WordLo

New exhibition features Victorian poems written like text messages, the rise of RP, and battles over the letter H

Mark Brown Arts correspondent

guardian.co.uk

A typical text message on a mobile phone. The British Library has unearthed examples of 19th century language using text msg abbreviation. GR8!
If u really r annoyed by the vocabulary of the text generation, then a new exhibition at the British Library should calm you down. It turns out they were doing it in the 19th century – only then they called it emblematic poetry, and it was considered terribly clever.
Details were announced today of the library's new exhibition devoted to the English language, exploring its 1,500-year history from Anglo-Saxon runes and early dictionaries to not dropping your Hs and rap.
The exhibition will open this winter after three years of planning.
One of the stars of the show will be the oldest surviving copy of Beowulf, the longest epic poem in Old English, which was written down at least 1000 years a…

A study of new slang terms entering English finds that technology is driving and perpetuating them.
For instance, "404" - the error message given when a browser cannot find a webpage - has come to mean "clueless".
Slang lexicographer Jonathon Green says that some such terms and abbreviations come about because of the limited speed and space afforded by text messaging.


Story from BBC NEWS

By Zoe Kleinman Technology reporter,

BBC News

'To Google' has become a universally understood verb and many countries are developing their own internet slang. But is the web changing language and is everyone up to speed?


Technology and culture
The internet prank was just one of several terms including "lurker", "troll" and "caps".

According to David Crystal, honorary professor of linguistics at the University of Bangor, who says that new colloquialisms spread like wildfire amongst groups on the net.

"The internet is an amazing medium for languages," he told BBC News.

"Language itself changes slowly but the internet has speeded up the process of those changes so you notice them more quickly."

People using word play to form groups and impress their peers is a fairly traditional activity, he added.
"It's like any badge of ability, if you go to a local skatepark you see kids whose expertise is making a skateboard do wonderful thing…

published on: Consumer Report

The issue of distracted driving has become a hot-button safety topic in the past year and has generated a great deal of discussion about solutions to this growing problem. The group behind the simulator has come up with a few terms related to the distracted-driving phenomena. We’re not sure whether these will make it into Webster’s Dictionary, but here are a few of our favorites.

Textgating: Like tailgating, this refers to driving dangerously close to another car because your attention is focused on texting or other distractions.

Textident: A collision caused by someone who's too busy with their phone to drive safely.

Smerge: The combination of swerving and merging due to driving distracted.

Crash-test dummy: Someone who will likely get into an accident due to using a phone, texting or some other distraction behind the wheel.