Re: Letters with **three** cases?

>>>>> "Seán" == Seán O'Leathlóbhair <jwlawler@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

Seán> I had expected that many people would have answered this
Seán> one. It is "Short Message Service". This is a feature
Seán> available on most or all GSM mobile (cell) phones. It is
Seán> also commonly called "text".

"Text"? I've never seen such a usage. People say "SMS". This is
true in Germany as well as Hong Kong. "SMS" is also the term used by
the mobile phone providers in their phamplets, service contracts, etc.

(The German translation is "Kurznachricht", but people usually say
"SMS". Like "Fernsprecher" vs. "Telephon". A German teacher of mine
once wanted to make a sentence with "SMS". But she didn't know now to
pluralize this word. She asked the class. Most students, including
me, suggested "SMSen".)


Seán> It allows you to send short (usually <= 160 characters)
Seán> messages from one mobile phone to another. It is very
Seán> popular in Europe and Asia but it does not seem to be
Seán> popular in the USA.

Asia? Not sure. Since voice calls in Hong Kong are so cheap, people
simply don't bother to type such messages. Making a call and telling
the recipient the message verbally is often cheaper than sending an
SMS. And you don't waste time typing the message, and you get
immediate verbal acknowledgement from the recipient.

In Europe and Japan, it is quite popular, though. This is because an
SMS costs much less than making a 1-minute voice call. (Japan doesn't
use GSM. They have their home-brewed PHS system.)



--
Lee Sau Dan

E-mail: danlee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Home page: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~danlee
.

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