The Average Vocabulary of a Texter
Posted in Current Events and tagged with English, Phone, Technology, Vocabulary on January 3, 2009I know that I don’t have the largest vocabulary in the world, but I would like to think I have a reasonable grasp on English vocabulary. I’m sure this is helped by the hour or two I spend reading every day and the fact that I often read classics.
However, this apparently is not the norm of the American people, or at least the people that use the same model of phone I use. Only occasionally do I find a word that Blogger doesn’t know, and even less common do I find a word that Microsoft Word spell check doesn’t know (it especially happens when writing seminary papers…clearly Word has never been to seminary), but I find words that my phone doesn’t know (specifically the T9 predictive text function) on almost a daily basis.
Words that I’ve recently discovered were not in my phone’s vocabulary:
Bawl
Yeppers (I said I had an extensive vocabulary, haha)
Roomie (Blogger doesn’t recognize this nor “yeppers,” sigh)
Blog (I know!)
Another question about the T9 function: it’s supposed to give me the words in the order of most frequent use, right? How come when I go to type “jen” (a word I have to use pretty often) does it give me “ken” and “leo” before “jen?” Aren’t there like 40 bazillion Jens out there, many more than Kens or Leos? I mean really, I only “know” one Leo, and that’s only if you can count famous people.
What words have you been surprised is not in your phone/blogger/word processor?
Twitter: TurtleMom23
Says:
January 3rd, 2009 at 9:20 am
When you speak of Leo, you’re talking about the Turtle, right…surely not that DiCaprio fellow. LOL
My speller will flag me on words like ‘google’ if I don’t capitalize. So, right off the bat I have a spellchecker who is not only slapping my hand for not spelling correctly, but also for not capitalizing correctly either!
January 3rd, 2009 at 10:19 am
Hi Ronnica,
Thanks for the belated bday wish (you are too nice!)
As for my speller, it’s in french (french is my first language) so it always flags me on ALL the words I write in english (wich is all the time) I know.. I know I need to change that.
January 3rd, 2009 at 11:39 am
ooooohweeeee! look at yur purtty new place over here! I’ve been computerless since Dec. 22, so it’s been magnifulous (bet my phone wouldn’t recognize that one!) to be able to catch up again!
Can’t wait to hear what you learn this year :)! Happy 2009!
~JEN (ha!)
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Well, Ken is definitely a more popular name because of the whole Barbie phenomenon. Leo is important because I bet most people share their signs and text random people they don’t know.
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Oh, and I need someone to help me redesign my blog. Any takers? :)
January 3rd, 2009 at 2:21 pm
I’m always shocked my computer doesn’t recognize the word “Vincenzo” because even though I understand it might not have originally been entered in the dictionary, don’t you think it would eventually catch on? AI. Hmph.
January 3rd, 2009 at 3:41 pm
i have to say i use a blackberry now so i have to type everything myself with a full keyboard so i dont have T9, but i must say now that I don’t have it, I miss it much!!
January 3rd, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Ooh Pretty blog!
I don’t use T9. Any idea how to get there?
January 3rd, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Haha I am low tech, but blogger flags me all the time- could be because I make up most of the words I use. ;-)
January 4th, 2009 at 2:29 am
I love it when I spell my last name and spell check goes with “deadly”…
With this texting (spell check corrected ‘texting’ with ‘testing’) nation, I had a student ask why they couldn’t use: bc, b4, ne1 and some on… in a paper. I told them, because those are not words.
January 4th, 2009 at 3:22 am
It happens to me all the time with my iPhone, but of course right this minute I can’t recall any of the words.
January 4th, 2009 at 3:37 am
GASP! I am not recognized???!!! I feel so… overlooked.
Happy New Year! Hope your ballgame on the 8th goes better than ours.
(and your blog looks FABULOUS by the way!)
January 4th, 2009 at 3:46 am
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January 4th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
LOL!
January 5th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
I don’t even use predictive text anymore because it drives me INSANE-for that very reason!!!!
January 5th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
This is so true! I hate T9… Thank god for full keybords on a phone now!!!
January 5th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Hi Ronnica:
I just wanted to say thank you so very much for leaving such an encouraging comment for me. I really appreciate it.
BTW – I am a CT girl living in KS :)
January 6th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
That T9 thing GET ON MY NERVES!
January 6th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
lol!
i’m so thankful for my full keyboard on my blackberry… t9 was the death of me!
:)