they just speak a different language

Fun Reuters piece (here, via Yahoo) on British kids substituting words based on what typically comes up when typing a text message using predictive text. (ie: "book" means cool because that is the standard word that will come up if you key in 2-6-6-5) Linguists are calling it "textonyms" - I say a great way to encrypt what you are saying from the 'rents! It's all about the context anyway.

Last paragraph of the story makes a very intriguing point - there are some possibly unintended values associated with the some of the switches:

Some of the most popular textonyms show intriguing links between the originally intended word and the one the predictive text throws up -- "eat" becomes "fat" and "kiss" becomes "lips," "home" is "good" and the vodka brand "Smirnoff" becomes "poison."

While secret languages like Gibberish (a big hit at overnight camp circa 1984) are nothing new, this actually reminds me of the British, or maybe Cockney?, way of substituting a word that rhymes with the word you really mean. Since I am absolutely terrible at that kind of quick switcharoo, I can't even think of a good example. One of the characters in Ocean's Eleven was famous for this language trick.

All I can say is more power to the teens. They will be absolutely fantastic at crossword puzzles and ace their LSATs.