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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear Dimitris,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>In spoken languages we seem to use abbreviations
more than acronyms. For example, I shorten English to Eng. when I write and
Greek to Gr. I worked on a spoken language for many years, and the name
the people chose for the language was so long that my colleagues refused to say
it, so I shortened that to L-K K (representing 3 long words), then everyone was
happy. For the language speakers themselves, usually they say Kadazan
(abbreviated from the last K in the acronym). (Actually there are
many Kadazan languages, but it is always clear which language is being referred
to by the context.)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hope</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=dmaureas@vodafone.net.gr
href="mailto:dmaureas@vodafone.net.gr">Dimitris Mavreas</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=slling-l@majordomo.valenciacc.edu
href="mailto:slling-l@majordomo.valenciacc.edu">slling-l@majordomo.valenciacc.edu</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, September 05, 2007 4:21
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [SLLING-L] RE: Acronyms</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV class=Section1>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-US>I find very interesting the whole
discussion. I must agree that although the use of these acronyms is sometimes
defined by political reasons (English hegemony, decisions by linguists or sign
language users etc.), it is also a matter of practical needs. Greek alphabet
despite similarities is different from Roman or Cyrillic. It happens that
Language in Greek is </SPAN><B>Γλώσσα</B><SPAN lang=EN-US> (I hope you can
read the characters) so we must obligatory use the letter
</SPAN><B>Γ</B> <SPAN lang=EN-US>in the acronym for the Greek Sing Language.
The acronym in Greek is </SPAN><B>ΕΝΓ</B><SPAN lang=EN-US> and it is also used
by Greek Deaf people ugh man. Of course when I participated to an
international conference, I used GSL acronym. I use instead </SPAN>ΕΝΓ <SPAN
lang=EN-US>acronym when I write in Greek. I also use </SPAN>ΑΝΓ <SPAN
lang=EN-US>in order to refer to ASL because I want a more transparent term for
my Greek readers (and because it is also hard to switch the language on my PC
keyboard all the time!) Linguists can always go to the abbreviation list
in order to find what GSL, NTS and so on really mean. Abbreviations are used
to make our lives easier. At the same time it is interesting to consider why
we don’t have acronyms for spoken languages…<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-US>Dimitris
Mavreas <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN lang=EN-US>Athens Greece<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></DIV>
<P>
<HR>
<P></P>_______________________________________________<BR>SLLING-L mailing
list<BR>SLLING-L@majordomo.valenciacc.edu<BR>http://majordomo.valenciacc.edu/mailman/listinfo/slling-l<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>