The main motivation for the development of various strategies to represent written text in a concise way among mobile phone users all over the world is the need to communicate full messages in abridged forms in order to save time, energy and money. These alternative forms of words and phrases are especially employed by the youth. In this paper, the innovative adaptation of global SMS texting trends in the form of intricate abbreviation and contraction of words and phrases in Kiswahili in Tanzania is examined and compared with trends in SMS texting language in English in Ghana. Using empirical data made up of SMS texts from students of the University of Dar es Salaam and University of Ghana, localized as well as convergent and divergent trends and the socio-pragmatic motivations of the phenomena are analysed and discussed.

This study investigates the expression of epistemic modality in a corpus of Ghanaian Pidgin English (GhaPE). The epistemic expressions are manually identified and thereafter distinguished from each other in terms of grammatical status and their indication of different epistemic and evidential notions. 7 different elements are found, ranging from 1 pre-verbal marker, 1 adverb, 2 particles and 3 complement-taking predicates. The results indicate, in line with existing research, that to differentiate between usage properties of individual modal expressions it may be necessary to subdivide them in terms of not only epistemic but also evidential meanings. Moreover, a functional parallel between the GhaPE particle abi, the Swedish modal particle väl and the Spanish adverbs a lo mejor and igual is demonstrated, with respect to their simultaneous function of expressing epistemic probability and asking the hearer for confirmation. Finally, the results suggest, contrary to previous accounts, that the pre-verbal marker fit may indicate epistemic possibility without the addition of a preceding irrealis marker go. It is proposed that future researchers should make use of bigger corpora in order to arrive at a more ample conception of both individual modal categories and their interrelations.

The main motivation for the development of various strategies to represent written text in a concise way among mobile phone users all over the world is the need to communicate full messages in abridged forms in order to save time, energy and money. These alternative forms of words and phrases are especially employed by the youth. In this paper, the innovative adaptation of global SMS texting trends in the form of intricate abbreviation and contraction of words and phrases in Kiswahili in Tanzania is examined and compared with trends in SMS texting language in English in Ghana. Using empirical data made up of SMS texts from students of the University of Dar es Salaam and University of Ghana, localized as well as convergent and divergent trends and the socio-pragmatic motivations of the phenomena are analysed and discussed.