In another thread, a poster referred to "KWU" (the common abbreviation for Kennedy-Western) as an acronym; to which I replied thusly: Some would argue that "KWU" is not an acronym because it is neither pronounceable nor a word in the dictionary; and that, at best, it's a mere "initialism" or some form of abbreviation other than an acronym. Those who would argue that will tell you that while text strings like "KWU" or "FYI" (for your information) or "AVHRR" (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer), etc., are not acronyms, strings like "SCUBA" (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus) or "NATO" (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) are acronyms. I've read both sides of the argument carefully and the only thing I notice is that people seem to be all over that map about it. I was always taught that an acronym must, at bare minimum, spell a pronounceable word -- even if it's a word not in the dictionary; and that, to be truly correct, one should probably follow the purists' argument that mere pronounceability is not enough, and that the resulting word must also be in the dictionary. Still others argue that that's all hogwash; and that the whole pronounceable thing and the requirement that the resulting string be present in the dictionary is but an arbitrary creation of U.S. dictionary publishers in much the same way that most of our holidays are arbitrary creations of greeting card makers. I note, however, that those same folks in the latter group sometimes also argue that the word "acronym" comes from making a word from the first letters of: Abbreviating by Cropping Remainders Off Names to Yield Meaning. Of course, I most certainly question that one given that "acronym" ends, conveniently in "onym" which comes from the Greek word "onyma," which means "name" and is universally used to create words that describe word types, such as antonym, synonym, aptronym, capitonym, charactonym, eponym, homonym, pseudonym, toponym, etc., just to name a few So here's my question of this well-educated and august body: Who's right? Once and for all: What's an acronym? I mean... really? And, please, everyone, don't quote my entire message, above, in your responses. Quote relevant parts, of course... but the web pages of this thread will get too long, and too cluttered, if everyone quotes my entire post, above. Okay... so... this should be interesting.
Yes... but in spurts. I'm updating tax software on all of my accountant clients' systems to reflect both recent IRS changes, form updates and logical corrections and updates. Sadly, it's old software, and a huge system, and these updates mean lots of downloading and recompiling -- during which times I have time to read and post here... or play crossword puzzles, etc. I'm into my second week of it; it's taking more than twice as long as I thought it would; and I'm about to open a vein. To keep from doing that, I'm posting more lately. But that, too, shall pass, since I believe I'll finally be done today or tomorrow or thereabouts. Also, don't fool yourself... these postings don't take me as long as you might think. I type very fast; think of what I want to write even faster; and can usually get it down the very first time pretty much the way I want it. At any rate, until I'm done, can you think of a better way/place to waste time?
Ohgod... I can see that this is going to be taken seriously. And to think... I had actually hoped to learn something. Silly me.
Gregg, how about an acronym meaning for "acronym"? http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?p=dict&String=exact&Acronym=ACRONYM I especially like the last one Kevin
Oy. All the really smart people around here who actually know something about something; all the PhD scholars and others around here... ...and all I get is comedians! How 'bout some serious replies!
Re: Oy. An acronym is a word made from the "beginning" (akro) letters of other words. FBI, though not pronounced as a single word, is an acronym, according to www.m-w.com. Whether the word is a "word" such as fubar (fouled up beyond all recognition) or something like FBI -- it is still an acryonym. In CS, the most infamous of the acronyms are the TLAs. (Three Letter Acronyms.) CS is littered with them. The longest acronym I've ever seriously concocted is PAISLEI, which is pronounced as expected, and means, "Pattern Amalgamator Intended to Simplify LPM's Egregious Interface." (Or was it SOCRATES -- Syllogysm Oriented Computerized Random Access Tree Expert System?) PAISLEI is an acronym that contains an acronym -- since LPM stood for "Laleh's Pattern Matcher". GNU is sometimes called a recursive acronym ("GNU's not Unix"), but is more properly a left-recursive acronym. Dumb looks are still free.
You mean to say there are right-recursive acronyms too?? I guess people have forgotten the KISS principle... get it?
