The presentation talks about Email and SMS Language among Pakistani youth. It issue is discussed in the context of Language, Culture and Society

1. Presented by:
Arslan Aftab
Asim Liaquat Khan
Muhammad Bilal
Muhammad Waleed Usman
Salman Irshad

2. Background and
Context

 Globalization has brought information revolution.
 Internet and mobile technology has brought different
dialects and variations.
 Language of youth.

3. Statement of Purpose

 “The impact, the use of internet and SMS language
has on the youth of Pakistan”

4. Scope of Study

 linguistic use in case of SMS and Emails among the
youth of Pakistan.
 We used personal interviews and questionnaires to
get information from youth.
 Research process remained confined to the Lahore.

5. Literature review

 Salia Tagliamonte and Derek Denis (2008) article
“LINGUISTIC RUIN? LOL! INSTANT MESSAGING
AND TEEN LANGUAGE”
 David crystal (2008) article “Txting frNd or foe?”
 Guy merchant (2001) article “Teenagers in Cyber
Space”
 David crystal (2005) article “The Scope of Internet
Linguistic”
 Muhammad Shaban Rafi(2002) in the article “SMS Text
Analysis: Language, Gender and Current Practices”

6. Literature review

 Abdullah , Mardziah Hayati(2003) article “The
Impact of electronic communication on Writing”.
 David crystal (1998) “Interpreting Inter”.
 Wood, Plester, Bowyer (2008) “Texting and
Literacy” .
 Anupam khatpalia “The effects of Text messaging”

7. Overview of literature
review

 Mixing of variants by formal and informal ways
cannot be categorized as ruin.
 Increasing literacy level.
 Creating innovation in language.
 Use of abbreviations are not started by youth but
many authors used abbreviations in past.
 Make youth more confident and comfortable.
 Better atmosphere.
 Increase writing skills.

8. Popular Means of
Communication

 E-mail
 Second to the telephone in terms of the world-wide users
 Allows users to send pictures and files as attachments
 According to CNN, more than 36 billion E-mails are sent each day
around the world
• Instant Message (IM)
— a form of real-time direct text-based communication between two or
more people using shared clients
— approximately 12 billion instant messages are sent each day
— popular among large organization
 Short Message Service (SMS)
 The text communication service component of phone, web or mobile
communication systems
 The Pakistani send 106 billion SMS/ text messages a year
 Each SMS has the ability to carry 160 characters and the latest mobiles can send up
to 20 SMS messages each time.

9. Reasons for Popularity

 Inexpensive
 Convenient
 Reliable
 “Cool”

10. Language Styles of
Youth

 Two styles of Communication
i. Formal
— Associated with corporate world
ii. In-Formal
— Associated with the youth
— High use of Slangs, jargons, Clichés and shorthand
words
Vs

11. Distinction b/w Formal
and In-Formal Style

 Tone, vocabulary, syntax and contractions
 Structure & organized
 Abbreviations
 Formal: “It has been noticed”
 Informal: “I have noticed”
 Contractions
Comics & Text messages gonna, wanna, ain't, woulda, coulda, shoulda
English newspapers & it'll, would've, could've, might've, that'll
Informal Reports
Formal business or project won't, can't, don't, doesn't
reports & proposals

12. SMS and Internet Language
among youth of Pakistan

 Characteristics
 Roman Urdu (Urdu Written using English
Alphabets)
 According to Gillani Research Foundation, Roman
Urdu is the most used language for sending text
messages in Pakistan
Roman Urdu 37 %
Urdu 15%
English 17%
Do not use Electronic 29%
Medium
No response 2%

13. Roman Urdu: Cont’d…

 Code Mixing
 Examples:
 Ma class k liye late ho rha hoon.
 Try kerna to must hai
 Kya kr rhay ho? Are you mad?
• Complete Disregard of grammatical Rules
• Examples
 Kya hoing?
 Where jaaing?
 Kya likhing?

14. Roman Urdu: Cont’d…

 Google Transliteration
 A software that converts the text of one writing system
into another in a systematic way
 It currently supports 23 languages

15. Compressions and
Shorthand terms

 The four main reasons
I. It looks beautiful
II. It is convenient
III. It saves time
IV. It is a common trend
 Three types of shorthand Terms in In-formal
Language
I. Words without vowels
II. The initials of words
III. Acronyms

16. Examples

 Words Without Vowels
 “Whn” or “Wn” for When
 “Wht” or “Wt” for What
 “L8” for Late
 “Gr8” for Great
• Acronyms
— “LSE” for London School of Economics
— “T.V” for Television
— “PC” for Personal Computer

17. Examples: Cont’d…

 Initials
 “BRB” for Be right back
 “LOL” for laughing out loud
 “WTH” for What the Heck
 “BTW” for By the way
 “XOXO” for Kisses and Hugs
 “TTYL” for Talk to you later
 “OMW” for On my way

18. Compressions and
Shorthand terms: Cont’d…

 Skipping of words that are felt unnecessary
 Example:
 “Mom eating” instead of Mom is eating
 “Drinking” instead of “I’m drinking”
 “Driving” instead of “I’m driving my car”
• Adverse Effects

19. Emoticons and Symbols

 David Crystal and Muhammad Shaban Rafi
 A representation of the body language, which would otherwise
be missing from a non-face-to-face communication
 These Emoticons have the ability to change the meaning of a
sentence just as the gestures; body language, eye contact and so
forth have the ability to change the meaning of the verbal
communication
 Examples:
If a person is Happy :)
If a person is sad :(
If a person is angry :@
If a person is confused :S

