The purpose of a language is to meet the communication needs of the society that uses it, so any living language is by its very nature bound to evolve as a result of social changes. Thanks to advances in technology, these developments sometimes progress quickly in certain demographic groups, particularly among teenagers, creating a significant chasm in the relationships between parents and teenagers. One can often hear French parents bemoan their inability to comprehend conversation between their teenage children. It is not an insurmountable problem, but a decoder is needed to bridge the gulf. Here are some tips for French-speaking parents to reopen the channels of communication that have been obstructed by generational, technological and occasionally cultural factors. SMS language came about as a way to reduce the length of words used and thus avoid exceeding the number of characters allowed by text messages, as well as to speed up typing on mobile phone keypads. These technological constraints gave rise to a form of communication that seems more intuitive to frequent users of SMS messaging and less familiar to parents, who do not recognise most of the codes, abbreviations and spellings used. (Written in text speak) “This is a web forum, not a cell phone. if you want an answer to your query, try writing in a proper language”. Anti-SMS language poster itself written in SMS language. CC-BY-20 Here are some examples of SMS language decoded for the uninitiated by the Gralon forum: - je vi1 2 = je viens de – tu vas réu6r = tu vas réussir – il tadi 2 / ke = il t’a dit de / que – koi 2 9 = quoi de neuf ? – 2m1 = demain - je vi1 2 = je viens de (“I’ve just”) - tu vas réu6r = tu vas réussir (“you can do it”) – il tadi 2 / ke = il t’a dit de / que (“he told you that”) – koi 2 9 = quoi de neuf ? (“what’s new?”) – 2m1 = demain (“tomorrow”) This utilitarian transformation of language is not to everyone’s taste. Désirée explains in her post what she finds most irritating when reading texts in SMS language: Le langage sms, c'est bien pour les ados qui veulent se montrer rebelles, pour les gens qui ne veulent pas passer trop de temps à rédiger un sms et qui s'en fichent des fautes et ceux qui s'en fichent que leur correspondant pourrait ne pas comprendre leurs hiéroglyphes immondes. On l'aura compris, je suis contre ce langage préhistorique! J'avais moi-même testé quand j'étais ado et même dans ma période la plus rebelle, je n'ai pas pu me résoudre à envoyer des messages bourrés de fautes [..] LE problème c'est que la plupart des gens qui écrivent en langage sms ne font plus aucune différence entre mail et sms, ce qui n'est pas trop grave quand il s'agit de quelqu'un qu'ils connaissent mais qui devient un sérieux manque de respect quand il s'agit de quelqu'un qui leur est totalement inconnu. Text speak is for teens who want to appear rebellious, for people who don’t want to spend too much time composing a text message and don’t care about errors, and people who don’t care that the person they’re writing to cannot understand their hideous hieroglyphics. As you might have guessed, I’m opposed to this prehistoric language! I tried it myself as a teen, and even in my most rebellious phase, I couldn’t bring myself to send messages full of errors […] The problem is that most people who write in text language make no distinction between emails and texts, which doesn’t matter too much when they’re writing to someone they know, but becomes seriously disrespectful when it’s to a total stranger. Tizel is also opposed to the spread of this form of communication. He decries the increase in incomprehensibility of messages: Le langage SMS est un vrai fléau. J'en veux pour preuve le nombre de forum devenus illisibles à cause de l'absence totale de modération sur ce plan. Mais ce fléau se retrouve également dans les blogs : la majorité des Skyblogs sont formulés en SMS; les commentaires déposés sur les blogs sont eux aussi, la plupart du temps, en SMS. Même certains mails que l'on m'envoie sont rédigés de la sorte. En plus, à force de rédiger de la sorte, je suis persuadé que ces personnes déforment leur orthographe. SMS language is a real scourge. This is borne out by the number of forums that have become unreadable because of the total absence of moderation in this area. But this scourge is also found in blogs: the majority of Skyblogs are written in SMS; the comments posted on the blogs are mainly in SMS as well. Even some of the emails I receive are written the same way. I am also convinced that by writing this way these people are adversely affecting their spelling ability. Some, however, see this evolution as an opportunity. Many novels for young people use text speak to convey a sense of realism.