2

Causes and tendencies of English abbreviations

Contents
Introduction ……………………………………………………………………......3
I. Shortened words and minor types of lexical oppositions.
1.1. Shortening………………………………………………………….........5
1.2. Types of abbreviation…………………………………………………...11
1.3. Classifications of shortening……………………………………………12
II. Specific groups of shortening
2.1. Blending………………………………………………………………...15
2.2. Acronym………………………………………………………………...16
2.3. Ideogram………………………………………………………………...19
2.4 Contraction……………………………………………………….............20
III. Practical part
3.1. “Cyber-English” for informal text messages and chat room chatting….21
3.2. The types of abbreviations on the newspaper “The USA today”….........25
3.3. The modern type of shortening to abbreviate the telephone numbers….28
Conclusion …………….………………………………………………………….26
Bibliography ………………...……………………………………………………27
Appendix
.
 2

Introduction
The theme of our research work is “Shortening of English language: causes
and tendencies”
Shortening in communication (especially written) the process or result of
representing a word or group of words by a shorter form of the word or phrase. The
problems of shortened lexical units as specific language phenomena in modern
languages attracted attention of many researchers. These problems are considered
to numerous articles and separate researches of Russian and foreign authors.
Towards the most circumstantial works of these questions we can outline such
scientists as D.I. Alekseeva, E.P. Voloshina, V.G. Pavlova, T. Pilze, M.M. Segal,
L.A. SHelyahovsky, R. Walse, O. Jespersen and others.
The topicality of our work is in the fact that shortening tendencies like cyber-
English and shortening in publications is a less researched modern style of
communication (especially written).
The aim of the research work is giving general characteristics to shortened
lexical units and defining the main ways, particularities, causes and tendencies.
To achieve our aim we have to solve the following objectives:
1. Define the functions of shortened lexical units;
2. Analyze the existing categorizations of the abbreviations;
3. Make the analytical review of the cyber-English and the types of
shortening in the newspaper, the new modern style of abbreviating the telephone
numbers.
The object of the work is the shortening of the English language.
The subject is causes and tendencies of English language.
The abbreviation is very wide theme to investigate; it has many types and
tendencies for today. At our term paper the scientific novelty of the investigation
is the shortening in cyber English, exactly text-messages, and shortening in the
newspaper.
The theoretical significance of the work is the usage of shortening in
English language reveals its causes and tendencies.
 2

The shortening is very useful in the society. We face to them on the

newspapers, advertisements, street posters, magazines, periodicals, television,
radio all of them are the mass media and of course at everyday communication.
The practical significance of the investigation is in the fact that this material
can be recommended for widening vocabulary and development of speech and
knowledge of English language.
Material under analyses:
Researching methodical literature, scientific articles, recent works of
methodology scientist; using such methods as analyzing manuals, textbooks and
books, educational magazines, training appliances, newspapers and internet.
The structure of our researched work consists of introduction, theoretical
part, practical part, working out the types of abbreviations on the newspaper “The
USA today”, the conclusion, appendix and bibliography.
 2

I. Shortened words and minor types of lexical oppositions.

1.1. Shortening.
Word-building processes involve not only qualitative but also quantitative
changes. Thus, derivation and compounding represent addition, as affixes and free
stems, respectively, are added to the underlying form. Shortening, on the other
hand, may be represented as significant subtraction, in which part of the original
word is taken away.
The spoken and the written forms of the English language have each their own
patterns of shortening, but as there is a constant exchange between both spheres, it
is sometimes difficult to tell where a given shortening really originated.
Shortening has many types, causes and tendencies. Many scholars have
researched them. We give general characteristics of shortening; definitions of
scholars and then comparing all of them we give the analytical review to cyber-
English, chat language, text messaging and publishing. They are modern tendency
among English speakers.
Shortening of spoken words.
As a type of word-building, shortening of spoken words, also called clipping
or curtailment, is recorded in the English words as far back as the 15th century. It
has grown more and more productive ever since. This growth becomes especially
marked in many European languages in the 20th century, and it is a matter a
common knowledge that this development is particularly intense in English. Newly
shortened words appear continuously; this is testified by numerous neologisms,
such as demo n ‘a demonstration’, dub v a cinema term meaning ‘to make another
recording of sound-track in a film in a different language’ (from double): frig or
fridge n from refrigerator; mike n from microphone; telly or TV n from television
set; vac n from vacuum cleaner, etc.
When dealing with words of long duration, one will also note that a high
percentage of English shortening is involved into the process of loan word
assimilation. Monosyllabism goes farther in English than in any other European
language, and that is why shortened words sound more like native ones than their
 3

long prototypes. Curtailment may therefore be regarded as caused, partly at least,

by analogical extension, i.e. modification of form on the basis of analogy with
existing and widely used patterns. Thus, the three homonyms resulting from
abbreviation of three different words, van ‘a large covered vehicle’, ‘a railway
carriage’, the short for caravan (by aphesis); van ‘the front of an army’, the short
of vanguard which in its turn is a clipping of the French word avant-guard; the
van – a lawn tennis term, the short for advantage, all sound quite like English
words. Cf. ban n and v, can, fan, man, ran, (Past Tense of run), tan, etc.
Shortening of spoken words or curtailment consists in the reduction of a word to
one of its parts as a result of which the new form acquires some linguistic value of
its own. [10]
Shortening may be regarded as a type of root creation because the resulting
new morphemes are capable of being used as free forms and combine with both
bound forms. They can take functional suffixes: “Ref’s Warning Works Magic”
(the title of a newspaper article about a football match where the referee called
both teams together and lectured them on rough play). Cf. Sing. – bike, bod, Pl. –
bikes, bods, Inf. – to vac, Part. I – vacking, Past Tense and Part. II – vacked. Most
of the shortened words by conversion produce verbs: to phone, to vac, to vet, etc.,
in which the semantic relationship with the prototype emains quite clear. They also
serve as basis for further word-formation by derivation or composition: fancy n
(from fantasy), fancy v, fancier n, fanciful adj, fancifully adv, fancifulness n, fancy-
ball n, fancy-dress n, fancy-work n, etc. It is interesting in this connection to
compare the morphemes tele- in television and telecast. They are homonymous but
not identical. Tele– in television is derived from Gr tele ‘far’, it is combining form
used to coin special terms denoting instruments and processes which produce or
record results at a distance, such as telecommunication, telemechanics, telepathy,
telephone, telescope and television itself. Tele- in telecast does not mean ‘far’, it is
a new development – the shortened variant of television rendering as a special new
notion. This becomes obvious from the following simple transformations:
television – vision at a distance, tele (broad) cast = a broadcast at a distance, tele
 4

