People who text and IM a lot tend to shorten words into a whole universe of text language. Certain very active forums use text language routinely and actively add vocabulary every day.

Tweeters also can use this language, but the protocol is to *not* use text in tweets unless you absolutely need to, within your 140 character limitations. Tweeters do prefer to use real language whenever possible, as a source of literary pride. It's a different culture in the Twitterverse, unless of course you are Tweeting from your phone, and in a hurry because the gate is loading for your first class flight to Hong Kong. :-)

Learning Text Speak

Oftentimes, when presented with a new texting conundrum, 'noobs' can figure out a word by context. Mostly text words are acronyms of common phrases, or simple shortenings of words. Then there are the inexplicable items like "pwned" that don't make much sense at first, unless you are in on the meme.

One can always ask what something means - no one will hold that against you - but you rack up more 'kung fu' by picking it up the lingo as you go.

A Basic List of Text Words

TTYL - Talk To You Later
L8R - later
TTFN - Ta Ta For Now
BFN - Bye For Now
KThxBai! - okay, thanks, bye. Lolspeak, and lightly dismissive in tone
BFF - Best Friend Forever
BFFL - Best Friend For Life
BF - Boyfriend
GF - Girlfriend
SO - Significant Other
DH, DW, DD, DS - Dear Husband, Wife, Daughter, Son
TMI - Too Much Information
werk - work, lolspeak
pp, ppl - people
prolly/probly - probably
LOL - Laugh Out Loud
ROTFL - Rolling On The Floor Laughing
kung fu - prowess; something you can do better than others or acknowledgement that someone else is stronger: "Your kung fu is mightier than mine"
NOM, or NOM NOM NOM - lolspeak for eating something yummy
O Hai! - Lolspeak greeting
Fail - something that really didn't go as planned
Epic Fail - about as screwed up as something can get. Reserved for the worst outcome possible in a system
(g) - grin
y - yes
n - no
IDK, or DK - I Don't Know, Don't Know
IDC - I Don't Care
WTF - What The Frak, Frell, F%ck (your pick of expletive)
FTW! - For The Win!
CU - See you, CU L8R often used
meh - not bad, not good, just kinda there
teh - the, in lolspeak
mebeh - lolspeak for maybe
kitteh - kitten/cat in lolspeak
can has - lolspeak, asking for something
I has - stating you have something, in lolspeak
WANT! - lolspeak, for wanting something that is presented
WOOT! - Want One Of Those
2 - to
4 - for
u - you
R - are
pls - please
<3 - that is an emoticon of a heart, used to express affection
[[[hugs]]]]- gives one the sensation of being wrapped in hugs. Can have many or no brackets around the hug
pwned - Owned. Defeated. Vanquished and possessed by a mightier foe. Pwned!
All Ur Base R Belong to Us - In essence, "We have conquered you." This goes back to one of the very first internet memes. The ALL UR BASE shtick can be enjoyably used in many creative iterations
msg - message
noob - noun for a newbie; someone new to the realm under discussion
flove - f%cking love, as in a HUGE LOVE for something, newly professed
kewl - cool
gr8- great
GM - good Morning
GN - Good Night
kma - kiss my @$$
OMG! - Oh My God
UR - you are
FF - Follow Friday (this one actually is specifically for Twitter)
TGIF - Thank God It's Friday

There are 'prolly' thousands of text words beyond this starter list here. Different social groups (age, gender, interests) tend to have their own text lexicon.

Lolspeak alone is a huge subset of txt. Emoticons can range from simple smilies to elaborate expressions (even landscapes!). Teen uses of text can be completely incomprehensible to adults. And so on.

Have fun learning to text, and feel free to list your favorite txt spk in the Blogs & Social Networking Forum!