Curmudgeons avow that the text message, with its relentless abbreviations and its disdain for punctuation, is vandalizing our language. But that loose style has been around for centuries: “modern text-speak bears a striking resemblance to the system of abbreviations and shorthand present in medieval manuscripts.” Also appearing in medieval manuscripts: illustrations of flatulent monks, killer rabbits, an ogre with an anal fixation, and a nun plucking penises from a phallus tree.
![Epistolarium (Amiens) [Épistolier à l'usage d'Amiens ; les Ms-661 et 662 sont appariés]. | Gallica Eslava, Tableaux Vivants, Art Antique](https://i.pinimg.com/236x/c7/73/f4/c773f4d5db472feab370369c5a48b83d.jpg)