(broad) cast – a television broadcast. In this new capacity tele- enters many
combinations: telefilm, teleprompter (an electronic device that slowly unrolls the
speaker’s text, in large print out of sight of the audience), televiewer ‘one who uses
a television set’, telestar (Anglo-American satellite system used as television relay
station). e.g. It was broadcast via Telestar. Note the capital letter and the absence
of the article.
The curtailed form may be regarded as a variant or a synonym differing from
the full form quantitatively, stylistically and sometimes emotionally neutral, e.g.
doc: doctor; exam: examination. Also in proper names: Becky: Rebecca, Frisco:
San Francisco, Japs: the Japanese. The missing part can at all times be supplied
by the listener, so that the connection between the prototype and the short form is
not lost.
It has been specified in the definition of the process that the clipped part is not
always a complete morpheme, so that the division is only occasionally correlated
with the division into immediate constituents. For instance, in phone for telephone
and photo for photograph the remaining parts are complete morphemes occurring
in other words. On the other hand in ec or eco (from economics) the morphological
structure of the prototype is regarded. All linguists agree that most often it is either
the first or the stressed part of the word that remains to represent the whole. An
interesting and convincing explanation for this is offered by M.M.Segal, who
quotes the results of several experimental investigations dealing with
informativeness of the parts of words. These experiments carried out by
psychologists have proved very definitely that the initial components of words are
imprinted in the mind and memory more readily than the final parts. The signaling
value of the first stressed syllable, especially when it is at the same time the root
syllable, is naturally much higher than that of the unstressed final syllables with
their reduced vowel sounds. /11,45/
As a rule, but not necessarily, clipping follows the syllabic principle of word
division, e.g. pep (sl.) ‘vigour’, ‘spirit’ from pepper, or plane from aeroplane. In
 5

other instances it may be quite an arbitrary part of the prototype, e.g. prep (school
sl.) ‘homework’ from preparation.
Unlike conversion, shortening produces new words in the same part of speech.
The bulk of curtailed words are constituted by nouns. Verbs are hardly ever
shortened in present-day English. Rev from revolve and tab from tabulate may be
considered exceptions. Such clipped verbs as do, occur are in fact converted
nouns. Consequently the verbs to perm, to phone, to taxi, to vac, to vet and many
others are not curtailed words diachronically but may be regarded as such by right
of structure, from the synchronic point of view. As to the verbs to pend, to mend,
and to tend and few others, they were actually coined as curtailed words but not at
the present stage of language development.
Shortened adjectives are very few and mostly reveal a combined effect of
shortening and suffixation, e.g. comfy: comfortable, dilly: delightful, imposs:
impossible, mizzy: miserable, which occur in schoolgirl slang. As an example of a
shotrtened interjection Shun!: attention, the word of command may be mentioned.
The two well-known Americanisms jeep and okay may be mentioned. Jeep
meaning ‘a small military motor vehicle’ comes from g.p. ['dзi:'pi:] (the initials of
general purpose). Okay, OK may be an illiterate misinterpretation of the initials in
all correct. [11]
Our Kazakh scientists also had researched abbreviation. At the methodical
magazine “English” for teachers, students, pupils and self-studied there was an
article for Shortening words. The author is A.Yskakov.
To shorten words when you write them is a print variation. In abbreviations,
we omit most of the letters and leave only enough – usually 2 or 3 letters for the
word to be recognizable. Since these shortened forms save space and effort, they
are nearly always made from expressions people use a lot.
Units for measuring are a well-known example ‘mph’ for ‘miles per hour’,
‘rpm’ for ‘revolutions per minute’, ‘sq.yd’ for ‘square yard’, and so on.
Time units also qualify, such as ‘sec’ for ‘second’, ‘min’ for ‘minute’, ‘hr’ for
‘hour’, ‘Nov’ for ‘November’ and so on. With units for measuring abbreviations
 3

are preferred if we also give a number. If we don’t, the full forms are better ‘a mile
per hour’, ’15 min’ but ‘wait a minute’, ‘24hr’ but ‘every hour on the hour’, ‘Nov
24’ but ‘last November’ and so forth.
Technical terms are another example ‘FM’ for ‘frequency modulation’, ‘EEC’
for ‘electroencephalograph’, ‘THC’ for ‘tetrshydrocannabinol’ and so on.
Technical terms people can hardly pronounce are very likely to be abbreviated, as
it ‘DDT’ for ‘dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane’
Names of titles can also get abbreviated. ‘Mr’ for ‘mister’ (formely ‘master’),
‘Ms’ for ‘miz’ (a term replacing both ‘miss’ and ‘missus’), ‘FBI’ for ‘Federal
Bureau of Investigation’, ‘IBM’ for ‘International Business Machines’, ‘UC’ for
‘University of California’ & so on.
The longer a term or name is, and the more often people have to use it; the
more likely it is to be abbreviated. Most abbreviations have a fixed form, and we
may need to look them up in order to find the exact spelling.
Most abbreviations end with a period, especially if they might otherwise be
confused with different words, such as ‘in’ for ‘inch’ as opposed to the preposition
‘in’ meaning ‘inside’. If an abbreviation comes at the end of a sentence, you still
put only one period. [4]
Present – day there are a great number of CD-books. One of them is
Encyclopedia “Britannica 2004”. Abbreviation is communications (especially
“written”) the process or result of representing a word or group of words by a
shorter form of the word or phrase. Abbreviations take many forms and can be
found in ancient Greek inscriptions, in medieval manuscripts. (e.g. “DN” for
“Dominus Noster”) and in the Qur’an. Cicero’s secretary, Marcus Tullius Tiro,
devised many abbreviations that have survived to modern times, such as the
character ampersand, &, for et (Latin ‘and’). Bur it was the so-called information
explosion on the 20th century that made abbreviation a common practice in
communication.
 2

The development of abbreviations is the proliferation of new products and

organizations that need to be named. Long descriptive terms can be shortened into
mnemonic units.
The need for speed is shorthand and the desire to avoid redundancy in codes
makes abbreviation an important element in stenography and cryptography as well.
There are several important forms of abbreviation. One form entails
representing a single word either by its first letter or first few letters (as ‘n’ for
‘noun’ or ‘Co’ for ‘company’) by its most important letters (as ‘Ltd’ for ‘Limited’)
or by its first and last letters (as ‘rd’ for ‘road’). These abbreviations are usually,
spoken as the whole word they represent (though Ltd. is sometimes spoken as “el-
tee-dee”) /1,132/
Such English scientist as Sylvia Chalker and Edmund Weiner are authors of a
numerous dictionaries of English grammar. Also they paid attention to
Abbreviation.
Shortened or contracted so that a part stands for the whole. Designating
language or a clause or sentence in which words inessential to the message are
omitted and the grammar sometimes deviates from standard rules.
This is a very general term, since individuals will vary in how severely they
abridge and exactly how they do it, when, for example, writing diaries or making
lecture notes for private use.
Abbreviated sentences of a more predictable kind are a frequent feature or
informal writing and conversation. Here the subject and part of the verb are often
omitted.
e.g. Having a wonderful time here
See you soon
All news then
More tea? (=Would you like…?
Do you want…?)
Abbreviated language overlaps with ellipsis, but has fewer “rules”.
Moreover, there is no need for the “missing words” to be “recoverable”.
 3

