Post by PeterW on May 16, 2011 18:25:03 GMT -5
Dave mentioned text-speak on cell phones.
Many people think that text-speak, using short forms of words and abbreviations in cell-phone text messages, is a relatively new development in communication, but it isn’t.
It goes right back to the 19th century and was used by telegraph operators with Morse keys. When short-wave radio came along for ship-to-ship or ship-to-shore communication it was taken up by radio operators with Morse keys. With the spread of telephones it was used by newspaper copy-takers who would sit at a typewriter with headphones on and take down urgent news stories dictated by reporters out in the field.
I learned Morse during the war as a War Service Scout but my keying speeds were quite slow as I didn’t get a lot of chance to practice. Even so, I was well up to the speed of most RAF-trained aircrew radio operators who also got little practice at sending messages as they had to maintain radio silence most of the time.
All these operators used text-speak type short forms of words: t, for example, stood for the; tt stood for that; tn was either then or than depending on the context. Letters were often left out of many words - more, for example was mo. Numbers were always in words as numbers in Morse are long and easily mis-sent or mis-read. Punctuation was seldom used unless lack of it could change a meaning, in which case the operator used co for comma and stp for full stop. At the end of a message the operator sent "dit di-dit" (e i for end it).
A short story about that: Just after the war's end when I was still a student I was very friendly with an older student (sorry, mature student), an ex-Marconi trained radio operator from the Merchant Navy. Being Marconi trained he got his amateur radio operators licence just by asking for it, and had a short-wave transmitter and receiver in his flat. He often used to “talk” with ship’s operators across the world.
I was in his flat one evening when he was talking with an operator on an Australian ship somewhere in the Pacific, and asked if I’d like to take over for a bit while he made some coffee. He asked the other operator to slow down his Morse as I was very “green”. This he did, and sent text-book Morse at a speed I could read.
My replies were slower, and less smooth, partly because it was the first time I had used a Marconi professional “sidewinder” key, a bar pivoted to move sideways with a contact each side. It was off putting for me, but much faster than an up-and-down key when you got to know it.
When my friend came back with the coffees I signed off with the Aussie who came back: “for u go r u lh o rh” My friend burst out laughing and told me to send back rh. Back came the reply from the Aussie, in plain language, no short forms: “ Nice to talk with you, Pete. Next time try using your right hand on the key.” I sent back "Ha bdy ha luv u too ei"
My friend took over and said it was the first time I had used a sidewinder. The Aussie sent back in plain language, “No sweat mate tell Pete in that case he did bl@@dy well took me weeks to get used to one” I was feeling a bit down, but cheered up a lot hearing that. The coffee tasted good, too.
PeterW
Many people think that text-speak, using short forms of words and abbreviations in cell-phone text messages, is a relatively new development in communication, but it isn’t.
It goes right back to the 19th century and was used by telegraph operators with Morse keys. When short-wave radio came along for ship-to-ship or ship-to-shore communication it was taken up by radio operators with Morse keys. With the spread of telephones it was used by newspaper copy-takers who would sit at a typewriter with headphones on and take down urgent news stories dictated by reporters out in the field.
I learned Morse during the war as a War Service Scout but my keying speeds were quite slow as I didn’t get a lot of chance to practice. Even so, I was well up to the speed of most RAF-trained aircrew radio operators who also got little practice at sending messages as they had to maintain radio silence most of the time.
All these operators used text-speak type short forms of words: t, for example, stood for the; tt stood for that; tn was either then or than depending on the context. Letters were often left out of many words - more, for example was mo. Numbers were always in words as numbers in Morse are long and easily mis-sent or mis-read. Punctuation was seldom used unless lack of it could change a meaning, in which case the operator used co for comma and stp for full stop. At the end of a message the operator sent "dit di-dit" (e i for end it).
A short story about that: Just after the war's end when I was still a student I was very friendly with an older student (sorry, mature student), an ex-Marconi trained radio operator from the Merchant Navy. Being Marconi trained he got his amateur radio operators licence just by asking for it, and had a short-wave transmitter and receiver in his flat. He often used to “talk” with ship’s operators across the world.
I was in his flat one evening when he was talking with an operator on an Australian ship somewhere in the Pacific, and asked if I’d like to take over for a bit while he made some coffee. He asked the other operator to slow down his Morse as I was very “green”. This he did, and sent text-book Morse at a speed I could read.
My replies were slower, and less smooth, partly because it was the first time I had used a Marconi professional “sidewinder” key, a bar pivoted to move sideways with a contact each side. It was off putting for me, but much faster than an up-and-down key when you got to know it.
When my friend came back with the coffees I signed off with the Aussie who came back: “for u go r u lh o rh” My friend burst out laughing and told me to send back rh. Back came the reply from the Aussie, in plain language, no short forms: “ Nice to talk with you, Pete. Next time try using your right hand on the key.” I sent back "Ha bdy ha luv u too ei"
My friend took over and said it was the first time I had used a sidewinder. The Aussie sent back in plain language, “No sweat mate tell Pete in that case he did bl@@dy well took me weeks to get used to one” I was feeling a bit down, but cheered up a lot hearing that. The coffee tasted good, too.
PeterW
