In spoken Italian, the lengthening of all sounds is imperative to the romantic eloquence of the language, something that ‘txtspk’ eliminates.
Abbreviations
CMQ
K
XK
NN
SN
GRZ
TT
TVB
Italian
Comunque
Che
Perchè
Non
Sono
Grazie
Tutto
Ti voglio bene
English
Anyway/regardless
What/which/who
Why/because
No/not
I am/ They are
Thank you
Everything
I love you
Some other curious additions to the Italian ‘txtspk’ are the verbal abbreviations. Avere conjugates differently, with the h silent (where applicable), such as ho to o, hai to ai and ha to a. This is all very confusing to a foreign speaker, however easily understood if said out loud.
Other abbreviations include shorthand phrases for when one is far too busy to reply to anything and a very short and slick message will suffice, for example libero abbreviates to lib and occupato changes to occ.
Finally, it is intriguing to look at an abbreviation that has swept the English nation - ‘ILY’. Although not as widely known as ‘LOL’, the abbreviation for ‘I love you’ in English is also used in Italian ‘txtspk’. Italian couples or young people would use tvb to profess their passion, the shortened form of ti voglio bene and, if you’re feeling really amorous: tvtrb meaning ti voglio troppo bene.
Text speak is a widely used phenomenon throughout the world, and, whether we like it or not, it is becoming an ever-more fundamental part of language, even in classical languages such as Italian.
LINGUA
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