*(Editor's note: For an SMS translation of this story, go here.)*Sending text messages on a cell phone is so popular in Europe that the new leader of the Methodist church recently blamed it for undermining human relationships.
"Text messaging -- with a language of its own -- replaces the human voice," said the Reverend Ian White in his recent inaugural speech.
While White will find that many European teenagers, responsible for sending millions of text messages every year, disagree with him, they have developed a language of their own.
The lingo born of this "generation text" is what spawned transl8it, a Web engine that translates "emoticons" like :-) and other text-messaging slang into proper English. It can also take normal English words and translate them into text-messaging lingo like CU L8r 2nite @ *$’s k.
Translation: see you later tonight at Starbucks, OK?
"There is talk that the English language is being modified here and that overseas Oxford is adding standard definitions of some lingo into their dictionary," said Dan Wilton the president of transl8it, whose headquarters is in Ottawa, Canada.
"Based on the market potential, and this 'generation-text' that is adopting it so readily, we are certain this is here to stay. As long as we have devices we need to type into to help communicate, I am certain we will have people evolving proper English."
While they had fun tinkering with the translation engine, some short-messaging service (SMS) aficionados called the website a marketing stunt.
"I think the idea of some impenetrable text language that needs translation is a complete myth," said Andy Wilson, who runs a poetry website and judged a prominent SMS poetry contest in Britain. "Even when I've asked groups of teenagers -- admittedly only twice -- how much text language they used, they said only the obvious abbreviations like "b" (be), "c" (see), "u" (you) and "4" (for).
"No one really uses it except for those obvious intuitive abbreviations that save space and thumb ache."
Wilson, however, said that transl8it's engine handled Shakespeare's Hamlet "pretty well."
Doubt thou d ** R fire; Doubt dat d sun doth move; Doubt truth 2 b a liar; Bt nevr doubt I luv.
The original text reads:
Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love.
"I thought '**' for 'stars' was quite cute, and 'dat' for 'that' sounded to my English ears like it was being said by someone from the Sopranos," Wilson said.
But the translator wasn't so friendly with Robert Burns, Wilson said. His poem, "My Love is Like a Red, Red, Rose" was translated into "My Luvs Lke a Rd Rd Rose." When Wilson put this translation into the website, it came out, "My loves Like a road road Rose."
"Calling your love a 'road rose' isn't going to get anyone a second date," Wilson said.
Wilton of transl8it said his translator has allowed his company, which is still in startup mode, to get its name out and tap into the 15- to 25-year-old cell-phone market.
"We have been successful at the branding portion, and we are equally successful at the collection portion," Wilton said. "As for the revenue model, well, you will need to stay tuned to see how things roll out."
But one thing's for sure: Wilton's website hasn't put to rest Rev. White's and other church leaders' fears about text messaging.
"Many of these developments are of benefit, but when done at the expense of personal contact, they raise concern as to how we develop as a people," White said.
Archbishop Gerrardo Pierro of Salerno, Italy, called for a "text-free" Good Friday and asked his congregation to concentrate on meditation instead, according to the BBC.
Britons alone send 45 million text messages each day across the four main mobile-phone operators in the U.K., according to the Mobile Data Association.
Sore Thumb? Talk More, Type Less
