There are two issues to do with abbreviations that have come up on list today: 1. the distinction between the abbr element and the abbr attribute 2. the difference between abbreviations and acronyms
So, I thought I'd open the can of worms that Patrick mentioned earlier today.... ----------------------------------------- ISSUE 1. ELEMENT AND ATTRIBUTE ----------------------------------------- The abbr is confusing as it is both an HTML ELEMENT as well as an ATTRIBUTE. But more importantly, they have completely the opposite roles. With the ABBR HTML ELEMENT there is generally shortened visible text and the ABBR HTML ELEMENT is used to give more detailed assistive information. It is often used in conjunction with the title attribute. For example: <abbr title="Cascading Style Sheets">CSS</abbr> With the abbr ATTRIBUTE you have longer visible text and the abbr ATTRIBUTE is used to give shorter assistive information. It can only be used with td and th elements. For example: <th abbr="screws">Long pointy screws</th> ----------------------------------------- ISSUE 2. TYPES OF ABBREVIATION ----------------------------------------- Abbreviation comes from the Late Latin word abbreviare (to shorten) which is related to brevi (short). While some people disagree, all methods of shortening words or phrases are subsets of abbreviation. Some of these subsets include: - Initialisms - Contractions - Acronyms Abbreviations ----------------------------------------- Defined as: A shortened form of a word or phrase used for brevity in place of the whole, consisting of the first letter, or the first few letters, followed by a period (full stop). Examples: - assoc. is an abbreviation for association Example marked up: <abbr title="association">assoc</abbr> Initialisms -------------------------- Defined as: An abbreviation pronounced as the names of the individual letters, and is formed only from the initial letter of constituent words. This distinction is supported by many dictionary definitions, but not by all. The first recorded use of the word initialism in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is in 1899. Examples: - USA is an initialism for United States of America - IE is an initialism for Internet Explorer - CSS is an initialism for Cascading Style Sheets - IRS is an initialism for Internal Revenue Service As there is no HTML "initialism" element, the content would be marked up with the "abbr" element. Example marked up: <abbr title="Cascading Style Sheets">CSS</abbr> Contractions -------------------------- Contractions come in two forms. 1. Shortened form of a word which ends in the same letter as the word itself. 2. Short way to write two words as one by writing the two words together, leaving out one or more letters and replacing the missing letters by an apostrophe Examples: - Ave is a contraction of Avenue (type 1) - can't is a contraction of cannot (type 2) - won't is a contraction of will not (type 2) As there is no (X)HTML "contraction" element, the content would be marked up with the "abbr" element. However, it is probably very rare that anyone would want to specifically mark up a contracted word. Acronyms -------------------------- Acronyms are a subset of abbreviations, as they are still shortened words. However, they are more specific. An acronym is defined as a WORD formed from the initial letters of a multi-word name. The important point here is that an acronym must be a WORD - this means that the joined initial letters must be able to be pronounced. Examples: - OPAC is an acronym for Online Public Access Catalog - Qantas is an acronym for Queensland and Northern Territory Air Service - Modem is an acronym for Modulator-Demodulator Example marked up: <acronym title="Radio Detection And Ranging">radar</abbr> Agree, disagree? Ahhh, I can see worms coming! Russ ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************