Labels and printed instructions, too, often use abbreviated language; and
here not only subjects but objects also are typically omitted, e.g. Contains natural
herb extracts. Avoid getting into the eyes.
Other forms of abbreviated language appear in titles, notices and newspaper
headlines, e.g. Whole new maize and blue. [3]

1.2. Types of abbreviation

Kazakh scientist A.Yskakov divided shortening as shown below:
a) a string of letters – often spoken as such-formed from the initial letters of the
(main) words of a phrase. Also called initialism.
BBC – British Broadcast Corporation
CBI – Confederation of British Industry
ERM – Exchange Rate Mechanism
OTT – over the top
PCW – personal computer word processor
UK – United Kingdom
Sometimes the letters represent syllables of a word
ID – identity or identification card
TB – tuberculosis
b) a word (sometimes called clipping) standing for the whole, retaining at least one
syllable of the original word.
Ad – advertisement; Demo – demonstration; Flu – influenza; Pub – public
house; Phone – telephone; Sitcom – situation comedy
There are a few special written conventions for plurals:
Pp – pages; Ff – following pages; Mss – manuscripts
Chemical formulae and other symbols can be regarded as a special type of
abbreviation: H2O – water; Fe – iron; & - and; + - plus; - – minus [4]
By Sylvia Chalker Initialism is a type of abbreviation. The use of the initial
letters of a name or expression as an abbreviation for it, each letter being
pronounced separately, as in BBC, RSVP, RSPCA, etc.
 3

Clipping is a type of abbreviation. The formation of a new word by

shortening an existing one; an example of this. E.g. (omni)bus, exam(ination),
(in)flu(enza), (tele)phone.
Syllabic abbreviation
A syllabic abbreviation is an abbreviation formed from (usually) initial
ANDJ6nn5us4RjIIAqgBLqQsCAAAAAwAAAODJ6nn5us4RjIIAqgBLqQtMAA
AAaAB0AHQAcAA6AC8A
LwBlAG4ALgB3AGkAawBpAHAAZQBkAGkAYQAuAG8AcgBnAC8AdwBp
AGsAaQAvAFMAeQBsAGwAYQBi AGwAZQAAAA== syllables of several
ANDJ6nn5us4RjIIAqgBLqQsCAAAAAwAAAODJ6nn5us4RjIIAqgBLqQtEAA
AAaAB0AHQAcAA6AC8A
LwBlAG4ALgB3AGkAawBpAHAAZQBkAGkAYQAuAG8AcgBnAC8AdwBp
AGsAaQAvAFcAbwByAGQAAAA= words, such as
ANDJ6nn5us4RjIIAqgBLqQsCAAAAAwAAAODJ6nn5us4RjIIAqgBLqQtMAA
AAaAB0AHQAcAA6AC8A
LwBlAG4ALgB3AGkAawBpAHAAZQBkAGkAYQAuAG8AcgBnAC8AdwBp
AGsAaQAvAEkAbgB0AGUAcgBw AG8AbAAAAA== Interpol = International
+ police.
Syllabic abbreviations are usually written using
ANDJ6nn5us4RjIIAqgBLqQsCAAAAAwAAAODJ6nn5us4RjIIAqgBLqQtQAA
AAaAB0AHQAcAA6AC8A
LwBlAG4ALgB3AGkAawBpAHAAZQBkAGkAYQAuAG8AcgBnAC8AdwBp
AGsAaQAvAEwAbwB3AGUAcgBf AGMAYQBzAGUAAAA= lower case,
sometimes starting with a
ANDJ6nn5us4RjIIAqgBLqQsCAAAAAwAAAODJ6nn5us4RjIIAqgBLqQtYAA
AAaAB0AHQAcAA6AC8A
LwBlAG4ALgB3AGkAawBpAHAAZQBkAGkAYQAuAG8AcgBnAC8AdwBp
AGsAaQAvAEMAYQBwAGkAdABh
AGwAXwBsAGUAdAB0AGUAcgAAAA== capital letter, and are always
pronounced as words rather than letter by letter.
 3

Syllabic abbreviations should be distinguished from

ANDJ6nn5us4RjIIAqgBLqQsCAAAAAwAAAODJ6nn5us4RjIIAqgBLqQtSAAA
AaAB0AHQAcAA6AC8A
LwBlAG4ALgB3AGkAawBpAHAAZQBkAGkAYQAuAG8AcgBnAC8AdwBp
AGsAaQAvAFAAbwByAHQAbQBh AG4AdABlAGEAdQAAAA==
portmanteaus. /7,23/

1.3. Classifications of shortening

Russian scientist I.V.Arnold in his books classified shortening in such way.
The generally accepted one is that based on the position of the clipped part.
According to whether it is the final, initial or middle part of the word that is cut off
we distinguish final clipping (or apocope (from Greek apokopto ‘cut off’)), initial
clipping (or aphesis, i.e. apheresis(from Greek aphaeresis ‘a taking away’)) and
medial clipping (or syncope (from Greek syncope ‘a cutting up’)).
1. Final clipping in which the beginning of the prototype is retained, is
practically the rule, and forms the bulk of the class: e.g. ad, advert: advertisement,
coke: coca-cola, ed: editor, fab: fabulous, gym: gymnastics or gymnasium, lab:
laboratory, mac: mackintosh, ref: referee, veg: vegetables, and many others.
2. Initial-clipped words retaining the final part of the prototype are less
numerous but much more firmly established as separate lexical units with s
meaning very different from that of the prototype and stylistically neutral doublets,
e.g. cute adj, n (Am) : acute, fend v: defend, mend v: amend, story n: history, sport
n: disport, tend v: attend. Cases like cello: violoncello and phone: telephone where
the curtailed words are stylistically synonyms or even variants of their respective
prototypes are very rare. Neologisms are few: e.g. chute: parachute. It is in this
group that the process of assimilation of loan words takes place.
3. Final and initial clipping may be combined and result in curtailed words
with the middle part of the prototype retained. These are few and definitely
colloquial: e.g. flu: influenza, frig or fridge: refrigerator, tec: detective. It is worthy
of note that what is retained is the stressed syllable of the prototype. Curtailed
 3

