Language, Mobile Phones and Internet
A Study of SMS Texting, Email, IM and SNS Chats in Computer Mediated
Communication (CMC) in Kenya
This dissertation examines the use of language in Computer Mediated
Communi cation (CMC) genres in Kenya. It focuses on Short Messaging Service
(SMS), Email, Instant Messages (IM) and Social Net¬work Sites (SNS) genres.
It presents an overview of the use and characteristics of Kenyan languages in
CMC texts based on data from university students in Kenya and young urban
professionals. The findings reveal that factors like the need to use least effort,
rapidity, technical limitations and informality play a key role in influencing
the structure of messages.
The dissertation further determines that characteristics of the CMC texts in
Kenya involve variables such as pronunciation, spelling, abbreviation, acro-
nyms, exclusive use of consonants, contractions, capitalization, punctuations
marks, graphics, spelling errors, and codeswitching.
