Thursday November 1, 2007
Abbreviation or acronym?
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IT SEEMS a few of our readers do not know the difference between an abbreviation and an acronym.
So let us deal with that today.
As you know, or should know, an abbreviation is a representation, usually of initials, of a company or organisation, or a title of a book, play, movie or television series.
For example, CSI, for Crime Scene Investigation. As you can see, the initials are pronounced separately, “see-ess-eye”.
An acronym is different – in that it is an abbreviation that is pronounced as a word as a result of common usage through the years.
For example, scuba, as in scuba-diving. “Scuba” began life, as it were, as Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. But have you ever heard anybody say: “Hey, do you like to ‘ess-see-you-bee-ay’ dive?” No, of course not! For as long as you can remember, everybody has always pronounced scuba as a two-syllable word, “scoo-buh”. Thus, scuba has become an acronym.
Perhaps the following is the best example of differentiating between an abbreviation and an acronym.
What are, arguably, this country’s most famous abbreviation and best-known acronym? Why, what else but MCA and Umno.
After all, who in his right mind would refer to MCA as, for example, “emm-ka”? Nobody. The Malaysian Chinese Association has always been abbreviated to “emm-see-ay”, with the initials pronounced separately.
And the United Malays National Organisation has always been referred to as a two-syllable word, “umm-no”, not “you-emm-en-oh”.
Other examples of abbreviations are HIV (“aitch-eye-vee”, for Human Immunodeficiency Virus), WHO (“dah-buhl-you-aitch-oh”, for World Health Organisation) and MIC (“emm-eye-see”, for Malaysian Indian Congress).
Acronyms include Aids (“aydz”, for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), laser (“lay-zer”, for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) and radar (“ray-dah”, for RAdio Detection And Ranging).
Pat yourself on the back if you can list five other abbreviations and six more acronyms.
– Stephen Kau
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