What will happen to standard English?

[ATBdude]

I don't know many people theese days that use standard English!

Mobiles I agree with text talk, it saves money and time,
MSN I think that it's getting out of hand. But I see people use "txt tlk" on school work and things like that!

Seriously, what do you think will happen to standard English?  

[l3viathan]

I'm afraid that one day standard English shall only be a rare thing. It's already starting to get quite rare, it seems. There shall always be those who preserve it though.  

[RockyRatt]

I am much afraid that it will meet an early demise. It has already begun in America - I fear for it, though I do believe it will live on. There will always be people like us, preserving the English language.  

[Fuku Taichou]

I actually don't think that standard English will be completely lost. Although people use "text talk" all the time, school requires students to know "proper" English. It's a fact that some people just aren't as good at English at others, so naturally, of course, there will always be some people who don't quite understand it, regardless of if "text talk" exists or not. People who use "text talk" can spell, for the most part, since they are still required to do so in their every day lives for school-related things. In all honesty, I doubt anyone can get away with writing a paper that goes, "in j.d. salingers book catcher n the rye, holden caulfield dscibes th brss ring @ the nd of tha book." First off, when writing essays (in class or otherwise) I think kids have the common sense to capitalize the beginning of sentences. Secondly, I don't think the English language will ever be completely reduced to taking the "short" way out. As long as there are writers, there will be good English. ....At least, that's what I hope.  

[TeeJaye]

As proof of the devolution of the English language, I submit the following real English words from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

Main Entry: su·per·size
Pronunciation: 'sü-p&r-"sIz
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): -ized; -iz·ing
: to increase considerably the size, amount, or extent of

Main Entry: mouse potato
Function: noun
Etymology: after couch potato
slang : a person who spends a great deal of time using a computer

Main Entry: goo·gle
Pronunciation: 'gü-g&l
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): goo·gled; goo·gling /-g(&-) li[ng]/
Usage: often capitalized
Etymology: Google, trademark for a search engine
: to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web

These in and of themselves aren't particularly disturbing; what's disturbing is the "Open Dictionary" in which anyone can submit entries (One presumes there is some filtering here) but here are some words that made it into the Open Dictionary:

woot
interjection
: exclamation of joy or approval, often appearing in electronic forms of communication (SMS, email, chats)

rofl
(abbreviation) : A slang word used on many chatrooms to express a humorous reaction. Literally, "rolling on the floor laughing"
After that joke, I was rofl!

AFK
: Shorthand for Away From Keyboard. Used most often in online games.
He's AFK, don't attack him.  

[Nukiuchi]

Fuku Taichou

I actually don't think that standard English will be completely lost. Although people use "text talk" all the time, school requires students to know "proper" English. It's a fact that some people just aren't as good at English at others, so naturally, of course, there will always be some people who don't quite understand it, regardless of if "text talk" exists or not. People who use "text talk" can spell, for the most part, since they are still required to do so in their every day lives for school-related things. In all honesty, I doubt anyone can get away with writing a paper that goes, "in j.d. salingers book catcher n the rye, holden caulfield dscibes th brss ring @ the nd of tha book." First off, when writing essays (in class or otherwise) I think kids have the common sense to capitalize the beginning of sentences. Secondly, I don't think the English language will ever be completely reduced to taking the "short" way out. As long as there are writers, there will be good English. ....At least, that's what I hope.

.pm.trade

Well, here is my opinion:

It requires students to use proper English... but what about delinquents? A friend of mine in America lives across from a school, and she constantly complains to me of the four hundred or more children in that school who have completely given up on learning, and instead write ridiculous papers and steal from nearby shops and homes. Seeing as how four hundred children is about half of the school, it doesn't seem like there's a huge amount of fighting this crisis.

She told me once that one day she came across a paper from one of these students, and you'd never guess what she saw? An F paper of course, with all "txt tlk" and squarish "gangsta" type writing. Probably one of the most pathetic things I've heard of.

.profile  

[Doppelgaanger]

This may sound defeatist or something, but this could just be the natural evolution of English. It's heading towards simplicity. Most languages do that, they get simpler, irregularities are removed or replaced, and eventually, they become easier. It's the natural course of most languages. If a language is too difficult, it could die out (take a look at Latin, for example).  

[Fuku Taichou]

There's actually a group of people who want to change the English language to the way it sounds when it is spoken. For instance, words like "night" should actually become "nite." I guess they think there's no point to having the silent letters in there, but that all has to do with Latin and etymologies.

Even though people might use "txt tlk" in papers, they should not receive the same grade as someone who uses proper English. Unless English is being taught differently in college (which it isn't), the teachers should at least recognize that "txt tlk" is not standard English. Then again, though, teachers also have to have a little bit of leeway depending on the students' capabilities. Some students might accidentally make a spelling error, which appears to be "txt tlk" but is just because that student's grasp on English isn't quite as good as another's.

Although some delinquents might not use proper English, there will always be schooling. I don't think the value of education has gone down, so I do believe that there will always be students.

Plus, those who are interested in an English-related field for work, it is still important to have a strong grasp on the English language. I still know of at least four people who have displayed strong interest in journalistic fields, and I highly doubt magazines are looking for people who don't use proper English.  

[Kali Eyad]

Doppelgaanger

This may sound defeatist or something, but this could just be the natural evolution of English. It's heading towards simplicity. Most languages do that, they get simpler, irregularities are removed or replaced, and eventually, they become easier. It's the natural course of most languages. If a language is too difficult, it could die out (take a look at Latin, for example).

While I have to agree with some of this, I think that the English language becoming "txt tlk" should be considered the deterioration of the language. The simplification of some things, like removing unpronounced vowells or consonants, would be perfectly understandable. Converting words so that they are spelled more phonetically would make sense to me. Just removing vowells as a short cut is not an improvment, and could be very confusing in some cases.