words with the middle part of the word left out are equally few. They may be
further subdivided into two groups:
(a) Words with a final-clipped stem retaining the functional morpheme:
maths: mathematics, specs: spectacles;
(b) Contractions due to a gradual process of elision under the influence of
rhythm and context. Thus fancy: fantasy, ma’am: madam may be regarded as
accelerated forms. [10]
By Sylvia Chalker and Edmund Weiner the scientists of Oxford apocope is:
1. the omission of a sound at the end of a word. This has happened historically
in such words as lamb, damn, and happens currently in rapid or colloquial speech,
e.g. you an(d) me, fish an(d) chips, cup o(f) tea. The more modern term covering
this phenomenon is elision.
2. the omission of a syllable or syllabus at the end of a word. This has
happened historically wih the loss since Old English times, of mny verb inflections
(e.g. OE we lufodon, ME we loveden, we lovede, ModE we loved; OE sungen,
ModE sung. Today it happens as a type of clipping (e.g. auto(mobile), des(irable),
res(idence), long vac(ation), spag(hetti), blo(ognese) trad(itional). [14]

Aphaeresis is:
1. the omission of sound at the beginning of a word, regarded as a
morphological development. The now pronounced sounds at the beginning of gnat,
knight, psyche are examples.
2. the omission of a syllable at the beginning of a word, as routinely occurs in
a) contractions or b) clippings. E.g. a) I’ll = I will, you’ve = you have.
b) (omni)bus, (tele)phone
Also Sylvia Chalker and Edmund Weiner has such term as Aphesis in their
Dictionary of Grammar, which isn’t at the research work of Russian scientist
I.V.Arnold.
 2

The gradual loss of an unstressed vowel at the beginning of a word (e.g. of e-

from esquire, giving squire)
It is a special form of the phonetic process called aphaeresis, for which, from
its frequency in the history of the English language, a distinctive name is useful.
This term, which was introduced by J.A.H.Murray, editor of the New English
Dictionary, (the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary) in 1880, was used
in the diachronic study of English; in phonetics the phenomenon it covers would
be treated as an aspect of elision. [9]
 2

II. Specific groups of shortening

2.1. Blending.
By I.V.Arnold there is a specific group that has attracted special attention of
several authors and was even given several different names: blends, blending,
fusions or portmanteau words. The last term is due to Lewis Carroll, the author
of “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass”. One of the most
linguistically conscious writers, he made a special technique of using blends
coined by himself, such as chortle v = chuckle + short, mimsy adj = miserable +
flimsy, galumph v = gallop + triumph, slithy a< slimy+lithe.1 Humpty Dumpty
explaining these words to Alice says “You see it’s like a portmanteau — there are
two meanings packed up into one word.” Blends may be defined as formations that
combine two words and include the letters or sounds they have in common as a
connecting element. [see Appendix 4]
Blends, although not very numerous altogether, seem to be on the rise,
especially in terminology and also in trade advertisements.
Comparing with this we can write the definition which is shown in the Oxford
Dictionary of Grammar. Blending - a word, phrase or construction formed by the
merging of parts of two other linguistic elements.
a) morphology. Examples of lexical blends (also called blend words, word
blends) are:
bit = binary + digit
brunch = breakfast + lunch [see Appendix 3]
b) syntactic blends include such structures as I would have liked to have done
it. = I would have liked to do it + I would like to have done it.
e.g. Neither claim impressed us, nor seemed genuine. = Neither claim
impressed us or seemed genuine + The claims neither impressed us nor seemed
genuine.
I do not dare, refuse = (modal) I dare not refuse + (ordiary verb) I do not
dare to refuse. /12,19/
2.2. Acronym.
 3

Acronyms by I.V.Arnold
Because of the ever closer connection between the oral and the written forms
of the language it is sometimes difficult to differentiate clippings formed in oral
speech from graphical abbreviations. The latter often pass into oral speech and
become widely used in conversation.
During World War I and after it the custom became very popular not only in
English-speaking countries, but in other parts of the world as well, to call
countries, governmental, social, military, industrial and trade organisations and
officials not only by their full titles but by initial abbreviations derived from
writing. Later the trend became even more pronounced, e. g. the USSR, the U.N.,
the U.N.O., MP. The tendency today is to omit full stops between the letters: GPO
(General Post Office). Some abbreviations nevertheless appear in both forms: EPA
and E.P.A. (Environment Protection Agency). Such words formed from the initial
letter or letters of each of the successive parts of a phrasal term have two possible
types of orthoepic correlation between written and spoken forms.
1. If the abbreviated written form lends itself to be read as though it were an
ordinary English word and sounds like an English word, it will be read like one.
The words thus formed are called acronym. (from Gr acros- ‘end'+onym ‘name’).
This way of forming new words is becoming more and more popular in almost all
fields of human activity, and especially in political and technical vocabulary:
e.g. U.N.O., also UNO ['ju:nou] — United Nations Organisation;
NATO — the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation;
SALT—Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.
The last example shows that acronyms are often homonymous to ordinary
words; sometimes intentionally chosen so as to create certain associations. Thus,
for example, the National Organisation for Women is called NOW. Typical of
acronymic coinages in technical terminology are:
e.g. JATO or jato means jet-assisted take-off;
laser stands for light amplification by stimulated emission radiation;
maser — for micro-wave amplification and stimulated emission radiation;
 3

radar — for radio detection and ranging.

