I’ve always said that I speak Californian…not English…but Californian. And somehow I slid through my high school and college years not being forced to learn enough of a foreign language to be literate in anything other than Californian. (No, the Taco Bell menu doesn’t count as knowing Spanish…’Chalupa’ is not a real word, and singing enough latin songs in Choir…well let’s just say Latin has a small following in the spoken word department).
So who knew our phones had more language skills than I do? All this time I’ve been thinking that a person who types/sends emails from a Audiovox phone was…
- Insane
- Geek
- Thumb overachiever
- All of the above
What I didn’t realize that there’s this ‘helper’ language on the phone to jump start your responses. The Tegic T9 language is a ‘predictive text’ language that will learn as you type. There’s even a T9 dictionary that in the margin gives some interesting tidbits that let you know that 22663 [translation: as a matter of fact] men are more likely than women to send a mobile instant message or text message at a busy meeting [30% versus 17%], but 3949 [translation: For what it’s worth], women are more likely than men to send one when they are using crowded public transportation [41% versus 30%], and in bed [26% versus 14%]. …..hmmm…. okay I’m a geek but I don’t take my cell phone to the bedroom..495946 [translation: If you know what I mean]
So on more googling it appears that this is called “Textonyms” and T9 isn’t the only language out there but a whole category of predictive languanges. 24868 [Translation: But in the Meantime] T9 is a subsidiary of AOL …. I mean ….. who knew that what I see as a form of leet speak was going to be turned into a standard for cell phone messaging.
Once again proving that one should 78369 or better yet 7836 [translations: see below].
P.S. I noticed in Cnet’s reviews they say the Audiovox is “difficult to sync to a corporate email server”… well if you are as blonde as I was yes…otherwise… I disagree on that one.
Translation: 78369 = Read the Documentation/Directions
Translation 7836 = Read the F……. well you know.. the manual
Eh? Every phone I’ve had since late 2000 had T9 predictive text! The phones in the US aren’t that backward are they??