GENETICALLY we are born with a uniform language faculty but owing to social networking we nurture diverse language habits. This variation is observed over lexical, typographical and syntactic features.

With the advent of electronic gadgets, especially mobile phones, we have been pushed into a new flourishing field of human language communication, i.e. text-based. The text-based communication has altered the ways young people express themselves.

English has been coming into contact with numerous languages, dialects and varieties spoken by cyber communities across the globe.

In Pakistan, the Urdu and English code mixing phenomenon is commonly observed in text messages. Eventually, this triggers pedagogical concerns such as: how to present local cultures and languages while teaching English.

This ever-increasing proliferation of text-based communication has caused deterioration in language, which is the biggest concern for educators even though this issue is still debatable as some people refute the idea that the language of SMS has negatively affected our language, an issue that requires more investigation.

Unlike any other study of language change in linguistic history, the SMS linguistic study allows us to follow like never before the rate of language change in word formation, syntax and morphology and typography.

PROF (DR) RAFIQUE A. MEMON Institute of English University of Sindh, Jamshoro