Acronyms became so popular that their number justified the publication of
special dictionaries, such as D.D. Spencer’s “Computer Acronym Handbook”
(1974).
2. The other subgroup consists of initial abbreviation with the alphabetical
reading retained, i.e. pronounced as a series of letters. They also retain correlation
with prototypes. The examples are well-known:
B.B.C. ['bi:'bi:’si:] — the British Broadcasting Corporation;
G.I. ['dзi: ‘ai] — for Government Issue,
P.M. stands for Prime Minister.
S.O.S. ['es'ou'es]—Save Our Souls;
T.V. or TV I'ti:'vi:] — television;
Y.C.L. ['wai’si:'el] — the Young Communist League.
A specific type of abbreviations having no parallel in Russian is represented
by Latin abbreviations which sometimes are not read as Latin words but
substituted by their English equivalents. A few of the most important cases are:
A.D. (Lat Anno Domini) – in the year of our Lord;
a.m. (Lat ante meridiem) — in the morning’; [see Appendix 2]
An interesting feature of present-day English is the use of initial abbreviations
for famous persons’ names and surnames. Thus, George Bernard Shaw is often
alluded to as G.B.S. ['dзi:'bi:'es], Herbert George Wells as H.G. The usage is clear
from the following example: “Oh, yes ... where was I?” “With H.G.’s Martians,” I
told him (Wyndham).
It must be emphasised that initial abbreviation, no less than other types of
shortening, retains the valency, i.e. the combining possibilities of the prototypes.
The difference in distribution is conditioned only by a change of meaning (lexical
or more rarely lexico-grammatical). Abbreviations receive the plural and
Possessive case inflections: G.I.’s, M.P.’s, P.O.W.’s (from prisoner of war),
also the verb paradigm: okays, okayed, okaying. E. g. A hotel’s no life for you...
Why don’t you come and P.G. with me? (A. Wilson) Here P.G. is an abbreviation
 3

for paying guest. Like all nouns they can be used attributively: BBC television, TV
program, UN vote. [6]
In the Internet there is such site as Wictionary. It’s the largest web dictionary. The
term Acronym is the type of lexical abbreviation.
There is a difference between acronyms and abbreviations. An acronym is
usually formed by taking the first initials of a phrase or compounded-word and
using those initials to form a word that stands for something. Thus NATO, which
we pronounce NATOH, is an acronym for North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and
LASER (which we pronounce "lazer"), is an acronym for Light Amplification by
Stimulated Emission of Radiation. FBI, then, is not really an acronym for the
Federal Bureau of Investigation; it is an abbreviation. AIDS is an acronym; HIV is
an abbreviation. URL is an abbreviation for Uniform Resource Locator, but many
people pronounce it as "Earl," making it a true acronym, and others insist on
pronouncing it as three separate letters, "U * R * L," thus making it an
abbreviation. The jury is still out. (e.g. I vote for Uncle Earl.)
It appears that there are no hard and fast rules for using periods in either
acronyms or abbreviations. More and more, newspapers and journals seem to drop
the periods: NAACP, NCAA, etc. Consistency, obviously, is important.
[Wictionary]
Comparing with the definition written below, we define Acronym by Sylvia
Chalker.
Morphology.
1. Strictly a word formed from
a) The initial letters of other words
b) A mixture of initials and syllables.
E.g. a) NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NIMBY – not in my back yard
TINY – there is no alternative
b) radar – radio detection and ranging
yuppie – young urban professional + diminutive ending
 2

Sometimes included in the general term abbreviation.

2. More loosely, an abbreviation pronounced as a string of letters, especially
letters that stand for the name of an organization or institution, e.g. BBC, USA.
This usage may be due to the fact that the specific form for this type of
abbreviation (initialism) is not widely known. [15]

2.3. Ideogram.
A written character symbolizing a word or phrase without indicating its
pronunciation. Ideograms are rather marginal to the English writing system, but
include numerals; hallmarks;
monetary symbols: US$- United States dollar, x - UK pound sterling;
musical notation: n - key- crotchet;- flat,- sharp;
proof-correction symbols:- correct, - insert full or decimal point;
meteorological symbols:- rain, - hail,  - lightning;
mathematical symbols: ; - infinity, - plus or minus;
symbols in set theory: h – is an element of: xhA;
logic symbols: ^- conjunction, - NOR;
graphic symbols: - connection of conductors, - terminal (circle or may be
fiiled)
graphical symbols used in electronics: - variability (noninherent);
Greek letters used as symbol for physical quantities: -alpha, - sigma;
miscellaneous symbols: @-at (in commerce),  -copyright;
accents, diacritical marks and special letters: - accent hacek, - - accent
accute; /2,98/
2.4 Contract.
Shorten (a word, syllable, etc) by omitting or combining some elements. E.g.
ain’t. A contracted form of are not, used also for am not, in the popular dialect of
London and elsewhere.
Contraction.
 2

1. The action of shortening a word, a syllable, etc. by omitting or combining

some elements (especially a vowel or vowels)
2. A shortened form of a word that can be attached to another word the two
words together. Also called abbreviated form, contracted form or short form.
Thus, both ‘m and I’m are described as contraction. Other contractions in
English are: ‘s, ‘re, ‘ve, ‘d, ‘ll, n’t (= is/has, are, have, had/would, will, not)
[see Appendix 1]
By Kazakh scholar A. Ysakov Contractions are made by putting an
apostrophe in place of the letters left out as in “can’t” for ‘can not’, “I’d” for ‘I
would’, “she’s” for ‘she is’. Some very common verbs often get tacked onto the
end of pronouns to make constructions: “is” & “has” become “–’s”, “are” becomes
“–’re”, “have” becomes “–’ve” , “would” and “had” become “–’d”, “will” becomes
“–’ll” & so on. Also, ‘not’ becomes “n’t” when you tack it onto something ‘did
not’ – “didn’t”, ‘should not’ – “shouldn’t” & so on. All these shortened versions
are particularly popular in everyday usage.
The apostrophe is also use for possessives words showing who or what
something belongs to – either before the final “-s” or if the word already ends in “-
s” then after the “-s”: “Sue’s roommate”, but “Carlos’ brother” and “all the guys’
cars”
Of course, there’s a danger of mixing up constructions with possessives. The
word “it’s” is short for “it is”, and is not the possessive “its”. Think of “his” which
nobody writes with an apostrophe. And you can remember that the possessive “its”
also has no apostrophe. [see Application 1]

III. Practical part

“Cyber-English” for informal text messages, chat room chatting
The longer a term or name is, and the more often people have to use it; the
more likely it is to be abbreviated.
 2

