written langauge should also be correct only then we can say we are using our langauge in a right manner.
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For all the readers, I would like to share my favourite site for SMS .
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