The Impact of

Technology on Modern
English Language

Dr. Jasim Mohammed Abbas

Al- Iraqia University - College of Arts
 Abstract

The present research aims at shedding light on the recent changes

which take place in the use of the English language that have been caused
by the impact of technology represented in the extensive exploit of the
internet. Hence, the ever changing world of technology has aided a constant
changing of the English language. Though there are some who argue that
the impact of technology has 'dumbed down' the language, there are others
who would claim that a language that does not evolve, is a dying language.
Technology, therefore, has a big role in changing the way people
communicate. To be more specific, the way people speak today is almost
the same way they spoke before the internet became what it is, albeit with
an enriched vocabulary. However, what is largely different is the way
people write today. That is the area where technology has had the biggest
impact. So, this research is devoted to highlight those changes occurred in
the written English and to show if these changes such as abbreviations,
vocabulary, spelling and punctuation, and grammar used by native and
foreign speakers, when communicating with each other through the various
means of media, become common in formal English language. For
example, email altered the structure of the letter as a communicative tool.
In this respect, new conventions and new abbreviations such as IMO (in my
opinion), FWIW (for what it's worth), IIRC (if I remember correctly) and
FYI (for your information).

Keywords: technology, vocabulary, communicate, changes

 The Impact of Technology on Modern English
Language

1. Introduction
Since the spread of the internet in the early 1990's, it became a very
significant component in the process of globalization and the widespread of
the English language. In fact, the internet also works to preserve the slowly
dying languages and dialects of the world in smaller societies. Today the
use of technology or the internet represents the newest, broadest and fastest
means of exchanging information all over the world. The English language
is one of the important means of exchanging various information among
different communities.
Therefore, social media or electronic communication technology has
revolutionized the process of composing English writing and speech.
Communication technology reflects a several number of electronic
communication forms. Such forms are normally associated with the
internet nowadays access through both computers and mobile phones. They
include e-mail, chat rooms, forums, intant messaging devices, social net-
working sites, gaming networks, and Web- logs (blogs). According to
Omar and Miah (2012), more than four in ten teens (45 %) have both a
computer and a cell phone. These devices enable their users to make phone
calls and send text messages. The effect of this process is obvious in the
daily conduct of young people and in their educational system.
The influence of technology and internet on modern English
language is clearly seen and touched in various ways and means. First, it
adds lots of "jargon vocabulary". Second, it provides meaning to existing
words and terms, such as the meaning of 'mouse' and 'keyboard' and so on.
Moreover, it produces words on unifying the utterance of people all over
the world as they meet each other via social media although they are from
remote places. In addition, technology can lead to special linguistic
"memes" faster and much further than ever before. For example, the word
'cloud' stands for nebulous group of people working on computers in a
universal use.
David Crystal (2015) argues that new technologies function to
facilitate new pursuits by developing new styles of the English language.
Hence, the influence of a certain technological medium is considered to be
very interesting. It is , for Crystal, a relatively temporary phenomenon that
it takes a very long time to be actually recognized as a prominent change.
Using some social media, like twitter, can change what people write by

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 Dr. Jasim Mohammed Abbas

affecting the ways they write. The English language is more or less exactly
the same as it was 20 years ago.
It is argued that technological change, to some extent, tends to
provoke linguistic and cultural change. That's why dictionaries are
permanently ready to add new and typically very trendy words. In this
respect, Dewey (2015) and Al-Kadi (2017) believe that old words that have
gotten new meanings are more interesting than new words. For instance,
the words "cloud", "tablet" and "catfish" are interesting examples of old
words with new meanings. She wonders if the internet is ruining proper
English. For her, the answer is that looking at the idea that dictionaries.
com's 20th birthday is more interesting than most.
1.1 Debate Views about the Effect of Technology on English
Due to the fact that the access to technology doesn't cause any
threatening to business and social interactions, it is now easily reached and
doesn't face any struggle. Almost all native speakers of English as well as
foreign learners use the internet and those who go online tend to have some
multiple times throughout the day. It is natural that all live languages
change over time, the internet has offered a new medium for these changes
to happen. As the internet has become a public device and a means of
communication available everywhere, English spelling, vocabularies,
pronunciation, and grammar have changed as well.
There have been conflicting views of debating researchers about the
changes taken place by the influence of the internet. Ali (2012) and Kern
(2006) consider the new changes of the English varieties caused by the
effect of the internet are a threat to the standard varieties of English. These
arguments are attributed to the fact that the English of the social media
used these days often does not conform to the standard varieties. In the late
of the eighteenth century, there was an attempt to set an order, identity and
stability for the English language style (McCrum et al. 1992). There were
also other researchers who demand to protect the language from change.
Considine (2014) argues that the English language differs from other
languages in that it isn't a language academy tasked with regulating some
official version. Additionally, Goring (2005) elaborates the English should
be fixed and all posterity must be considered as the founder, and the
English dictionary as the corner stone. There were also an adoption of
unifying grammar rules, so some researchers like Considine, 2014; Goring

