Do all languages have abbreviations and acronyms? Thread poster: Reed James
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Reed James
Chile
Local time: 22:54
Member (2005)
Spanish to English
I've seen abbreviations and acronyms in all major European languages with Latin alphabets. I was just wondering if you can abbreviate words in Russian, Chinese or Arabic. What about languages with no written alphabet?
| | | | Neirda 
China
Local time: 10:54
Chinese to French
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| Chinese does | Jan 22, 2015 |
The language is able to shorten concepts/names, of usually 4 characters or more (I guess 3 isn't impossible, just hardly necessary).
A simple example would be:
北京 (Beijing) 大学 (University)
which becomes
北大 (first character of both words)
The association of 北 + 大 carries no meaning in my knowledge, but out of convention, everyone knows it points to Beijing University, as surely as MIT means Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
... See more The language is able to shorten concepts/names, of usually 4 characters or more (I guess 3 isn't impossible, just hardly necessary).
A simple example would be:
北京 (Beijing) 大学 (University)
which becomes
北大 (first character of both words)
The association of 北 + 大 carries no meaning in my knowledge, but out of convention, everyone knows it points to Beijing University, as surely as MIT means Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
I guess Russian and Arabic will follow a logic closer to our alphabet. But I'm curious to know.
[Edited at 2015-01-22 05:39 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Phil Hand
China
Local time: 10:54
Chinese to English
| Chinese certainly does | Jan 22, 2015 |
Many words in Chinese are two or more characters long, and so long names can be abbreviated. Don't know if your browser will be able to see these characters but here's an example
厦门大学 Xiamen Daxue - Xiamen University, the top university in the city where I live
Becomes 厦大 Xia Da
At least some other varieties of Chinese do the same thing, and they are mostly non-written. Minnanhua/Taiwanese, the local version of Chinese, doesn't really have a written ... See more Many words in Chinese are two or more characters long, and so long names can be abbreviated. Don't know if your browser will be able to see these characters but here's an example
厦门大学 Xiamen Daxue - Xiamen University, the top university in the city where I live
Becomes 厦大 Xia Da
At least some other varieties of Chinese do the same thing, and they are mostly non-written. Minnanhua/Taiwanese, the local version of Chinese, doesn't really have a written version, but it does contractions in basically the same way as Mandarin. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Jack Doughty
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:54
Russian to English
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In memoriam | Russian does | Jan 22, 2015 |
There are abbreviations and acronyms in Cyrillic (Russian) just as in Latin-alphabet languages.
We routinely use transliterations of many of them.
USSR is CCCP - Союз Советских Социалистических Республик.
KGB is КГБ - Комитет Государственной Безопасности.
Cheka is Чека or ЧК - Чрезвычайный Комитет.
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Heinrich Pesch
Finland
Local time: 05:54
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
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| Not popular in Finnish | Jan 22, 2015 |
It is possible to use acronyms, but they work only for very common things like YK (UN). Acronyms are much rarer than in English or German. One reason is, that about half of Finnish nouns have "K" as first letter. But we use short forms which are easy to pronounce to Finnish speakers like Supo (Security police) or Kela (the state pension system). Acronyms are easier acceptable if they are readable as a word like ELY, but there are a some in use that are pronounced as single letters (SAK, STTK, ST... See more It is possible to use acronyms, but they work only for very common things like YK (UN). Acronyms are much rarer than in English or German. One reason is, that about half of Finnish nouns have "K" as first letter. But we use short forms which are easy to pronounce to Finnish speakers like Supo (Security police) or Kela (the state pension system). Acronyms are easier acceptable if they are readable as a word like ELY, but there are a some in use that are pronounced as single letters (SAK, STTK, STT). ▲ Collapse
| | | | Dan Lucas
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:54
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
| Japanese is similar | Jan 22, 2015 |
Phil Hand wrote:
厦门大学 Xiamen Daxue - Xiamen University, the top university in the city where I live
Becomes 厦大 Xia Da
Japanese love abbreviating longer words and phrases. To borrow Phil's example, Tokyo University -> Tōkyō Daigaku (東京大学) -> often referred to as "Tōdai" (東大).
Dan
| | | | David Wright
Austria
Local time: 04:54
German to English
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| Balasubramaniam L.
India
Local time: 08:24
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER | Hindi has abbreviations, too | Jan 22, 2015 |
In Hindi we have abbreviations. For example Bharatiya Janata Party is abbreviated variably as भाजपा or बीजेपी.
The former is made up of the first letters of the Hindi expanded term, and the second is made up of the English first letters (B, J, and P) written in Hindi script.
Although the former method is linguistically and aesthetically more elegant, it is followed for only a few terms which have established Hindi abbreviations. For all others, the... See more In Hindi we have abbreviations. For example Bharatiya Janata Party is abbreviated variably as भाजपा or बीजेपी.
The former is made up of the first letters of the Hindi expanded term, and the second is made up of the English first letters (B, J, and P) written in Hindi script.
Although the former method is linguistically and aesthetically more elegant, it is followed for only a few terms which have established Hindi abbreviations. For all others, the current trend seems to be to write the English abbreviation in Hindi script. ▲ Collapse
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