Phonological Variation in Short Message Service (SMS) in Kenya

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the sociolinguistic aspect of Short Message Service (SMS) with a view to identifying phonological variations in Kenyan text messages. The widespread use of cell phones has led to the proliferation of messages sent using SMS. This in turn triggers an important question; how is phonological variation represented in SMS discourse? Phonological variations in this paper were determined in terms of four variables: homophonic grapheme, grapheme changes, phonological approximation and numeric characters replacing homophones. We found that SMS users in Kenya not only use phonological variations for communication purposes but also for identity purposes. Moreover, SMS texting identifies not only phonological variations among texters but also sociolinguistic variations.