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 The Impact of Technology on Modern English
Language

2005; Jackson, 2013) sought to find a single book of grammar as the

demand grew for a uniform grammar.
On the other hand, other researchers, such as David Crystal (2001,
2005, 2011) believe that technology has established a linguistic revolution.
To Crystal and other linguists like Herring (2011), these changes in English
form and usage have introduced a new form of linguistics called Internet
Linguistics. In some academic institutions Internet Linguistics is widely
discussed within the field of digital communication or the term computer-
mediated discourse analysis (CMDA). This type of discourse resembles
other discourse in which people interact and communicate. Here the
interaction takes place by exchanging messages over network linked
computers both verbally and written. Using such branch of discourse,
social and economic factors affect online or email style. Cho (2010) states
that email English is characterized be informality than other varieties of
written communication. Yates (1996), on the other hand, concludes that
"CMC is more akin to writing than speech in terms of range of
vocabulary". In their study, Kadir, Maros, and Hamid (2012) finds that the
linguistic features used in text messages tend to include shortenings,
acronyms, initialisms, homophones, accent stylization, non-conventional
spellings, and chippings.
1.2 The Impact of Technology on Shaping the Internet Language
The excessive use of technology or internet has wrought significant
changes in the daily use of the English language, most of these are neither
good or bad, merely different. So, people may ask about the ways
technology has changed the way they speak and write, both online and
offline. In this paper the focus will be on the changes that have taken place
in the written pieces of the internet users. Consequently, the changes in the
English writing of the language of the internet are found in the new
vocabularies, new spelling and punctuation, and grammar.
Despite of the fact that the use of the internet is an English- based
network that takes place easily, their users almost encounter problems
online because of cross-cultural differences. These problems could be
easily solved as they help the users of the internet understand each other.
The internet language is viewed as a set of different genres and registers
used in different situations.

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 Dr. Jasim Mohammed Abbas

The internet language has some features connected to speech and

writing, e.g., phonetic and phonological ones. In addition, it is seen a fully
formed language style, with its own vocabulary, abbreviations, spelling and
punctuation, grammar, slang and all other features that define a real
language style. As Crystal (2001) states, the internet users have the ability
to communicate faster and send short text messages to each other. All the
abbreviations, acronyms included in the internet language make up most of
Netspeak's vocabulary along with lists of coined words and phrases. In
particular words, the new vocabulary manipulated in the electronic
communication provide a fascinating insight into how quickly new words
can be appeared and then abandoned. It could be argued that each a few
years some new words have become outdated and others come to be picked
out. This usage is frequently associated with the needs of the internet users.
2. Objective of the Study
The present research aims to find out the new changes taken place in
the English language caused by the impact of the use of technology and the
internet in the daily electronic communication. This study concentrates on
the changes that have taken place in the English writing throughout the use
different types of social media devices, such as emails, chat groups, text
messaging and blogs.
3. Data Collection and Analysis
The data of the present study were collected via means of written
documents. Various electronic written pieces were collected which were
produced by the users of the internet. The researcher collected 50 written
pieces that were exchanged in emails, chat-groups, text messaging, and
blogs which belong to both native and foreign speakers of the English
language. In the analysis process of the collected data, the researcher aimed
to analyze them according to four criteria: a) the use of new vocabulary, b)
the use of abbreviation, c) spelling and punctuation, and d) grammar.
3.1 Some features of the internet language
1) New vocabulary and abbreviations
One of the most obvious and prominent features is the lexicon that belongs
exclusively to the internet. This lexicon does not contain the terminology
related to computer science and other relevant subjects. A great number of
new words other than technical terms like cable, disk, bit binary, have
emerged to reflect particular situations, operations, activities and so on. A

