The Txting Db8

OMG, text messaging! It's destroying the English language, corrupting young minds, turning us into illiterates. It's probably shrinking the ozone layer, too. Or is it? In his new book, Txting: The Gr8 Db8, David Crystal offers a different perspective, one which linguists have shared for years: Far from obliterating literacy, texting may actually improve it. So put that in your message header and send it!

This episode first aired September 27, 2008. Listen here:

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The French phrase au jus means with sauce, which is why it drives some diners to distraction when a menu lists beef with au jus sauce. A Wisconsin listener calls to say this phrase sets her teeth on edge. The hosts order up an answer fresh from the "Waiter, There's a Redundancy in My Soup!" Department.

In medical parlance, your big toe is your hallux. But what about the other four? Do they have anatomical names as well? A San Diego man who hurt the toe next to his big toe is tired of referring to his injured digit as "the toe next to my big toe," and wants the proper medical term. How does porcellus domi grab you? Prehensily?

Quiz Guy John Chaneski presents a letter-shaving game called "Curtailments." In this game, Grant and Martha leave everything on the floor.

A caller from Stevens Point, Wisconsin, was puzzled when she moved there and locals asked, "What's your name from home?" meaning, "What's your maiden name?" The community has a strong Polish heritage and she wonders if there's a connection. It's a good hunch. Martha explains why.

Say you have a particularly rambunctious child. Okay, a little hellion. Is it proper to describe the little devil as a holy terror? Or might it be more correct and more logical to call him an unholy terror? A Los Angeles caller thinks it's the latter.

If you've flown from Milwaukee's Mitchell International Airport recently, you may have noticed an odd but official-looking sign that reads: RECOMBOBULATION AREA. A caller from Madison was discombobulated to see it, then started wondering about the roots of such words. See if it does the same for you here.

The real problem with texting isn't how it affects language, but what it does to social interaction. Is there anything more annoying when you're trying to have a conversation than watching your companion's eyes flitting to his phone when he sees that a text message just arrived? The hosts discuss the need for a new text-messaging etiquette.

Let's say that you're getting diesel therapy at o-dark-thirty. What are you getting and when are you getting it? A New Jersey contestant from the National Puzzlers' League learns the meaning of these terms in this week's slang quiz.

What do you call a word made from a blend of two other words, like motel from motor and hotel? A listener says his term for them is Reese's Peanut Butter Cup words, after the old commercial: "You got chocolate in my peanut butter! You got peanut butter in my chocolate!" But he wonders if there's another, more established term. The hosts introduce him to the word portmanteau.

When it comes to text messaging and its effect on English, the linguistic apocalypse is not nigh. Quite the contrary, in fact. Grant talks about some eye-opening research about text-messaging and teen literacy.

That's all for this week. L8r!