Americans are lazy speakers.

Americans seem to be lazy speakers.  We mush together multiple-syllable words because they take too long to say--just listen to radio and television commercials.  

We also shorten words so that young people often don't know there is a longer word. For example, even young people understand sending and received a fax, but likely have no idea it comes from facsimile (or even what that means).  They know that the prom crowd sometimes rents limos, but do they know that limousine is the original word?  I don't imagine they know what the e in e-mail means, although they can likely figure that one out.  

And there are lots of initials that have taken the place of words: SUV, ATV, GTO (one from my youth), BLT, and text messaging is creating more while I'm writing this.  After all, why say several words when a few syllables will do?