Language is Changing

In class the other day, my professor showed us another interesting TED Talk.

In this talk, titled "Txting is killing language. JK!!!", John McWhorter discussing the evolution of the written and spoken language.

Feel free to watch this TED Talk below.

I know there are critics of texting and so called "txt talk", mostly older folks looking down upon teenagers (claiming we're too attached to our precious technology) but the truth is - texting is actually really fantastic!

In the TED Talk linked above, McWhorter says that it's easy for one to speak the way you write, but it wasn't always as easy to write the way we speak.

Speaking is generally faster and loser than written word.

But! With the introduction of texting and instant messaging, it's finally possible to write (or type rather) fast enough for a written conversation to move as quickly and naturally as one occurring verbally.

Now, other than text talk, how else has language evolved?

Well for one, slang and emojis/emoticons are a huge thing. While I usually text in complete sentences (totally lame I know), everything I send is littered with made up words and other slang. 

And after scrolling through my recent text messages to confirm, I saw that 99% of my texts ended with some sort of emoticon. Usually it was some sort of smile such as (: or c: , the occasional stuck out tongue :P , or even more rare an emoji from my emoji keyboard or some other text symbol like an owl ( ()o W o ) ) or a man on his knees in defeat ( OTL ).

Obviously though, the way I write in casual situations, while texting / IMing my friends or family, is drastically different than the way I write for school or for professional documents.

It's really not that hard to think "oh yea, this is a resume lololol better not include all this txt tlk & emoticons :P"

http://cdn.sourcefednews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/texting-class1.jpg