Koua, I have to disagree with the statement about our speech patterns having changed since texting came about.
There are way too many people of any age today who can barely speak, write or spell well enough to get by in our culture. It is pitiful and only going to get worse; especially since many don't care to do any better, or don't know their own shortcomings. English is a complicated language and as such it's sublties are often hard to grasp without copious amounts of study and desire to know what is correct. Consequently, we have today the "dumbing down" mentality and the subsequent results of things like texting where everything is boiled down to the lowest form of 'language'. I refuse to accept this as my own 'speech pattern', but others are free to choose, or settle for this mindless means of 'communication'. Unfortunately, it also leaves a lot to misinterpretation and confusion over what one actually means, in both texting and in written form, like on these forums, due to misuse of the spelling of various critical words and misuse of phrasing, grammar, etc. What I'm saying is we can either accept this as the way it is or choose a higher standard that maintains the known to be correct use of the English language. I choose the latter, or is that later?!:confused3::laughing: