Two thirds of global Internet users are non-English speakers. Despite this, most scholarly literature on the Internet and computer-mediated-communication (CMC) focuses exclusively on English. This is the first book devoted to analyzing Internet related CMC in languages other than English.<br><br>The volume collects 18 new articles on facets of language and Internet use, all of which revolve around several central topics: writing systems, the structure and features of local languages and how they affect internet use, code switching between multiple languages, gender issues, public policy<br>issues, and so on. The scope of languages discussed in the volume is unusually broad, including non-native English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Greek, Spanish, Japanese, Thai, and Portuguese. This book will be of great interest to anyone studying linguistics, applied linguistics, communication, <br>anthropology and information sciences.

The Internet is changing the way we communicate. As a ‘cross’ between letter-writing and conversation, email has altered traditional letter-writing conventions. Websites and chat rooms have made visual aspects of written communication of greater importance, arguably, than ever before. New communication codes continue to evolve with unprecedented speed.
This book explores playfulness and artfulness in digital writing and communication and anwers penetrating questions about this new medium. Under what conditions do old letter-writing norms continue to be important, even in email? Digital greetings are changing the way we celebrate special occasions and public holidays, but will they take the place of paper postcards and greeting cards? The author also looks at how new art forms, such as virtual theatre, ASCII art, and digital folk art on IRC, are flourishing, and how many people collect and display digital fonts on handsome Websites, or even design their own. Intended as a ‘time capsule’ documenting developments online in the mid- to late 1990s, when the Internet became a mass medium, this book treats the computer as an expressive instrument fostering new forms of creativity and popular culture.

Two thirds of global internet users are non-English speakers. Despite this, most scholarly literature on the internet and computer-mediated-communication (CMC) focuses exclusively on English. This is the first book devoted to analyzing internet related CMC in languages other than English. The volume collects 18 new articles on facets of language and internet use, all of which revolve around several central topics: writing systems, the structure and features of local languages and how they affect internet use, code switching between multiple languages, gender issues, public policy issues, and so on.