Text language is made up of the shortened words of English that are used for text messaging on phones, PDAs, and other texting devices. This form of written word is also called SMS language, txtspk, chatspeak, or text talk. Text language is the slang of messaging instantly. Many cell phone plans and communication plans limit the number of characters that are allowed in a single text message, so many people shorten words any way they can to get their message across.



In order to reserve characters and save space in messages, text language certainly does not follow or obey Standard English grammar. The lingo of texting also cannot be found in regular dictionaries, either. There are really no set standards for writing a message using this text language, and a lot of words can be shortened when used. There are a lot of ways that words can be shortened. Words can simply have letters removed, such as later being written in texts as ltr. Also, words can be combined with numeric symbols to make them shorter, so the word later would then be typed as l8r.

Some cellular phone companies not only allow a certain number of characters per text, but others might charge per character that is part of texting. Text language comes in very handy with these instances. Using text language not only saves users time, but they can get more of a message in and also save money.

The whole point of the texting language is to convey an understandable message using the fewest number of characters to save time, space, and in some cases, money. Many cellular phones do not have a QWERTY keyboard installed on them, so things like punctuation, grammar, and capitalization are usually ignored.

Although there is no technical rule system for text language, there are hundreds of commonly known abbreviations that are very recognizable to many people. Single letters can often replace whole words, as in be becomes b, are is written as r, and the word you is often texted as just the letter u. In addition to single letters replacing words, single digits can replace words or syllables. Examples of this type of text talk can be seen when ate becomes 8, for is written as 4, and to becomes 2. Also, great is usually written as gr8, later becomes l8r, and tomorrow becomes 2mro.

Finally, there are many abbreviations that are only a few letters that stand for entire phrases in text language. For example, At the Moment becomes atm, be back later becomes bbl, and talk to you later is commonly texted as ttyl.