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AAP
AAP
Lifestyle
Katelyn Catanzariti

Textspeak enhances language and is 'Gr8'

Ex-minister Julie Bishop, an expert at textspeak, once conducted a media interview using emojis. (Lukas Coch/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

This December, it will be 30 years since 22-year-old UK software programmer Neil Papworth sent his colleague the world's first-ever text message. It read simply: "Merry Christmas."

These days, nearly 20 billion messages are dispatched worldwide every 24 hours.

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