Telegram from Doctor Pedantic to Gabriel Billings! Telegram from Doctor Pedantic to Gabriel Billings!

NP IS NOT AN ACRONYM STOP AN ACRONYM IS FORMED WHEN THE INITIAL LETTERS OF A SET OF WORDS FORM A PRONOUNCEABLE WORD STOP WHEN THE RESULT CANNOT BE PRONOUNCED AS A WORD IT IS AN INITIALISM STOP INITIALISMS ARE ALSO KNOWN AS ALPHABETISMS STOP EXAMPLES OF REAL ACRONYMS ARE AIDS AND PETA STOP EXAMPLES OF OTHER INITIALISMS ARE CBS AND USA STOP SORRY TO BE SO PEDANTIC BUT I SAW YOU USING THE WRONG TERM AND HAD TO MAKE YOU STOP STOP

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This signature has performed an illegal operation and has been shut down.

Dr. Pedantic is on crack. CBS and USA are acronyms. I can't find any definition of "acronym" that requires that the word be pronounceable.

Plus, the word "initialism" isn't in the dictionary. I did find "alphabetism" but it has nothing to do with words made up of initials:

"alphabetism \Al"pha*bet*ism\, n. The expression of spoken sounds by an alphabet. --Encyc. Brit. "

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"And Wirthling isn't worth the paper he isn't printed on."

Don't blame Dr Pedantic for your dodgy dictionary - tonight he chose to possess a halfway-qualified linguist, who has a textbook which states:

"Acronyms should be able to form pronounceable words. Examples that are pronouced just as strings of letters ... are not acronyms, but simply abbreviations (or alphabetisms)."
Burridge, Kate and Mulder, Jean "English in Australia and New Zealand - An Introduction to Its History, Structure and Use" (1998:126) Oxford University Press: Melbourne, Australia.

One of my other textbooks calls them "initialisms" rather than "alphabetisms".

Therefore, The Pedantic One was crack-free on that call.

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This signature has performed an illegal operation and has been shut down.

I'm not sure why I'm defending this, but here's what I found:

Main Entry: ini·tial·ism
Pronunciation: i-'ni-sh&-"li-z&m
Function: noun
Date: 1899
: an acronym formed from initial letters

Main Entry: ac·ro·nym
Pronunciation: 'a-kr&-"nim
Function: noun
Etymology: acr- + -onym
Date: 1943
: a word (as NATO, radar, or snafu) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term

You'll notice that all three of their examples are in fact pronouncable. So I guess maybe old Dr. P might have something there. So DIACH (pronounced DEE-OCK, 'Dexx is a cock head') would be an acronym, while DLTFK ('Dexx likes to fuck kangaroos'), would not.

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100 pounds of shit in a 25 pound sack.

quote:

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Don't blame Dr Pedantic for your dodgy dictionary - tonight he chose to possess a halfway-qualified linguist, who has a textbook which states:

"Acronyms should be able to form pronounceable words. Examples that are pronouced just as strings of letters ... are not acronyms, but simply abbreviations (or alphabetisms)."
Burridge, Kate and Mulder, Jean "English in Australia and New Zealand - An Introduction to Its History, Structure and Use" (1998:126) Oxford University Press: Melbourne, Australia.

One of my other textbooks calls them "initialisms" rather than "alphabetisms".

Therefore, The Pedantic One was crack-free on that call.

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He means 'continent'.

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Get it right!

I guess that would make Dexx in-continent.

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100 pounds of shit in a 25 pound sack.

OK, so some whacked Aussie/Kiwi linguistics textbook made up a word and Gabe found an entry for it in his Dictionary for Geeks and I'm supposed to be impressed?

Well, actually I did find "initialism" after all by using www.bartleby.com, which searches "The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company."

Originally, I looked up "initialism" at www.dictionary.com, which searches the databases of the following references:

- The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition
Copyright © 1996, 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

- Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

- WordNet ® 1.6, © 1997 Princeton University

- Acronym Finder, © 1988-2001 Mountain Data Systems

- On-line Medical Dictionary, © 1997-98 Academic Medical Publishing & CancerWEB

- InvestorWords, © 2000 InvestorGuide.com, Inc.

- and others...

Apparently the American Heritage Dictionary did not consider "initialism" to be a word in 1996 (Third Edition) but they did by 2000 (Fourth Edition).

