Spellings are made by people. Dictionaries - eventually - reflect popular choices.
— David Crystal
Although many texters enjoy breaking linguistic rules, they also know they need to be understood.
As I get older and I get a few more years experience I become more like Dad, you know, King Lear.
It took three years to put Shakespeare's words together, there were a lot of words to be studied and a lot of words to be sorted out, and it proved to be a major project.
The story of English spelling is the story of thousands of people - some well-known, most totally unknown - who left a permanent linguistic fingerprint on our orthography.
Texting has added a new dimension to language use, but its long-term impact is negligible. It is not a disaster.
At the same time we overlap, because, I do linguistics, and Ben did a first degree in Linguistics at Lancaster University, so he knows some of my subject.
Sending a message on a mobile phone is not the most natural of ways to communicate. The keypad isn't linguistically sensible.
Ever since the arrival of printing - thought to be the invention of the devil because it would put false opinions into people's minds - people have been arguing that new technology would have disastrous consequences for language.
It hasn't been a problem with Ben, I think we worked together very well, we don't have rows.
