Despite widespread panic among parents and English teachers, it turns out that instant messaging isn't actually causing teens' grammar to deteriorate. A study by the University of Toronto that monitored the speech and IM habits of 70 teenagers found that "instant messaging language does mirror patterns in speech, but that teens, surprisingly, are actually using a fusion of different levels of diction." Online the teens use both informal patterns that English teachers would disapprove of as well as "formal writing phrasing that, if used in speech, would likely be considered 'uncool.'" Toronto linguist Sali Tagliamonte says IMing teens "actually show an extremely lucid command of the language," and English pedants shouldn't worry.[Via Slashdot]
