Acronym speak is here to stay

Acronyms are a new language, not only for teens but for a great cross section of business people and a variety of industries. Most likely without realizing it people are using acronyms everyday in emails, SMS and all forms of communication. When was the last time you typed on an email btw - by the way? What about tmi, nfi, lol and fyi? Believe it or not, acronyms are becoming more and more common place as part of our language as the technological age keeps evolving.

Acronyms have always been used in occupational health and safety and also as a simplified method of communication in industries such as printing and mining. And what about all of the acronyms used in the armed forces such as AAR - After Action Review and AWOL - we all know that one!

But for teenagers it is more than a simplified means of abbreviating long and complicated terms or phrases. It is their special way of communicating. It's been a thing throughout the generations that we have our own language, something our parents or outsiders struggle understand. In the 50's and 60's it was pig-latin; where the first consonant of the word was taken off and added to the end of the word followed by ay. One of the other popular languages is gibberish, which is a non-sensical style of speak using such additions as -itherg-, -elag-, -itug-,-uthaga-, -uvug-, -idig-, -atheg. {For more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibberish_(language_game)}.

Languages such as those above can become quite difficult and complicated, but such is not the case with acronyms. Like everything else in the technology revolution, simplicity is the key - the other key is having a translator for your acronyms as it is way to difficult to learn all acronyms and often one acronym can have a number of meanings. yktyk - a recently released iPhone app solves this problem for people from all walks of life, from teens to business people just sending out messages.

yktyk (pronounced Yacketyak) has a database of over 1800 acronyms. Users simply go to the NEW MESSAGE screen and type in the first two letters of the first word of the phrase they are looking for, and up will come a choice of acronyms. You can choose to send just the acronym (good if the receiver has yktyk because they can then easily translate it), the meaning or both. Users can also share their message on Facebook and Twitter through yktyk.

It's a neat little app represented by a wild pink yak called, naturally, yktyk. This cute mascot adds a lot of life to the app and the developers will be further working with this character to bring you more applications and other fun ideas. You can learn more about yktyk at http://www.yktyk.com or simply get the app at http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/yktyk/id465280868?mt=8&ls=1