t9onyms

British teens are creating a slang based on the predictive text function on their cell phones, as the Telegraph reports:

[Teens] are replacing words they mean with the first alternative that comes up when typing a message.

So if you hear your teenager describing something as “book”, then it means it is “cool” - because book is the word that first comes up when you type cool into your phone using predictive text.

If they exclaim “zonino!” then it means “woohoo!” and when they refer to someone’s “nun” they mean their mum.

Secret languages have always been invented to exclude members of authority from cockney rhyming slang to jive talking.

But it is thought that - the German Enigma machine apart - this is first time that technology has been key to deciphering the meaning.

So if your teenager says they are in the “sub”, it does not mean they have joined the Navy, it means they are down the “pub”. When they get a “pint” in, it becomes a “shot” and the “barmaid” is a “carnage”.

And if they are lucky, after a few “shots” you may get to “lips” (kiss) the “carnage”.

David Crystal, a linguistics expert at Bangor University, said the language is known as textonyms, or t9onyms (pronounced tynonyms).

Comments

[Carin]

As long as the kids stay offa my lawn, I don't care what kind of freaky-deaky language they use.

[CGHill]

Sounds like a load of shiv to me.