Contents // Preface vii // 1 A linguistic perspective 1 // 2 The medium of Netspeak 24 // 3 Finding an identity 62 // 4 The language of e-mail 94 // 5 The language of chatgroups 129 // 6 The language of virtual worlds 171 // 7 The language of the Web 195 // 8 The linguistic future of the Internet 224 // References 243 Index of authors 253 // Index of topics 256 // v