Re: OT-ish: txt - Could it replace Standard Written English?

H. S. Teoh wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 04, 2003 at 05:35:04PM -0500, John Cowan wrote:
>
>>Tristan scripsit:
>>
>>
>>>Hols=holidays. (I thought that was pretty well-known. I also never
>>>would've thought of spelling 'hall' as 'hol'.)
>>
>>"Hols" is completely unknown in the U.S., except to people who read English
>>books about schools.  For most U.S. people, "hols" and "halls" would indeed
>>be homonyms (though not for me).
>
>
> Interesting. I grew up reading Enid Blyton, so "hols" is definitely
> "holidays" for me. :-) As for it being completely unknown on this
> continent... I'm not sure, it seems to be quite a natural contraction of
> "holidays" to me.
Yes, but Americans are much more inclined to use the word "vacation"
instead of "holiday" for that concept. In the USA, IME, "holiday"
usually refers to religious holidays rather than any time away from work
or school that isn't just a weekend.

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