“Deeply regret Brinkley Court hundred miles from London, as unable hit you with a brick.”–telegram to Bertie Wooster, in P.G. Wodehouse’s Right Ho, Jeeves.
I’ve said I think Twitter like “Newspeak” in 1984STOPI stand by that STOP However, I think Twitter is effect, not cause STOP If people now talked as in past, Twitter wouldn’t exist STOP Wouldn’t occur to anyone to make it STOP Language skills had already “eroded” before it STOP
Posted Wodehouse quote for two reasons STOP First I think truncation necessitated by telegram format makes for funny line but also reminder this not new phenomenon STOP Though no hard-and-fast limit on telegrams, they encouraged brevity at expense of grammar STOP