A new book claiming to be the first written entirely in the abbreviated slang used in mobile phone text messages has come out in France with an anti-smoking story aimed at teenagers.
"Pa Sage a Taba" - which, translated from French jargon, means "Not Wise to Smoke" - may "annoy the guardians of the French language" but it will also serve as an entertaining public service for youngsters, the author, Phil Marso, said.
"Twelve- to fifteen-year-olds are the biggest users of SMS (short message system, or mobile text messaging), sending an average of 57 per month," he said.
The book relies on the concise, if sometimes confusing, slang that has sprung up around the Internet and mobile phones as a way of getting words and sometimes entire phrases across in a minimum of key presses.
Which, once expanded and translated, would come across as "What if I spray you with cologne so you can share the smells you make me suffer?"
For older readers who may not be fully conversant with the necessary vernacular, the book has a lexicon in an appendix.
Marso said the work doesn't point to any personal cellular obsession he might have, and he stressed that, apart from his writing, he is also the organiser of an annual "Day Without Mobile Phones" in France.