Text Messages

EN FRANÇAIS DANS LE TEXTO^® ;o)

Technological progress has an obvious impact on everyday life and culture, and more often than not, it also affects language. Born into a world of Internet chatrooms, email, and WAP phones, text messaging is getting more and more popular among mobile phone users. Around 10 billion text messages are exchanged each month in Europe. So how is the French language coping with this new communication tool?

When it comes to new technologies such as computing, many European languages borrow terms from English. It is a well known fact though that, as far as language is concerned, the French tend to be more protectionist than most of their European neighbours. Some words inevitably crossed national borders - l'Académie française failed to impose the word courriel as an alternative to email or mail (the Frenchified spelling mél is sometimes used). But for example, although software is widely used across Europe, French has logiciel. And it seems French is not the only language trying to resist the predominance of English: in the beginning of the Internet era, 100% of the content was in English, but this percentage has, interestingly enough, fallen to around 80%, which tends to prove other languages can find their place on the Web. Internet and email are used for both business and private communications, and English is shared by around 800,000,000 people around the world (as their first or second language), which makes it an obvious choice for communicating with a wide audience. Where does that leave text messaging? Although derived from the same technology as Internet and email, it is a slightly different animal. With the exception of confirming a meeting or warning of a delay, it is mostly used for casual conversation between friends. So even if a lot of French people (especially the younger ones) speak some English, why wouldn't they send text messages (textos^®, SMS or mini-messages in French) in their own language?

Like anywhere else, text-messages have to be short as you're limited to 160 characters per message. And anyway, who wants to key lengthy messages on a tiny keypad, when each key corresponds to three letters, even with the help of predictive software? Some phone companies such as SFR in France provide services like the Dicto Texto^® for lazy or clumsy people (you dictate your message to a voice mail, your message is then forwarded to the recipient by text message), but this is not widespread and it sort of defeats the purpose of text messages: immediate, discreet and, most of all, quiet! So just like English speakers, French speakers have had to come up with a new language, adapted to this form of exchanges. Well, actually, text messaging is not a completely new language. It reuses existing (and sometimes very ancient) linguistic devices.

What are emoticons (smileys or émoticon in French) if not a modern form of ideograms? Similarly, widely recognized symbols such as $ (dollar or more generally money), € or & are perfect for use in text messages. Short and clear. Other symbols such as @ (arobase or a commercial) are commonly used, in this particular instance to replace the letter 'a' as in '@ +' (à plus, short for à plus tard).

Other principles used to shorten the French language include a phonetic transcription of sounds or the use of the name of the letters: for example 'k' replaces the combination 'qu' and 'c' replaces c'est, hence Cki? = c'est qui?. A few other examples: JV = j'y vais; JT'M = je t'aime or ID = idée (much like IC = I see or CU = see you in English). Numbers can also be used: 6né = cinéma. This is by no means a text message creation - examples can be found in French literature (eg Louise de Vilmorin, L'Alphabet des aveux, 1954) as well as in everyday life: K7 = cassette; LN = Hélène or NRJ, the name of a popular radio station pronounced 'énergie'. When car registration numbers started containing three letters, French undertakers decided that no hearse would carry the letters DCD (décédé = deceased) so as to avoid offending bereaved families.

Traditional ways of abbreviating words, as used in small ads for instance, also come in handy. You have the option of dropping the end of words (eg poss = possible), the end of a word (eg zic = musique) or of dropping the vowels (eg svp = s'il vous plaît; tt = tout; bcp = beaucoup) or even a combination of the above (pb = problème). In texting, this gives acronyms such as Asv? (âge sexe ville?) to ask whether people connected to the same chatroom are male or female, how old they are and where they come from or abbreviations such as Bjr! (Bonjour!); Bsr! (Bonsoir!); Slt! (Salut!).

Funnily enough, although messages need to be short, a few letter alterations commonly used in text messages actually lengthen the words. For example, the letter combination o+i is often changed to oua: moi =moua. Similarly web becomes ouèbe. This is because brevity is not the only priority of text messages: self-expression is equally important. Exchanging text messages is a bonding activity, especially among the younger users. In that respect, writing text messages involves recreating a degree of intimacy and friendliness similar to that of face-to-face or phone conversations. This is also the reason why emoticons are used extensively. Other methods to make your messages more expressive or reinforcing your point include using capital letters (which usually means you're shouting) or repeating final letters of words (eg AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! instead of Ah!).

Even if text messaging reuses existing linguistic devices, it's adapting them and has a definite impact on the French language. It shouldn't be long before some of the most common text abbreviations find their way into dictionaries. They're already widely used in advertising messages, such as la 3ème semaine au club CKDO! (i.e. c'est cadeau – the third week at the resort is free), so chances are they will become more and more familiar and exist beyond the boundaries of text messages.