This is all rather fascinating.

No, wait - no, it isn't really that fascinating. Perhaps mildly intriguing, though.

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"And Wirthling isn't worth the paper he isn't printed on."

I had never realized there was a significant difference between pronounceable initialisms and non-pronounceable initialisms.

Where would "SQL" fit? Some people pronounce it "sequel" while others pronounce it "S-Q-L."

And why does a linguist care whether it is pronounceable or not? I'm curious. I could speculate but I'd rather hear a halfway-qualified linguist's explanation.

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"And Wirthling isn't worth the paper he isn't printed on."

NP:

"Starry Eyes" The Records "The Records"
"Nowhere Fast" Billy Sullivan "All American Popster"
"Got A Fix On You" American Noise "American Noise"
"Nothing's Gonna change My Mind" (Live at the Agora) Michael Stanley Band "Stage Pass"

Love,

bunner

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I wanted my half in the middle and I wound up on the edge.

quote:

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And why does a linguist care whether it is pronounceable or not? I'm curious. I could speculate but I'd rather hear a halfway-qualified linguist's explanation.

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Obviously someone thought they were being possessed by the spirit of Dr Pedantic, but were actually in some kind of delusional state... The real Dr Pedantic must be extremely displeased with them.

That Australian-written textbook was published by Oxford University Press. Ever heard of Oxford University? It's that place in England that had already been teaching for centuries when North America was first settled...

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This signature has performed an illegal operation and has been shut down.

I just realised that nobody pays attention to my posts.

Love,

bunner

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I wanted my half in the middle and I wound up on the edge.

quote:

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OK, so some whacked Aussie/Kiwi linguistics textbook made up a word and Gabe found an entry for it in his Dictionary for Geeks and I'm supposed to be impressed?

Originally, I looked up "initialism" at www.dictionary.com, which searches the databases of the following references:

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I do not have any issues with that.... it's just that I just noticed.

Love,

bunner

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I wanted my half in the middle and I wound up on the edge.

I had no idea about Webster's. It's rather disappointing to hear that one can't trust a commonly used dictionary. The english language is getting cornholed pretty badly already, and now this?!

How is the American Heritage Dictionary viewed?

By the way, DexX, did you hear something? I swear I thought I heard something in between your posts and mine. It must be a figment of my imagination...

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"And Wirthling isn't worth the paper he isn't printed on."

quote:

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I just realised that nobody pays attention to my posts.

Love,

bunner

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You do realize we're kidding, right?

Just because aussies are a bunch of redneck limeys who make up goofy sports and gangbang unsuspecting wallabies is no reason to disrespect their scholarly achievements.

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"And Wirthling isn't worth the paper he isn't printed on."

And by the way, if we spend any more time discussing which dictionary is better, we're going to collectively sink so far down into the pit of geekiness that we'll never get back out.

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100 pounds of shit in a 25 pound sack.

Since you're down there, I'm curious - just how deep does that pit go?

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"And Wirthling isn't worth the paper he isn't printed on."

Well, it's not very funny.

One of the finest dictionaries I've ever owned was Merriam-Webster(sp?). It had many words that other dictionaries didn't have. And it left out words and phrases like "capitalist pig-dog," "Yankee scum slurper," and "American Women love foreigners." I give it 4 and a half Stars and Stripes.

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I ate a hooker half a bottle of knife.

Gabe:I've told you time and time again, a cool geek doesn't rise to these obvious baited challenges put forth by the mega geek in their need for electrical companionship! We must let them waste all their time debating star trek and dictionaries and secretly laugh behind their backs, while spiking their Jolt! cola's with sedatives in a vain attempt to chill them out. :)

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Women are fisher's of men because we all know.... The small ones you throw back. The medium ones you eat. The large ones you mount.

OXFORD SUXX HUGE UR ALL FSAGET!!!1

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What others say about boorite!

Yes. Oxford. Loveley place. They speak English there. What we need is an American dictionary. Preferably one that translates from English to American.

Love,

bunner

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I wanted my half in the middle and I wound up on the edge.

How about from British to American, or Australian to American?

American, Brittish, and Australian are all English :P

Now if someone would please tell me what Scottish is.

And help me forget what "haggis" is.

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Do you want ants? Because that's how you get ants.