I speak English and Polish. I understand a little Russian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, German… and text-speak. That’s right, I know some text-speak. It’s another language.

If you do any social networking at all (for example: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, Flickr, VK, Vine, Tagged) you may be like me and stare at some of the language that is used. I wrack my brain trying to figure out WTH they are saying!!!! LOL SOZ… I couldn’t resist :p

This is a tiny lesson in some of the basics. It may keep you from scratching your head, or it may make you feel ‘current’, or it may save you from making an embarrassing comment. (Under no circumstances admit to eating blue waffles on any social networking site. I found out the hard way. Blue waffles have nothing to do with Smurfy breakfasts!)

I have to say, although it may seem ridiculous to some, text-speak does make it easier on those of us who can not type well or suffer from arthritis. Less typing, to me, is better.

LESSON 1: THE BASICS (my version)

ABBREVIATIONS: They are simply that. Shortened versions of words or phrases.

ACTIONS: An indication that the writer is doing something (vs. saying something). Actions may be entered between either 2 asterisks **, or between brackets [], or between arrows <>.

EMOTICONS: A graphic expression.

 LESSON 2: ABBREVIATIONS

The following is a list of the most common abbreviations of text-speak that I have encountered. Learn them. Print it out and keep it near your computer. Although I have used capital letters, they are actually typed in lower case unless you are being very emotional and/or yelling.

AFK – Away From Keyboard
ALOL – Actually Laughing Out Loud
ASL – Age? Sex? Location?
ASLA – Age? Sex? Location? Availability?
BBL – Be Back Later
BF / GF – Boyfriend / Girlfriend
BRB – Be Right Back
BTW – By The Way
EFFIN – Fucking (Ef-ing)
FFS – For Fuck’s Sake
FML – Fuck My Life
GR8 – Great
GTG – Got To Go
HB – Hurry Back
IDK – I Don’t Know
IKR – I Know, Right?
IMO – In My Opinion
IRL – In Real Life
JK – Just Kidding
K – OK
L8R – Later
LMAO – Laugh My Ass Off
LOL – Laughing Out Loud
NM – Never Mind
NOOB/NUB – A newbie; inexperienced.
NP – No Problem
OF – Old Fart (that would be me!)
OFAP – Old Fart At Play
OFC – Of Course
OIC – Oh I See
OMG – Oh My God/Gosh!
PLZ – Please
PPL – People
RL – Real Life
ROFL – Roll On Floor Laughing
SOZ – Sorry
TBT (TBM, TBF, etc.) Throw Back Tuesday (Monday, Friday, etc.)
TTYL – Talk To You Later
TY – Thank You
TYVM – Thank You Very Much
UR – Your, You’re (You Are)
W8 – Wait
WB – Welcome Back
W/E – Whatever
WTF – What The Fuck?
WTH – What The Hell / Heck?
YW – You’re Welcome
YQW – You’re Quite Welcome

LESSON 3: ACTIONS

I will use arrows <>  for the actions listed, but keep in mind that brackets [] and asterisks ** are also commonly used to indicate an action.

<C&G> – The speaker is chuckling and grinning.
<G> – The speaker is grinning.
<EG> – The speaker is giving an Evil Grin.
<BEG> – The speaker is giving a Big Evil Grin.
<POKE> – The speaker is poking you; trying to get your attention.
<S> – The speaker is smiling.
<SMH> – The speaker is shaking their head (Shakes My Head).
<W> – The speaker is winking.

LESSON 4: EMOTICONS

Emoticons are symbolic expressions. When they are sideways, they are read from left to right, not the other way around. A smiley (smiling face) would be represented by 🙂 (a pair of eyes and a smiling mouth turned sideways). A smiley is not correctly represented by (:  Sometimes the nose is present; sometimes it is not. I have seen it both ways.

🙂 or 🙂     Smiling
:)) or :)))     Big smile
🙁 or 🙁     Sad 😉 or 😉     Winking
;( or ;-( or QQ     Crying
😀 or 😀     Laughing or big grin
😛     Sticking tongue out
:^P     Sticking tongue out with a nose
B^P     Sticking tongue out while wearing sunglasses
😮 or 😮     Alarmed or amazed
:*     A kiss
:s or :-s     Confused
😐 or 😐     Ambivalent
:\ or :-\     Pondering
0:) or 0:-)     An angel
@_@     Annoyed
:{     Having a hard time
^-^     Happy
*_*     Dazed
8) or 😎     Cool
😯 or 😯     Shocked
>;->     Winking devilishly
|^o       Snoring
>:-(       Annoyed or pouting
🙁 )         A big mouth
*<:-)     Wearing a Santa Claus Hat
:-[          A vampire
|-)         Hee hee!
%-)        Brain dead
:-||         Seriously angry
<3          A heart (look at it sideways; tilt your head to the right)
(_x_)     A Butt

RESOURCES:

My list is short compared to all of the text-speak out there. You may find these sites helpful if you come across text-speak that you are unfamiliar with but are just dying to know what it means!

netlingo.com (NetLingo List of Chat Acronyms & Text Shorthand)

Buzzle (Texting Symbols List)

PlanetPals (Chat Smileys Internet Dictionary)

Cool Smileys (List of Text Emoticons)

You should now be prepared to enter the social network!!! Be careful out there. LOL TTYL ^_^

(pictures borrowed from buzzfeed.com)