David Crystal's new book cleverly callled "txtng: the gr8 db8" touches upon the always ongoing debate about how texting and lexicongraphy is affecting the English language. 

The argument that I hear the most is that youth of the world today are often criticized for the use of text messages and abbreviations to communicate or "ruin" the English language. The idea that texting is ruining English comes from some studies which suggest that people who send text messages (implying heavy abbreviation) tend to have more grammar and spelling errors as a result. But langugage is dynamic and misspellings sometimes accounts for new words! To say that this "ruins" our language is absurd.  The point of a language is to be easy to understand, standardized, and easy to learn.  If a symbol, spelling, or word is neglected, then let the development of the people dictate the developement of the language; after all, we did invent language, so why is it such a crime to change it?

For more information, check out the David Crystal interview at http://education.zdnet.com/?p=1021 and also see the opposing view at http://education.zdnet.com/?p=1021

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