Electronic Mode Terms

Deletion

Missing letters out (e.g. ‘nite’)

Clipping

Missing off start or end of letters (e.g. info, goin, probs

Letter homophones

Using a single letter that sounds like the word (e.g. ‘u’)

Number homophones

Using a number that sounds lke the word, or part of the word (e.g. l8r)

Phonetic spelling

Spelling the word the way it sounds (e.g. ‘wot’)

Acronym

Using initial letters only - creates a new word (e.g. ‘lol’)

Initialism

Using initial letters only - read as letters, not a word (e.g. ngl)

Blend

Combining two or more words or part words (e.g. brunch, hangry)

Deviant spelling

Using a non-standard spelling for effect, often not reducing the number of letters used (e.g. kool, thanx)

Paralinguistic feature

Non-verbal features in communication (e.g. punctuation, emojies, interjections like ‘haha’ or ‘aww’)

Elongated sound

Repeated letters/lengthening for emphasis (e.g. yessss, yayyyy, noooo)