telegraphese

Telegraphese is a form of written language that developed to fit the constraints of telegraphic transmission in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Messages in telegraphese are concise and information-dense, with nonessential words omitted to reduce costs and transmission time. Because telegraph companies charged by the word, senders and operators used compressed wording, abrupt sentence boundaries, and shorthand conventions.

Typical features include omission of articles (the, a, an), pronouns, and auxiliary verbs; reliance on context and word order to convey meaning; short, simple sentences; and the use of abbreviations or telegraphic shorthand. Punctuation is minimal, and many messages use the word Stop to mark sentence endings. Names, numbers, and dates are often written in abbreviated forms.

Historically, telegraphese arose with the expansion of telegraph networks in Europe and North America from the 1840s onward and remained common through the early 20th century, waning with advances in teleprinters and more economical messaging. The term also describes a broader style of compact, deadline-driven writing that influenced journalism, literature, and later digital messaging, where brevity is valued.

In cultural usage, telegraphese is often cited as an exemplar of economical prose. While not identical to modern shorthand or text-speak, it shares the ethos of conveying essential information with minimal function words, and it continues to be discussed in studies of linguistic economy and historical communication practices.