[Bug 15723] Need attribute to abbr to specify semantic type of abbreviation

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=15723

theimp@iinet.net.au changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
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                 CC|                            |theimp@iinet.net.au

--- Comment #2 from theimp@iinet.net.au 2012-07-05 02:47:47 UTC ---
The problem is, this information is the opinion of the author, whereas
pronunciation should be in the opinion of the user. Also, this model is
insufficient to handle a large number of use cases.

Consider:

<abbr type="???" title="Joint Photographics Expert Group">JPEG</abbr>

What type value do I use so that this is pronounced the way that by far most
people pronounce it: JAY-peg?

Or by far the next most common pronunciation, JAY-PEE-GEE (omitting the EE even
when it's written in, if they are familiar with the meaning, as most people who
pronounce it in this way do so due to exposure to the file extension ".jpg")?

This does not even begin to address syllable-based abbreviations, which are
very much more common in other languages (German, Japanese).

Fundamentally, (abstract) pronunciation is "presentation", not content. @abbr
is intended to encompass the semantic fact that a term is abbreviated, not
specify how to render it in speech specifically.

Possible solutions at this time and in the near future include stylesheets and
metadata. In any case, this is probably something that is beyond the scope of
HTML.

As for separating style from markup, this is a case where the usual logic works
differently. Logically, you don't style content as such; you style the
Structure (ie. <span> or whatever). In this case, you'd actually be styling the
Content itself, and that's not a problem.

<span style="color:blue;">HTML</span>
<!-- What if I want the color to be Green? Presentation should be separated
from Structure. -->

<abbr title="Hypertext Markup Language" style="speak-as:spell-out;">HTML</abbr>
<!-- Why would I ever change the pronunciation? The "Presentation" is
intrinsically linked to the Content in this case. -->

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Received on Thursday, 5 July 2012 02:47:48 UTC