Perhaps some of you can help me. I read recently about a Swedish student, My Svensson, who won a competition by taking only 61 seconds to type a 141-character SMS message.
Apparently, her winning text was:
Ok, skriv fort nu. Fortare! D1a går för långsamt. Stavas långsamt så?
Hinner inte titta, måste bli klar. Snart, bara 1 ord till.
Klar!
I’m no expert, but that doesn’t look very text-speak to me (I can’t imagine any Irish teenager SMS texting 141 characters in one message – for any reason). Is it? In Swedish?
How much longer is that phrase than the equivalent text-speak localization into English? Do other languages have text-speak or is it largely used for “imported” English words?
No. There’s no prize for the answer.
