English Words

9.7
ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
The shortening of words is taken to its logical conclusion in ACRONYMS. Words forming a complex
expression referring to the name of an organisation, company or a scientific concept may be reduced to their
initial letters alone which together represent sounds that form perfectly acceptable syllables and hence can
be pronounced as words. Words formed in this way are called ACRONYMS.
[9.14]
SALT
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
HALO
High Altitude Large Optics
NASA
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
RAM
Random access memory
As mentioned in section (
7.6
), this type of word-formation is an interesting example of a role reversal:
spoken word-forms are derived from words in the written language.
Usually, to begin with acronyms are spelt with capital letters as shown in [9.14], when people are
conscious of their special status. But with the passage of time, some commonly used acronyms end up being
transmogrified into simple root morphemes and are treated as common or garden words. Then they tend to
be spelt like any other word. This is happening to NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) which is now
sometimes spelt as Nato. Farther down the road is AIDS, which is very frequently written as Aids. Indeed,
many people do not know that Aids is an abbreviation of ‘acquired immune deficiency syndrome’.
In the twentieth century an increasingly large number of acronyms have become established,
institutionalised words. Few people have the slightest inkling that these are acronyms:
[9.15]
Anzac
Australian and New Zealand Army Corps
basic
Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code
126 WORDS GALORE

---

derv
diesel-engined road vehicle
midi
musical instrument digital interface
radar
radio detection and ranging
sonar
sound navigation and ranging
scuba
self-contained underwater breathing apparatus
naffy
The Navy, Army, and Airforce Institutes (naafi/ NAAFI)
Sometimes shortened forms are created using the initial letters of words which do not give permissible
syllables. They fail the phonological test. In such cases, each letter is sounded separately. We call such forms
ABBREVIATIONS rather than acronyms. The term acronym is restricted to forms that are pronounceable
as normal words.
In the last few decades there has been an explosion in the growth of abbreviations. A short list is given in
[9.16]. I am sure you can think of dozens more.
[9.16]
EC
European Community
UN
United Nations
IBM
International Business Machines
ITN
Independent Television News
BMA
British Medical Association
BR
British Rail
LAGB
Linguistics Association of Great Britain
CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
LA
Los Angeles
TLC
tender loving care