The objective of textese is to use the fewest number of characters needed to

convey a comprehensible message. Hence, punctuation, grammar, and
capitalization are largely ignored.
The dialect has a few hieroglyphs (codes comprehensible to initiates) and a
range of face symbols.
• According to a study, though it is faster to write it takes more time to
read than normal English.
• According to research done by Dr.Nanagh Kemp of University of
Tasmania, the evolution of ‘textese’ is inherently coupled to a strong grasp of
grammar and phonetics.
Grammar
Auxiliary verbs, articles, pronouns and prepositions are often left out. For
example:
u gonna come with us? = Are you going to come with us?
am in a meeting @ the mo = I am in a meeting at the moment
given Baz book = I’ve given Baz the book
should arrive Tues = I should arrive on Tuesday
The negative social implications of texting have been outlined; such as a
harmful change in student academia, colloquialisms that have been regarded as
normal language, (‘LOL’, ‘L8’, ‘CYA’) the disregard of face to face
communication and bullying that has taken place through text messaging.
An article in The New Yorker explores how text messaging has
“Americanized” some of the world’s languages with English. The use of diacritical
marks is dropped in languages such as French, as well as symbols in Ethiopian
language. In his book, “Txtng: the Gr8 Db8”, David Crystal says: “Texters in
alleleven languages use “lol,” “u,” “brb,” and “gr8,” all English-based shorthands.
American popular culture is also recognized in shorthand.
Text devices
Single letters can be used to replace words. Examples include:
 2

be becomes b you becomes u

see becomes c why becomes y
are becomes r
Equally, single digits can be used to replace words. Examples include:

ate becomes 8 to, too, or two becomes 2

for becomes 4
Individual syllables can be replaced with a single letter or digit. Examples:

ate becomes 8, so: be becomes b

activate becomes activ8 for or Fore becomes 4, so:
great becomes gr8 before becomes (combining both of
mate becomes m8 the above) b4
later becomes l8r therefore becomes there4
plate becomes pl8
More miscellaneous adaptations of characters include:

ss being replaced with $

oo being replaced with %
Combinations of the above can be used to shorten single or multiple words.
Examples: your and you are both become ur Other transcriptions of slang or
dialect terms can be used if they are shorter than the original. A good example of
this is the way in which because, often pronounced as cos in English, is written
like so, saving four characters.
Another device used in text language is the removal of vowels from a verb,
such that a set of consonants remain, which should still be recognisable as a word.
So, between could become btwn.
Equally, whole words may be omitted, especially articles.
 4

Another device used, is the replacement of an 'orr' with the abbreviation 'oz'.
Hence Sorry would become Soz and Tomorrow would become Tomoz. This can be
further abbreviated into 2moz.
'Sorry I forgot to phone you. I will see you tomorrow'
...would become...
soz i 4gt 2 fon u.i c u 2moz
The use of punctuation is limited. Only full-stops and exclamation marks are
ever used in general. After a full stop, a space and capital letter is often omitted.
There are a number of txt abbreviations which are commonly recognised
(these are not to be confused with initialisms, which are also commonly used):
Examples wuu2 - What are you up to?
yw - you're welcome

Text messaging translations can are easily made both to and from English as
sampled below. Short messages can be made shorter still.
• Are you going to the pub tonight? becomes ru goin pub 2nyt
Longer messages may also be considerably shortened. A typical text message
might read: hi m8 u k?-sry i 4gt 2 cal u lst nyt-y dnt we go c film 2moz
This is 60 characters long.
This would "translate" into standard English as so:
Hi mate. Are you okay? I am sorry that I forgot to call you last night. Why
don't we go and see a film tomorrow?
This is 112 characters long.
Conclusion.
Textese is a dialect of English that subverts letters and numbers to produce
ultra-concise words and sentiments. The invention of mobile phone messages may
be considered as its source, although elliptical styles of writing dating back to at
least the days of telegraphese. There are no standard rules for writing SMS
languages, and a lot of words can also be shortened, such as "text" then turns into
"txt". Words can also be combined with numbers to make them shorter, such as
 4

"later" turns into "l8r". Its speed in which they can be written and helps in using
fewest number of letters, and helps in dealing with space constraints of text
messaging.
Textese (also known as chatspeak, txt, txtspk, txtk, texting language or txt
talk) is the English language slang used in mobile phone SMS, social networks and
instant messaging. It is an abbreviated form of English similar to a rebus. With
predictive text input increasingly being used, it is becoming less common. This
type of language does not always obey or follow standard English grammar;
furthermore, the words used in the writing system may not be found in standard
dictionaries.
Cyber-English is that Internet and mobile phone users have popularized. It
often originates with the purpose of saving keystrokes, and saving time.

3.2. The types of abbreviations on the newspaper “The USA today”

A major factor in the trend toward abbreviation is that of economy.
Journalistic abbreviations are often occasioned by a desire to economise head-line
space. In telegraphy; e.g. as well as computerized communications, the extra-time,
space, and materials required for rendering long words and phrases is an important
concern. Fortunately, redundancy of information exists in all speech, and this
redundancy increases dramatically if the context is not known or if the message is
long. Scientific studies indicate that up to 75percent of all information in relatively
long communications is redundant, and this knowledge makes abbreviation not
only possible but convenient.
The American newspaper “The USA today” is the weekly edition printed in
New York, USA. We searched the Fri-Mon, august 29-sept.1, 2008 issue. This
newspaper consists of 4 parts; each part is 12-18 pages. Most of the abbreviations
are the names of international stocks, e-mail addresses; they depend on to one type
of the abbreviations and one word repeats some times.
At first we should give the definition to abbreviation and classify it. In
abbreviations, we omit most of the letters and leave only enough – usually 2 or 3
 4

letters for the word to be recognizable. Since these shortened forms save space and
effort, they are nearly always made from expressions people use a lot. There 4
types of shortening:
- Orthographical – the orthographical shortening of the word or a word
phrase. The missing part can at all times be supplied by the listener, speaker, and
reader. e.g. N-north, Mon – Monday
- Lexical. There are 4 types of lexical abbreviation:
1. initials e.g. BTN – Big Ten Network NY – New York State
2.acronyms e.g. BOSE – better sound through research LED – light-emitting
diode
3.clippings e.g. mpg – miles per gallon Mph – mile per hour
4.blendings e.g. Cellphone – cellular telephone; Sportcaster – sport
broadcaster
5. Contractions as: she’s, he’d, it’s and others [see Appendix 1]
- hybrid divided on to 3:
1. acronym and initial are in one word e.g. NASA – National Aeronautics and
Space Administration;
2. a half acronym and a half initial word e.g. ABC – alphabet; television
channel
Washington D.C. – Washington District of Columbia
3. mixing of letters and numbers e.g. 1A-12D number of pages; 3yrs – three
years
- and graphical e.g. $ - monetary symbol of US dollar; & - and (ampersand);
We’ve found out more than 90 abbreviations. Orthographical 23, lexical 29,
hybrid 24, graphical 8 [see Appendix 5]
Orthographical abbreviation. One form entails representing a single word
either by its first letter (as ‘N’ for ‘north’) by its or by its first syllable (as ‘No’ for
‘number’).
Most of the abbreviations are lexical. We have said that there are 4 types of
lexical abbreviations.
 2

1. Initials. The use of the initial letters of a name or expression as an

abbreviation for it, each letter being pronounced separately, as in BBC. Also it
called alphabetically. Most of the shortenings are of this type. There are
2. Acronym. It has some variants too.
a. by first letters of the word
b. by combining syllables of each word.
c. combine form, i.e. the first letter of the first word and the full meaning of
the second one.
Economic section connected with money, stock exchange. There are such
abbreviations which depend to economy and may be read only by financiers.
[see Appendix 6] All of them are orthographical shortenings.

