So you thought texting-speak was new

[Jonathan Lighter]

Texting in 1860 vindicates von Daniken.

JL

On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 12:12 PM, David A. Daniel <dad at pokerwiz.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "David A. Daniel" <dad at POKERWIZ.COM>
> Subject:      So you thought texting-speak was new
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Text message from 1860.
>
> Essay to Miss Catharine Jay
>
> An S A now I mean 2 write
> 2 U sweet K T J,
> The girl without a ||,
> The belle of U T K.
>
> I 1 der if U got that 1
> I wrote 2 U B 4
> I sailed in the R K D A,
> And sent by L N Moore. . . .
>
> This S A, until U I C
> I pray U 2 X Q's
> And do not burn in F E G
> My young and wayward muse.
>
> Now fare U well, dear K T J,
> I trust that U R true--
> When this U C, then you can say,
> An S A I O U.
> (Charles Carroll Bombaugh, Gleanings From the Harvest-Fields of
> Literature.,
> 2nd ed. Baltimore: T. Newton Kurtz, 1860)
> DAD
>
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