Net Language - Should we abandon punctuation all together?

That is absolute class Owlwings! I'm not quite sure where I stand,but a good foundation in english is a good starting point.

I've been thinking about this a lot more, and text-speak, net speak etc will continue to grow and adapt,but icons,emoticons,smileys etc will add the extra emphasis and emotional subtext. we could end up going backward and using hieroglyphics LOL

Since you started the discussion, I too have been more aware of the way I communicate online and in emails. Already, most of us speak differently to the way we write. Where we still tend to write words in full, the way we actually say them leaves a lot of information out and has always done so. I think that most people would be aware of the need to speak differently depending on whether we are giving a formal speech or a lecture or speaking colloquially with a group of friends. We say "Gotta go now." instead of "I've got to go now" (and, of course, elide words like 'I have' and 'do not', even to the extent of pronouncing them substantially differently. All languages do this to the extent that we no longer pronounce them the way they are written (this is why English has such fearsome spelling 'rules' - why we pronounce 'ough' in so many different ways, for example). In txtspk, the need is really to rationalise and reduce the number of characters and still be comprehensible because an SMS message can only have 160 characters (including spaces), so we leave out vowels, use the names of letters and numbers to represent whole syllables and reduce some words to approximately the way they sound. Essentially, to read txtspk you need to know things such as that in English the character '8' is pronounced 'ayt' not 'acht' or 'huit' or 'octo' and that 'n' or 'v' represent the most important sounds in the words 'and' and 'of'. Exactly the same principle is used in many shorthand systems (but for a different reason). Most, if not all, of the letters we use today in the Roman alphabet evolved in exactly the same way. The letter 'A', for example was once a simple picture of an ox's head because the name for an ox began with that sound. It got simplified and turned upside down (so that the horns were at the bottom) and so became the character we use today. I can see this fascinating subject turning into a book but I suppose my point is that, while there has always been a tendency for some people to shorten things there has always been a resistance against it by people who see it as 'sloppy' or 'not correct'. Both are natural and it is actually no more 'wrong' to use a convenient shorthand (in the right context) than is is to disapprove of and reject such usage when it is inappropriate.

Hi smacksman! ahh good point... but art is form over function, so it could be just the asthetic of text speak that you dont like? I personally dont like text speak but it is useful. I think if we wholeheartedly adopt net-speak, thousands of poets and writers like Wilde, Chaucer, Tenneson, Frost and Yeats will be spinning in their graves that fast you could use them as dynamos LOL.

Smaksman, 'english' or 'English?' all the best urban

Jimbo, 'Aesthetic.' All the best urban

Hi thinksf! I agree that spelling should be a consistent foundation, but exceptions can be applied when personalizing, talking 'street' etc. Personally, I am terrible with punctuation and spelling. I use too many apostrophies and full stops like...... when you make a sentence 'hang'. What do you think about emoticons?