3.3. The modern type of shortening to abbreviate the telephone numbers.

Abbreviating the telephone numbers means to write the letters instead of the
numbers. Not just a simple series of letters, to combine the whole word instead of
the appropriate number. At a phone number there are a lot of digits which are very
difficult to memorize.
e.g.

1-800-THE LOST
1-888-777-VEGAS
1-800-USA-CLAS
1-800-GO STIHL
1-877-LAND WYO
1-800-WYNDHAM
 3

To dial such number is very easy. At the phones on each button is letters in
alphabetical order.
They are:

1 – punctuation marks; 7 – P, Q, R, S;
2 – A, B, C; 8 – T, U, V;
3 – D, E, F; 9 – W, X, Y, Z;
4 – G, H, I; 0 - gap
5 – J, K, L;
6 – M, N, O;
This is in advertisement trick to made people easily memorize a company’s,
shops’, TV-channels’ and other innumerous organizations’ phone numbers. It’s
very popular in America. Because its industrialization, civilization developed.
Every man has a mobile phone in his pocket. That’s why this style popularized.
Also they choose such series of numbers to be the word appropriate to their
subject. E.g. at this number “1-800-THE LOST’ they find lost people.
This number “877-LAND WYO” is a tourist company which offers summer
vacation in Wyoming State.
 1

Conclusion
The work itself us to conclude that we have reached the main aim, which we
had researched in the work: we distinctively explored the theme that we had
“Shortening of English language: causes and tendencies”, analyzed and marked all
the ways and particularities, causes and tendencies and gave the general
characteristics to shortened units.
To reach our aim we have defined the functions of shortened lexical units;
analyzed the existing categorizations and types of the abbreviations; made the
analytical review of the cyber-English, the types of shortening in the newspaper
and the new modern style of abbreviating the telephone numbers. The practical
part of the investigation which includes very interesting information for students,
self-studied can be recommended for widening vocabulary and development of
speech and knowledge of English language.
On the base of researched work, we come to conclusion that we need to use
the shortening to develop the grammar, its peculiarities, and to widen vocabulary.
The shortening is very useful in the society. We face to them on the
newspapers, advertisements, street posters, magazines, periodicals, television,
radio all of them are the mass media and of course at everyday communication.
The abbreviation is very wide theme to investigate; it has many types and
tendencies for today. The shortening in cyber English, exactly text-messages, and
shortening in the newspaper were the most interesting and new theme for us. We
did a great investigation work to make a term paper. We researched methodical
literature, scientific articles, recent works of methodology scientist; using such
methods as analyzing manuals, textbooks and books, educational magazines,
training appliances, newspapers and of course to find out the latest and the most
modern information we used internet.
 1

Bibliography
1. Encyclopedia “Britannica 2004 Deluxe” CD-version
2. Oxford dictionary of abbreviations. Oxford University press, NY,
1998
3. Oxford dictionary of English Grammar. Sylvia Chalker and Edmund
Weiner. Oxford University Press. NY, 2004
4. Shortening words (английская аббревиатура) A.Yskakov // English,
2003 23-31 Jan. №4
5. United Nations Economic Commission for Europe youth in the Unece
Region: realities, challenges, opportunities. – Geneva and NY, 2003
6. www.wictionary.org
7. Англо-русский словарь современных сокращений. English-
Russian dictionary of modern abbreviations. Издательство «Русский язык», М.,
2002
8. Елубай Е., Талдыбаева Д. «“International Herald tribune” газет-
бетінде кездесетін аббревиатуралар түрлері» //“Ағылшын тілі мектепте” =
“Английский язык в школе”. – 2006. - №5 21-23б
9. И.А.Носенко, Е.В.Горбунова. Пособие по переводу научно-
технической литературы с английского языка на русский язык. – М.,
«Высшая школа», 1974
10. И.В.Арнольд. «Лексикология современного английского языка» -
М., «Высшая школа», 1973
11. И.В.Арнольд. «Лексикология современного английского языка» -
М., «Издательство литературы на иностранных языках» - М., 1973
12. Казакова Т.А. Практические основы перевода. С-Пб: Изд-во
Союз, 2005
13. Ортаева Э.Х. “Shortening”// “Mектептегі шет тілі”. – 2008 – №2
47-50б
 1

14. Словарь английских и американский сокращений.

Государственное издательство иностранных и национальных словарей. М.,
1958
15. Словарь сокращений английского, немецкого, голландского и
скандинавских языков. Издательство «Советская энциклопедия», М., 1964
16. Т.И.Арбекова. Лексикология английского языка. (практический
курс). – М., «Высшая школа», 1977
 1

Appendix 1
The most common shortened contractions.

aren’t = are not she’d = she had / should / would

can’t = cannot she’ll = she will
couldn’t = could not she’s = she is / has
didn’t = did not shouldn’t = should not
doesn’t = does not that’ll = that will
don’t = do not that’s = that is
hadn’t = had not there’s = there is / has
haven’t = have not they’d = they had / should / would
hasn’t = has not they’ll = they will
he’d = he had / should / would they’re = they are
he’ll = he will they’ve = they have
he’s = he is / has wasn’t = was not
here's = here is / has we’d = we had / should / would
I’d = I had / should / would we’ll = we shall / will
I’ll = I shall / will we’re = we are
I’m = I am weren’t = were not
I’ve = I have we’ve = we have
isn’t = is not what’s = what is
it’ll = it will won’t = will not
it’s = it is / has wouldn’t = would not
let’s = let us you’d = you had / should / would
mayn’t = may not you’ll = you will
mightn’t = might not you’re = you are
mustn’t = must not you’ve = you have
shan’t = shall not
 1

Appendix 2
Latin abbreviations
AD (anno Domini) (indicating years numbered from the supposed year of the birth
of Christ)
a.m. – (ante meridiem) in the morning
ad lib (ad libitum) — at pleasure;
a priori – in advance, independently of experience;
B.C – (before Christ) – before our era;
cf. (conferre) - compare;
cp. (comparare) — compare;
circa – about, approximately;
e.g. (exempli gratia) - for example;
etc ( Et cetera) – and so on;
ib (id) (Lat. ibidem) — in the same place;
i.e. (id est)- that is;
in situ – at this place;
loc.cit. (locus citato) — in the passage cited;
N.B. – (nota bene) – note, comments;
ob. (obiit) —he (she) died;
q.v. (quod vide) — which see;
p.m. (post meridiem) — in the afternoon;
pro et con (pro et contra) – for and against;
terra incognita – unknown area;
vers, vs (versus) – against;
vice versa – because of smth, on the contrary, back to front;
viz (videlicet) — namely, sometimes read viz.;
 1

