Very simple, Jim. Words are pronounceable.
So if acronyms are words (which they are), then they are
pronounceable.
NATO, UNICEF, UNESCO and UNSCOM are words.
IBM, HP RCA, SPLC and NAACP are not. Thus, the first four are
acronyms and the others are merely initials. (You could stretch a point and say
that the last five are pronounceable. The fact is, though, that only
someone who's trying to be funny would actually attempt to pronounce them as
though they were words.)
"Initialism" is, of course, just a
high-falutin' way of saying initials. It sounds more profound than it really is
-- something like a political statement.
Bill Potts, CMS
Roseville, CA
http://metric1.org [SI Navigator]
-----Original Message-----I must have missed the initial posts on this, but I have to ask: Who decided acronyms must be pronounceable?
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]On Behalf Of Jim Elwell
Sent: Friday, July 23, 2004 10:34
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:30509] Acronyms v. Initialisms [was: Old "Familiar" units]
OED simply says an acronym is "A word formed from the initial letters of other words."
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage says, "A number of commentators ... belive that acronyms can be differentiated from other abbreviations in being pronounceable as words. Dictionaries, however, do not make this distinction because writers in general do not ... [followed by four examples of unpronounceable acronyms]."
My U.S. News & World Report Style Guide does say that acronyms must be pronounceable, and otherwise they are called initialisms, but that is certainly not definitive outside of that magazine, and few people have ever heard the word "initialism."
Jim
At 23 07 04, 11:07 AM, Chris KEENAN wrote:
On Friday 23 Jul 2004 03:10, Bill Hooper wrote:
> On 2004 Jul 22 , at 9:37 PM, Bill Potts wrote:
> > P.S.I., or PSI, is not an acronym. To be an acronym, it must be
> > pronounceable; otherwise it's just an abbreviation.
>
> Potts is right. I stand corrected.
I could be pedantic, and say it's not actually an abbreviation; it's a set of
initials.
But I won't ;-)
Chris KEENAN
UK Metric Assoc.: metric.org.ukJim Elwell, CAMS
Electrical Engineer
Industrial manufacturing manager
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
www.qsicorp.com
