The practice of writing abbreviated forms of words or phrases in Italian is nothing new. From medieval manuscripts to private letters in the past and the present, the need to save space and time has led different writers to adopt forms of speed-writing and short-hand.

This being the case, what produces the sense of novelty we all feel when looking at text messages or other forms of written speech? Maybe it is the previously unseen union of words and images? Or the informal colloquiality that would have been unthinkable in the past? Or the mass diffusion of a phenomenon that presents both creative and stereotypical features? And are these uses dangerous for the basic structures of Italian or not, a language universally appreciated for the frequence of its vowels and “sweet” sound?

These were the main points of discussion at the conference ‘Se telefonando…ti scrivo’, organized by the Accademia della Crusca, where Italian and foreign linguists, massmediologists, mobile telephone operators and journalists met to exchange their ideas, comparing the use of Italian with other European languages.

The telephone, invented by the florentine Meucci, has been trasformed in recent years into a fundamental device not only for communication between individuals, but also for information and play.

It is thus very important for the oldest linguistic academy of the world to reflect on this particularly relevant phenomenon that interests mainly the younger generations and is intimately related to the more general issue of the relationship between new technologies and the uses of contemporary Italian.

The meeting is organized by the Accademia della Crusca in collaboration with the association "Amici dell'Accademia della Crusca" and with the CLIEO - Center for theoretical and historical Linguistics: Italian, European and Oriental languages of the University of Florence.