Appendix 3
Leetspeak

& - and hv - have

@ – at I - I, it
0 – nothing its - it is
2 - two, to, too kds – kids
2DAY – today l8 - late
2nite – tonight l8r - later
4 – for m8 - mate
a - a / an ne1 – anyone
a/noon – afternoon plz – please
ATB – All the best ps - parents
Asl – age, sex, location, qt - cutie
b - be r - are
b4 – before sis - sister
bc – because skul - school
bf – boyfriend smmr - summer
bk - back u - you
bro - brother wr - were
bt – but asap - as soon as possible
btw – By the way bau - business as usual
c - see brb - I'll be right back
d8 - date btw - by the way
dnr - dinner cul - see you later
ez - easy cwot - complete waste of time
f8 - fate ftf - face to face
gf - girlfriend fyi - for your information
gr8 - great gmta - great minds think alike
hols - holidays gonna – going to
 2

goin – going TTFN – ta ta for now

HAND - have a nice day Tnx, tnqu - thank you
hru - how are you U4e - you forever
icbw - it could be worse Ur – your/ you are
Idk – I don’t know UROK - you are okay
imho - in my humble opinion wanna – want to
jk - just kidding wuciwug – what you see is what you
kotc - kiss on the cheek get
LOL - laughing out loud XLNT – exellent
l8r – later X, XOX – kiss, kiss hug kiss
ltnc - long time no see :-) smiling
ILU, Luv U - I love you :-* kiss
Luv U2 - I love you too :-)) very happy
Mo – moment :-0 shocked
mon - the middle of nowhere :") blushing
mte - my thoughts exactly :-| :-| deja vu
MU - I miss you <:3 )~ mouse
mUsm - I miss you so much :@) pig
NP - no problem :’-) tears of laughter
oIc - oh, I see :-P stick tongue out
PC&QT - peace and quiet :-(*) you make me sick
pcm - please call me x-( you are mad
rotfl - rolling on the floor laughing :-" whistling
sth – something ;-) wink
RSVP – repondez, s’il vous plait :-@ screaming
RUOK - are you ok? O:-) saintly
TUVM – thank you very much @}-}}—rose
 3

Appendix 4
Blendings or portmanteau:
alphabet = alpha + betta
atomaniac = atom + maniac
Bollywood = Bombei + Hollywood
brunch = breakfast + lunch
camcorder = camera + recorder
cinerama = cine(matographic pano) rama
e-mail = electronic mail
emoticon=emotion + icon
fantabullous = fantastic + fabulous
fergilicious = Fergie + delicious
frenglish = French + English
ligar = lion + tiger (Lewis Carroll “Alice in the Wonderland”)
medicare = medical care
mobitone = mobile phone + ringtone
moped = motor + pedal
motel = motor + hotel
Niffles = Niagara Falls
Pakistan = Panjab, Afghania, Kashmir and Singh, and the final part of Baluchistan;
pixel = picture + elements
Pokemon = pocket + monster
positron = positive + electron
slanguage = slang + language
smaze = smoke + haze
smog = smoke + fog
spam = spiced ham
Streetball = street + basketball (a game with one ring)
televangelism = television + evangelist
Transceiver = transmitter + receiver
 4

Appendix 5

$ - monetary symbol of US dollar

% - percent
& - and (ampersand)
*- note
.com – commercial
@ - at (in commerce)
1A-12D number of pages
3yrs – three years
4info – for info
51/2 – five and half
a.m. – (Lat.ante meridiem) in the morning
ABC – alphabet; television channel
at&t – American telephone and telegraph
Aug. – August
BOSE – better sound through research
BTN – Big Ten Network (sportcaster)
C/o – care of Calif. – California
CD – compact disc
CDC – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Cellphone – cellular telephone
Co. – corporation
Dec 6 – The sixth of December
Dem – democrat
Dems – democrats
Dr.King – Doctor Martin Luther King Junior
FDA – The Food and Drug Administration
Fri – Friday
Get2gether – get together
Gov – government
GP –general practitioner
 5

Hwy – high way

Inc. – incorporated
Iphone – instinct phone
John McCain – American politician John MacCain
Laptop – notebook PC
LED – light-emitting diode
LSU – American football team
LW – long wave
Martin Luther King Jr. - Martin Luther King Junior
McEnroe – Mac Enroe
Mich. – state Michigan
MOD – Ministry of Defence
Mon – Monday
MP – member of Parliament
Mpg – miles per gallon
Mph – mile per hour
N – North
NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NC – North California State
NFL – National Football League
NHS - National Health Service
No. – number
Nov. - November
NY – New York State
NYC – New York City
NYSE – New York Stock Exchange
o
- degree (angle, temperature, proof of alcohol)
Oct – October
Ok – all correct
Ph.D. – Doctor of Philosophy
p.m. – (Lat. post meridiem) in the afternoon
p.r. – public relations
 6

QC – quiet comfort
Rep – republican
RNC – Republican National Committee
RSPCA - Royal society for the prevention of cruelty to animals
Rt. Hon. – Right honourable
Sen. – Senator
Sept. – September
Sportcaster – sport broadcaster
St.Louis – Saint Louis
St.Paul – Saint Paul Cathedral
Truckin’ – trucking
TV – television
ULEV – Ultra Low Emission Vehicle
USA – United States of America
VP – vice president
Vs – versus (Lat)
Washington D.C. – Washington District of Columbia
Wed – Wednesday
Xcel – excellent
®- registered trademark
©- copyright
 7

Appendix 6
Economic sector abbreviations
Stock footnotes
U - indicates a new 52-week high
d - indicates a new 52-week low
h - does not meet continued-listing standarts
if - late filing with the Securities and Exchange Commision
n - new issue in the past 52-weeks
rs - reserve stock split of at least 50% in the past 52-weeks
s - split or stock dividend of 25% or more in the past 52 weeks, high-low range and dividend
are adjusted
wi - when issued
vj - in bankruptcy or receivership or being reorganized under the Bankruptcy Act, or securities
assumed by such companies

Mutual fund footnotes

NAV - Net asset value
NA – Data not available
NE - Data in question; deleted by Lipper
NS - Fund did not exist for entire period
NN - Fund does not wish to be tracked
YTD% - Year-to-date total return percent, including reinvested dividends and capital gains
E - capital gain distribution previous day
F - previous day’s quote
X - cash dividend previous day