The one thing about internet language, people join it, and what quickly evolves is an 'internet dialect,' as it were.
There is no such thing as an ugly accent, like there's no such thing as an ugly flower.
Every usage, no matter how bizarre or nonstandard, fascinates me, as it tells me something about the way language is evolving.
One notable feature is that English doesn't have much of a system for expressing relative social status.
Online, you show how brilliant you are by manipulating the language of the Internet.
Language itself changes slowly, but the Internet has speeded up the process of those changes so you notice them more quickly.
The Internet offers endangered languages a chance to have a public voice in a way that would not have been possible before.
Vocabulary is a matter of word-building as well as word-using.
A feature of English that makes it different compared with all other languages is its global spread.
At any one time language is a kaleidoscope of styles, genres and dialects.
Anyone interested in language ends up writing about the sociological issues around it.
You don't talk to a linguist without having what you say taken down and used in evidence against you at some point in time.
Spellings are made by people. Dictionaries - eventually - reflect popular choices.
Sending a message on a mobile phone is not the most natural of ways to communicate. The keypad isn't linguistically sensible.
Although many texters enjoy breaking linguistic rules, they also know they need to be understood.
