In the off-chance that the term actually gets thrown around and sticks, I thought I'd offer my two cents. As a linguist, using ebonics (literally ebony phonics, or the sounds of blacks) as the analogy seems a bit off, especially since you're identifying orthographic practices that don't always focus on sound. Since what you're labelling is (what some of us would call, anyway) a language-based concept that describes practices that potentially vary by user and/or community, rather than are assumed to exist universally among all users of SMS, I'd suggest the term 'style'. Using the term "SMS style" or something similar does imply that universality of use among all users of the medium, but that can be fixed by throwing a descriptor in front of 'SMS' to make it more specific (and maybe describe which features you're including in the term?). It's a start! Joshua Joshua Raclaw Dept of Linguistics University of Colorado Quoting Ellis Godard <ellis.godard@csun.edu>: * I'm unaware of a sufficient term for SMS shorthand (including common sets of * abbreviations, dropped vowels, letters for numbers, systems of substitution, * etc.) * * Thinking of "ebonics", I've invented "SMSics" (ess'-im ESS'-icks). * * It rolls off the tongue nicely. * * It sounds a bit sexy in potential paper titles ("The Evolution of SMSics"; * "The Cultural Politics of Hegemonic SMSics", "Unicultural SMSics in a * Multicultural World"; "Sex Effects and SMSics") * * And I could hear someone @ CNN stumbling over the teleprompted text the * first time they see it, but being proud to say it correctly half an hour * later, after getting producer input during the commercial break. :) * * Like it? * * -eg * * _______________________________________________ * The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list * is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org * Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: * http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org * * Join the Association of Internet Researchers: * http://www.aoir.org/ *