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 The Impact of Technology on Modern English
Language

popular way of creating internet terminology is to combine two separate

words to form a new word, e.g., mousepad, one-click, double-click.
In the process of analyzing the vocabulary used by the internet users,
it was found that, for example, the word at, often shown as @ comes to
have an increasingly prefixed function: atcomman, atsign, @-party, @-
address. This use has come to be influential in non-internet settings.
a. Internet acronyms and text messaging
SMS language or internet acronyms are the abbreviated language and
slang words commonly used with mobile phone text messaging, email and
instant messaging (online chat application, such as Messenger from
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter). In the analysis of text messaging, it was
found that these messages don't use formal English and have many
abbreviations. Texts are supposed to be instant, so the use of abbreviations
is considered easier and faster than full forms. Therefore, the various types
of abbreviations found in chat-groups, text messages, and blogs have been
one of the most distinguished features. Acronyms are so common that they
normally stand for new full forms of words, e.g., acronyms like BBS
(bulletin board system), BCC (blind carbon copy), CID ( consider it done),
CIO (check it out) and FAQ (frequently asked questions) are frequent
abbreviations found in the daily usage of the language of the internet. The
various kinds of abbreviations found in the writings of the internet users
have been one of its most remarked features. Acronyms are used frequently
that they regularly receive comments and replies.
Acronyms found the language of the internet are no longer a
combination of letters. They stand for full meaningful and pronounced as
words. Below are examples of various common acronyms.
Table (1) Common acronyms used in the internet language
Acronyms Meanings
2F4U Too fast for you
4YEO FYEO For your eyes only
2MORO Tomorrow
2NTE Tonight
AAMOF As a matter of fact
AFAIK As far as I know
AKA Also known as
ASL Age/Sex/Location

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 Dr. Jasim Mohammed Abbas

BFF Best friends for ever

BTW By the way
B/C Because
C-P Sleepy
C&P Copy and paste
CU See you
CUS See you soon
CXT See you tomorrow
DIY Do it yourself
EM? Excuse me?
EOD End of discussion
FAQ Frequently asked questions
F2F Face to face
FOAF Friend of a friend
HF Have fun
GR8 Great
IDK I don't know
IIRC If I recall
MOF Male or female
NA2 Name, Address, Zip
NC No comment
NP No problem
NUM Never mind
OIC Oh, I see
OTOH On the other hand
OTP On the phone
POU Point of view
RN Right now
RO Are you
RTFM Read the fine manual
SFLR Sorry for late reply
TBC To be continued
TIA Thanks in advance
TQ Thank you
TYT Take your time
WRT With regard to
YAM Yet another meeting

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 The Impact of Technology on Modern English
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b) Spelling and punctuation

Distinctive graphology is also a remarkable characteristic of Netspeak or
the internet language. For example, the status of capitalization is used
distinctively and varies greatly. Most of the instances found in the use of capitals
in the Netspeak are not case-sensitive which tend to follow a random use of
capital letters or no capitals at all. Sentences including letters beginning with
small letters in different position are usually acceptable. For example:
-Jack are you travelling to paris next month
In the above sentence, the message wholly in capitals is considered to be
"shouting" and always avoided. On the contrary, words with full capitals add
some extra emphasis to be recognized.
-She is VERY beautiful.
-This is a VERY important point.
Spelling is also distinctive in the electronic English language. New
spelling conventions have been used and emerged, such as the case of replacing
plural –s by –z in particular words like downloadz, serialz, gamez, filez.
Thesespelling errors are frequently used in the electronic writing. But they are
not an indication of lack education. Instead, they are purely typical examples of
email language.
c) Grammar
As it has been explained earlier the most general features of the internet
language distinctiveness are mainly found in graphology and lexicon- the levels
of language where it can easily produce innovation and deviation. In related
words, grammatical variation or distinction is less frequent. Few instances have
been counted in the usage of Netspeak. Particular cases which express verb
reduplication take place in some chat=groups but these are not frequent or
universal. For instance, a verb is used twice in immediate succession to refer to a
group of functions, such as the expression of pain, happiness, pleasure and so on.
-I deleted your message, Lose, lose [I'm stupid]
-How about that! Win, win [the program has performed successfully]

4. Conclusions
It is evident that the electronic communication has a remarkable influence
on the use of the modern English language. This tendency of using the internet
and the other various social media is expected to continue in the nearest and far
future introducing new forms of language, like new graphology and net-speak
which don't follow the grammatical and syntactic rules of a systematic English

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 Dr. Jasim Mohammed Abbas

writing. This study aimed to shed light on the updated and latest changes that
have taken place in the English language regarding the lexicon, abbreviations,
new spelling and punctuation and any other grammatical deviation. The analysis
of the data collected in this study showed that the users of the internet and the
other technological media were interested in using vocabulary variation
represented in the use of acronyms and abbreviations in their text messages,
emails, chat-groups, and blogs. In addition, spelling variation which is seen as
spelling errors was also found. It is expected that new vocabulary, new
acronyms, spelling errors and punctuation may appear and be used frequently in
the future. To be specific, these new forms work in updating the English
language. But they at the same time should not change the essence of language.

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