[OSM-talk-be] Afkortingen/Abbréviations

[André Pirard]

On 2013-12-09 14:43, Jo wrote :
> Hi,
>
> While adding bus stops, I'm inclined to expand the abbreviations. This
> usually makes sense for
> O.L.V (Onze-Lieve-Vrouw)
> St. -> Sint- or straat
> H. -> Heilig
> ...
>
> Where I'd really prefer not to expand:
>
> OCMW / CPAS
> P&R
> BLOSO
I think one must distinguish an *acronym*, which is a *proper noun*
(normally preceded by "the") and is the *established* name of a single
thing, from one or several abbreviated *common noun(s) *(normally
preceded by 'a') which is/are the name(s) of a category of many things.
The acronym is normally written without dots, the abbreviation with
dots, so, if that rule is respected, our rule would come down to: don't
use dots.
*The* USA acronym is single and well known by everybody and best remains
as such; *a* saint or *a* street are many (albeit saint Nicolas is
single (they say)) and should be fully spelled.
But things are not always clearly cut in this world: *a* C.H.U. is a
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire but to the persons living near one,
it's *the* (their) C.H.U. or CHU. Also, Onze-Lieve-Vrouw is made of
common words, but, if the rule is like in French, the "-" make it
something different and it straddles the two rules to me.
Note the difference in French between the person "saint Nicolas",  the
municipality "Saint-Nicolas" and the feast "la Saint-Nicolas" (not his
wife if he is single (they say)).
Also, I think it's being nice to strangers to use the full common nouns
to save them guesses; I always wondered why Web dictionaries use
abbreviations: annoying strangers or saving paper for full prints?
Polyglot, we must forgive the Russian Ул. because they never write
anything else on maps, envelopes, like ЖД and РЖД.
(no mockery, I just love this remark:) The French word is abréviation;
why is it so long and why did the English lengthen it even more to
abbreviation? :-)

Cheers,

André.




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