Yoza Project

Last week Kontax 2: The Big Win was published on a mobisite and on MXit, unfortunately with spelling and grammatical errors in the text. This was embarrassing for the author, proofreader and myself, especially as m4Lit is about mobiles for literacy! We’ve since fixed the issues and will implement more rigorous proofreading next time.

What is really interesting, however, is that the readers on MXit told us about the mistakes. Remember that this is generation txt, who apparently can’t spell or write properly. This may be true based on the txtspk they used to inform us of the mistakes (see below), but what is clearly evident is that when they read they know their spelling from their splng.

Here are the 28 reader complaints. Thank you, readers, we promise next time to “check da script b4 sndn it”.

Natalie: I lykd the first half of the story n cnt wait 4 the next part. Bt there r allot of spellin faults or missin letters or letters replaced with others……. Pls pls  pls just fix them. Mwa ur gal NATALIAN.

Luthando: The pers0n hu was writtn tha st0ry skipz sum othr w0rdz n tht z c0nfusing

Tshoanelo: kontax 2 s vry intrstng,evn though der ar errors smwhr.i taught us mny thngs.cnt w8 4 chptr2.wsh u cld myk t lngr thn dan da 1st 1,it rocks

Thabo: Hey love the story.bt u shuld wach ur splng.bt all in all its a grt stry jst hve 2 mke it nt dat cmplt at sme point

Amanda: I noticed an error in spelling instead of they you guys wrote thet

Owethu: There are a few spelling errors and lack of spaces for other words.

Sphe: Despite d romance part bt eish der r wrng spelling here nd unfinishd words

Samukelisiwe: The story flows nicely bt the are little mistakes plz mind the spelling

Vuyo: Chapter 3 is gr8 but towards the end theres a spelling mistake   instead of it being ‘they’ its ‘thet’

Penny: I think airtym should jst go 2 da cops and explain wat hd hppn and also take da quiz guys 2 court so that they would b able 2 knw if his gng 2 get hs money and make them even pay more. Wat if he doesn’t get da money wat is gng 2 do becoz k8 wil want her money back frm Airty…1 or 2 spelling mistakes and more characters r needed.

siphiwe: I have picked up a two spelling error’s

PJ: Lots of spelling errors

Everton: The story is good but here nd then there are spelling mistakes

Nthabi: besides da spelling errors I found it beta dan da last chapter

Mathapelo: In the very first two lines of the 2nd page u have a mistake. It says _and it had a been a ___ now i think there has been a gramatical error somewhere there. Secondly i think there are alot of punctuation errors. U hav very long sentences nd put fullstops in places of commas.

Lehlohonolo: Now this chapter makes the reader wonder even more. It’s very good but there’s 1 or 2 typing errors.

xabiso: they have gramatical error they said thet instead of they

Angel: Ur sentences hv 2much errors as i ws reading

Shani: Chapter3 makes u wanna read more.thy cnt xpect Airtime 2 pay 4 hs prize.bt thr wr sum typing errors,bt keep up d gd wrk.

Valentine: Dis chapter has sum errors bt other dan dat its a gud story

Cute prudie: Its nyc nd interestin bt da r a few speling mistakes.. Wtch owt 4 ova writin wordz. Bt nietha 2 dat. Its a story nd i hope da.s a buk nd a m0vie!

Thato: There are mistakes in this chapter, chapter 2.

Mpho: I absolutely love kontax..and chapter 7 is ma favourite..bt there is a mistake on the 1st line in chapter 7..bt adawise..keep up the gud work..

Katleho: obviously dis was a trap laid 4 artym.he wud b damnd 2 giv em dat amount of money. spelling mistakes bt daznt matter coz theme is der

Palesa: This story is good but it have lot of spelling mistakes so you have to edit it again.Anyway it is cool for real!

Kelly: Its a very nice stori bt thr a mistks and it needs 2b editd ryt

Tshepi: u hv 2 use hyphen wn it needed bt it was mmm bt.. in ada words u hv 2 improve ur words or b a writer an athour keep up da gud work,tshepi sharp

Lerato: Guys wt due respect check da script b4 sndn it

In a 2007 article titled Has txt kild the ritn wd?, Geoff Strong (writing in The Age) makes a delicious contribution to the txtng and language debate.

Firstly, he describes the result of txtng as “an emotionally stunted, encrypted creole that has left language purists reaching for their smelling salts and linguistic adventurers salivating.”

Secondly, Strong quotes RMIT University’s Julie Faulkner, who studies trends in popular culture, to highlight the long history of coded communication in the English language: “The implication is that the language of Shakespeare has witnessed a decline but isn’t Shakespeare as heavily coded a form of communication as txt itself?”

Lastly, he says: “Linguistic puritans might moan and long for a golden era of “proper” usage but they forget Shakespeare invented every tenth word he wrote and we still use many of them daily from aggravate to homicide and submerge. Others he invented such as “tortive” meaning twisted and “vastidity” meaning immensity have dropped out of use. Unhandled exception and p(^-^)q could well suffer the same fate.”

Language is constantly changing, increasingly influenced by the medium of communication. Txtng is undeniably a part of that change, whether for the better or not.