www.alphadictionary.com

Is it good, bad, or something in-between? Here's a short piece from The Economist I've been meaning to post for a while now:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero ... technology

The author is all for it. What do you folks think?

I generally agree with the point of the article. However, I see no reasons for the abbreviations to be spoken out loud. The whole point of the abbreviations and texting and the like is it reduces the number of keys to punch. Twitter limits you to 140 characters, plus the smallest of the keys make it more difficult than a computer keyboard to type. Thus the abbreviations. Speaking abbreviations out loud is unnecessary and as the author points out, it can often take longer to say the abbreviation. All sorts of words will be coming into the language as any kind of new household or office gadget shows up. When did "can opener" become a phrase?

Those using technology frequently develop a more or less technical vocabulary. We can talk about windows XP, Windows 7, and Windows 8, and most users of those operating systems will understand you. And so on.

Language is changing over the centuries. We have to get used to this.

Well, I agree, batman, but there are others, who shall remain unnamed, who are much more reluctant. Some have lifted the arena to scholarly debate, although not in the lingo of Chaucer.