June 8, 2008
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Dha Phone Message
I was out walking in the evening when two urban girls, dressed a bit preppy, asked me for the time. When I flipped open my phone, the one girl asked me if I paid for my minutes. I thought I knew where this might be leading, so I said, “Well, yes.” (I have a limit.)
“Could we use your phone to send a text message then? Our phone ran out of battery.” They were very polite, sweet, well spoken.
“Sure.”
When the most talkative girl started pushing my phone’s buttons, she shook her head, “I canNOT do this.” I had the T9 feature toggled to save key strokes. The phone was trying to guess what words the girl was typing. She was frustrated by this feature.
“Oh, I can turn that off.” I fixed it and her fingers flew, and she smiled sweetly as she handed me back my phone.
“Thanks so much,” they both crossed the street toward the bus stop, waving.
I returned to my uphill stroll, and later, when I returned to the bus stop area, they were just boarding and my phone buzzed in my pocket. Yes, a return message.
It read, “Hurry, the store closes at 9.” Well, it was too late to relay the message, and they were on the bus now.
Out of curiosity, I punched up the original message that the two girls had sent. It was then I understood why the girl couldn’t use T9, which guessed words. She was using a different language:
Lisa dis is tosha we on our way we on dha bus
She wouldn’t want the phone to guess “the” when she meant “dha.”
I was fascinated. This was not instant message language. This was a distinct urban-speak…deliberate and well crafted. The girls had spoken to me in my language with sound grammar–with a “th” in “the.” But this was not how they talked to each other or wrote. They talked like “dis”:
Lisa dis is tosha we on our way we on dha bus
[The funniest thing is that when they messaged, they hadn't even crossed the street to the bus stop. Definitely not on dha bus. They boarded at 8:45, and the possibility of them getting to the mall by 9 a.m. was not likely. Poor girls.]
Technology and language: I’ve already seen this relationship morphing my English students’ papers. I guess there is more to come. English is always changing, evolving. But cell phones and AIM are going to exponentially accelerate the etymological evolutions, in my humble opinion, I mean, IMHO.
|||||| lynard
Comments (7)
I speak using good grammar, but in chat rooms and such, I use cyber language. I find it interesting and quite fun.
@WondersCafe -
I do instant message a lot at work and find that capitalization and punctuation are giving way and abbreviations are encroaching.
That’s fascinating. I agree with your humble opinion
I still punctuate and spell even my IMs out, with the rare slip-up (which you have seen on occasion). I’m stubborn that way. Oh, and if the girls were hoping to make it to the store by 9 a.m., they had over 12 hours, apparently! (snort!)
I don’t get why you’d want to spell “the” as “dha” since it doesn’t really save you any time, except with the “a” over the “e” on a phone/numeric keypad. I mean, c’mon — at least have your mistakes make sense, people!
[getting off soapbox, but not putting it away just yet]
@Austruck1 -
Austy dis is lynard u prolly thot dha was spelt duh
@lynardlynard - yo lyn i dint spel it rong u did thay did not me im wrkin on dha puter
(Good grief, that was painful.)
My coworker who happens to be Aftican american speaks a totally different language when she talks to her friends on the phone then when she talks to me/clients. It is weird!
But since I am so old now I am out of it. I really can’t even text!
ur bff:)