Re: Abbreviations and Acronyms

>At 10:46 AM 10/14/99 , Kjetil Kjernsmo wrote:
>Clearly, it states that what you just said isn't the distinction? The spec
>says "F.B.I." is an acronym, but it isn't a pronounceable form?
>(Don't say it is the periods, it is often written as FBI)

A perfect case of truth been in the eye of the beholder :)

I'm not sure why the spec considers FBI to be an acronym (then again, I'm 
not a native English speaker), but the example with "SQL" makes perfect 
sense.  Myself, I always spell it out "S.Q.L," while some people I know 
pronounce it as "Sequel," yet other people say "Squirrel."

At 01:07 PM 10/14/99 , Ryan Fischer wrote:
>For ACRONYM, there is no need for a TITLE attribute.  For voice UAs, they
>will (should, IMO) know to pronounce ACRONYM's content because it is
>pronounceable.

Well, given the above, which way should a UA pronounce "SQL" if the author 
marks it up as an acronym?  It seems to me that acronyms are a subset of 
abbreviations: every acronym is an abbreviation, but not every abbreviation 
is an acronym.  This means that ACRONYM should also have a title attribute 
which expends it into its canonical form.  But on top of that, there should 
be another attribute with pronunciation hints.

Dmitry Beransky

Received on Thursday, 14 October 1999 14:18:12 UTC