Abbreviation. What kind of letters are they?

"I bring to your notice that the CCM Ivanov V.V. got into an accident.With the arrival of the inspector of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate, a protocol was drawn up in which Ivanov said that he was in a hurry to his wife in the hospital, so at his BelAZ he exceeded the speed in the city center, Fine, wrote an SMS message to his wife and calmed down. " Do you understand everything? Most likely, yes, because in this example fairly simple abbreviations are used. But they are completely different.

Let's look at this issue, and at the same time and decipher them - in the course of clarifying the rules and varieties of abbreviations.

The abbreviation is what?

The word came to us from the Italian language, it is formed from the Latin brevis - short. That is, we can say that an abbreviation is a shortening of a word or phrase. People began to shorten words and phrases for a long time. It's so much faster and more convenient to use the language.

It's no wonder that we received an "abbreviation" from the Italians, with their temperament, there is no time to pronounce each word in combination, especially since it always appears in the same composition! The abbreviation is spoken on average five times (!) Faster than the original expression, and it's probably written faster every 10-15.

The abbreviations became widespread in Russia with the development of the media. It was even profitable. For example, by submitting an advertisement to a newspaper or television, you pay for each sign (letter). In this case, it will be cheaper to advertise exercise therapy than physical therapy. Much cheaper!

Types of abbreviations

So, there are complex words and initial abbreviations.

A complicated abbreviation is what? It is obtained from the addition of the initial syllables in the phrase, it is also sometimes called - syllabic.

You can add just the initial syllables in words: state farm - a joint farm.
One can take from one word only the beginning, and the second - entirely, as in our example,
Maternity home - maternity hospital. Often found the same as in the previous example, but the noun stands in the oblique case: the comots are the company commander. And it is possible to add different parts of words, initial and final, destroyer - a destroyer.

And the initial abbreviations are what? What is formed by adding the initial letters or sounds of the word. They are divided into three types.

• Alphabetic . In them, the abbreviation is formed strictly from the initial letters in combination, and these letters are read (pronounced), as in the alphabet: an accident (de-te-pe) - a traffic accident. Sometimes the reading (pronunciation) of one or more letters may differ from the alphabetic one: LFK (el-Fe-ka) - therapeutic physical culture.
• Sound . In them, combinations of letters are read as one word: university (not vue-y-ze) - higher education institution.
• Alphanumeric , respectively formed by a combination of letters and sounds: STSI (gibe-de-de-de) - State Road Safety Inspectorate.

There are mixed abbreviations: BelAZ - Belarusian Automobile Plant.

And tautological, which are stable expressions, combining the acronym and the word - SMS-message.

How to decipher an abbreviation

We now know that the abbreviation is what is obtained from the reduction of expressions according to different principles and rules. But the abbreviations are also divided by social use.

They are generally accepted, we often know from childhood their meanings, but we can not decipher correctly. But a special abbreviation is what? Such reductions are formed in any branch of science, activity, knowledge, they are most often understood only by people directly working here. The individual abbreviation (IA) may be known to a certain number of persons or be present only in one test, then its description should be present at the beginning.

To understand what abbreviation means, you can refer to the directory, because they are general and highly specialized, say, a medical abbreviation directory or a directory of foreign abbreviations. Although sometimes only a personal acquaintance with its creator will help to know the true meaning of the reduction.