20. The difference in the Internet and
SMS Language of Girls and Boys

 Difference in Males and Females Internet and SMS
language
 Punctuation
 Number of words used per message
 Complexity
 Lexical Dense words
 Clauses
• According to “Waqt” Newspaper
— SMS language has a more adverse and bad influence upon
the women than the men

21. Reasons of the Novice
Internet and SMS Language

 Role of Media
 Television Commercials
 “Kyunke Dawlance Reliable hai”
 “Talk Shawk”
 “Pepsi, Dil mangay more”
• Bollywood Movies
 “God tussi great ho”
 “Jab we met”
 “Love aaj kal”
 Pakistani Songs
 Billie Jean(Atif Aslam)
 Mahiya (Annie)
 Bounce Billo (Imran khan)

22. Reasons of the Novice Internet
and SMS Language: Cont’d…

 English as the “Lingua Franca” of the world
 English as a language of Elites and Upper-class
• Modern Gadgets of Communication
 The need to build a whole new infrastructure for the
promotion of Urdu

23. Impact of Western Culture
on Communication Styles:

 Culture means the values, traditions, norms, customs,
arts, history, folklore, and institutions that a group of
people, who are unified by race, ethnicity, language,
nationality, or religion, share.
 Pakistan follows a Muslim Culture.
 Language is termed as the identity of any nation.
 The national language of Pakistan is “Urdu” but the
language that is mostly used in offices of Pakistan is
“English.”
 Adapting English language was the first step when
Western Culture started influencing our culture.

24. Cont…

 When any culture start influencing other culture then the
living styles and patterns of the later culture start
changing.
 We try to adapt western habits, for example we are now
more towards the western food, western style of clothing,
we like to build our houses like the west, so in a nutshell
we try to copy all the things that the western culture
possess. Similarly it applies on the communication styles.
 Because of the impact of Western culture we try to speak
in a way in which the people of west speak.
 Our elite some way or the other communicate in English
in their society.

25. Cont…

 Many of us now want our children to read, write and
speak English more frequently than our native,
national language “Urdu”.
 Many slangs and clichés have also made their place
in our communication styles.
 The usage of this language in our Email and SMS
language is due to the impact of the Western culture.

26. Interview Findings

 Miss. Memoona Anwar instructing subjects related
to language at the Kinnaird Collage for Women,
Lahore and Lahore School of Economics said
“Though the language originated by western
countries but in Pakistan’s case the blame cannot be
shifted totally on the west as it is just one thing
which they originated and we learnt it from them,
which was transferred to us with the transfer of
technology.”

27. Cont..

 Mr. Imtiaz Shah said that “Western culture has affected
our lives our habits, our way of perceiving and doing
things and also the communication styles both verbal and
non-verbal”.
 The survey also showed that most of the respondents
agreed that Western culture had an impact on the
communication styles of youth.

28. SMS and Email Language
and effects on Youth:

 “The Email and SMS language that is being used by youth
these days does not decrease the literacy level both it has
rather increased the literacy level, innovation and
creativity”. (DAVID Crystal)
 SMS and Email language has become a lingua Franca for
Youth.
 It has increased the literacy level of the youth living in the
rural areas of Pakistan.
 Youth communicate now much faster and easily with one
another than it used to be before.

29. Interview Findings
 but it is a new form
Email and SMS language is not destroying the
traditional rules of language
of language which is more creative and
innovative.
language is not a static term rather then it is a
moving phenomenon and it keeps on changing
with time.
It is a language of youth and it has increased the
literacy level because it is now understood by
each and every person so it has enhanced the
reading and writing skills of Youth. (Imtiaz
Shah)

30. Cont…

 According to Ms. Mehmoona Email and SMS
language has evolved as one the major form of
communication among youth of country, has its own
impacts both formally and informally.
 This language is un-doubtfully proving support verbally
and adding more to the verbal repertories of language
users and even in case of Pakistan it has enhanced the
verbal skills of both literate and illiterate people somehow
by proving them knowledge of words and language
resulting in development of their verbal skills, but when it
comes to writing language.

31. Cont….

 Slang words use and short hand words, it is none
other than a time saving, money saving strategy,
where youth today tries to adopt a shortcut and a
condensed way to communicate.
 This is also the attitude of youth towards their lives
and towards their formal communication which is
not good.

32. Analysis of Data:

Language Style in Email and SMS Language
Series1
30
11
9
a. Formal Style b. In-Formal Style c. Both/ Mixed

33. Using Jargons and Slangs in SMS &Emails
a. Yes b. No
0%
100%

34. Impact of Western Culture
Series1
39
6
3
2
a. Agree b. Tend to agree c. Tend to disagree d. Disagree

35. How often use Email and SMS
Series1
43
5
2
0
a. Never b. Seldom c. Occasionally d. Frequently

36. Why people use short hand writings
Series1
33
15
2
0
a. It looks beautiful b. It is convenient c. It saves time d. It is a common trend

37. Impact of Pakistani Culture
a. Agree b. Tend to agree c. Tend to disagree d. Disagree
10%
8%
52%
30%

38. Smiles and Emoticons make communication more expressive
Series1
27
21
2
0
a. Strongly agree b. Agree c. Disagree d. Strongly disagree

39. AGE
Series1
48
2
0 0
a. 10-15 b. 16-24 c. 25-30 d. 31 and above

40. Education level
a. Matriculation/ O-level b. Intermediate / A- level c. Undergraduate d. Graduate
2%
20% 16%
62%

41. Gender
b. Female
36%
a. Male
64%

42. Conclusion

 Email and SMS can help in creating bridge.
 According to linguistic expert’s emails and SMS
helps to bring new and interesting way of writing.
 Awareness should be created between the
Students, Teachers and Parents.
 Seminars
 SMS and Email language should be treated as a
separate subject