Thanks, Gregg! Interesting thread and topic. We have an opportunity to openly discuss kwu/KWU without shills, mills, shame or guile! (The only university I may mention in this post is the truly grand, 1886-founded, accredited and fine Christian institution, Kansas Wesleyan University; Go! KWU!). 1. English/general En anglaise, "kwu" can be an acronym, if one uses the definition of acronym by dictionary.com as "a word formed from the initial letters of a name, such as WAC for Women's Army Corps, or by combining initial letters or parts of a series of words, such as radar for radio detecting and ranging." The above definition of acronym meshes with Gregg's postulated "initialism" but without his proffered requirement of pronounceability. "KWU" and "kwu," either as acronyms or words, are important components of several world languages. 2. Americas/Native America Here in the Americas, kwu features prominently in languages of some Native American nations (tribes). The Comanche (The Comanche Language & Cultural Preservation Committee of Lawton, OK) produce a Newsletter, "NU-MU- TEKWAPU- HA NOMNEEKATU- NEWSLETTER" available here: http://www.comanchelanguage.org/January%202002.PDF with several examples of words containing the kwu formations: wu-hto'kwu-_kina wu-htokwu- _kitu- ma rakwu Situ-kwu- _ku-se takwu situ-kwu- _ nahku-ma u-pinakwu tu-kwu- _su-ku-pu- _ha 3. German For example, "les trois characteres" - kwu - are quite frequently present in German and Germany (as in, for example, Siemens AG Power Generation (KWU), KWU NS-A G6, Offenbach/Main Germany). 4. Korean/Chinese The acronym/word component is also prevalent in Chinese and Korean languages: as in "the waters around Lung Kwu Chau and Sha Chau have been declared a Marine Park primarily to protect marine mammals which are prevalent in this part of Hong Kong," and in the words pang’an-ul yenkwuhaytta AND yenkwuhayssta. 5. Niger-Congo/African: 5a. Igbo/Ibo On the continent of Africa, kwu appears relatively frequently in certain Niger-Congo languages. For example, Igbo is a Kwa language of the Niger-Congo group, spoken in Nigeria. kwu is often present in its speech patterns, verbal formations and linguistics. Igbo has vowel interactions in hiatus and in alternations involving the very common "kwu" forms chukwu and chi, thus raising some interesting questions about the order of hypocoristic formation and the rest of the phonology. A good Igbo example is the Igbo name: Kelechukwu Chukwunaechuremechicheoma Okoh. Chinecherem is a hypochoristic form of Chukwunaechuremechicheoma, which means "God has good plans for my future." The short form means "God has good plans." The relationship of the long form of the middle name, Chukwunaechuremechicheoma, and the short form, Chinecherem (one with "kwu" and one without), is a good illustration of the role semantics can play in short forms of Igbo names. There is frequent interplay between harmony and hypocoristics in Niger-Congo languages and dialects. In Igbo, this becomes complicated: there are hypocoristic forms seen in the formant chu (for kwu) without what is apparently its licensing morph kwu. E.g., chude for chukwudebelu, chuke for chukwukelU. See/learn the Igbo Alphabet here: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/3629/alpha.html Igbo (Ibo) has what is called "blends" (Udamkpi), letter/consonant combinations, of which KW (as in kwu) is a good example. The blends are: GB GH KP SH CH GW KW NW and NY. Examples of the use of Igbo/Ibo blends: John na-eje akwukwo - John goes to school Jane na-aga akwukwo - Jane is going to school Aha m bu Chukwu—My name is Chukwu (note the kwu - LOL). Dirk na-eje ulo-akwukwo i nya moto—Dick goes to riding school Some common Igbo (or Ibo) household words containing kwu: Stove—Ekwu Book—Akwukwo Radio—Akpati-okwu Shoe—Akpukpo-ukwu Legs—Ukwu 5b. Kwakum/Cameroon The non-profit Minority Language Corpora states that KWAKUM is a language of Cameroon in West Africa. http://borel.slu.edu/crubadan/stadas.html and cites Unified Cornish (kwu) classified under ISO 639-2: bnt English: Bantu (Other) French: Bantoues, autres langues The code bnt is classified in ISO 639 as a collective language code. It encompasses all the related languages that comprise the members of a single genetic subgroup (excluding those that have a more specific code). and is mapped to the Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid subgroup in the Ethnologue's genetic classification system. 6. Other According to Rachel Klippenstein (see http://listserv.brown.edu/archives/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0302c&L=conlang&F=&S=&P=22161 WiSaWiSa (plural form of WiSa) is a language "spoken on an island inhabited by two thinking, speaking species: humans and a type of birds called in this language "WiSiWiSi". This language contains many examples and uses of kwu. Some sentences in this WiSiWiSi language which contains kwu are: kwipakwipa kWu psiWu pitapita - "house in sleep" that is “humans sleep in houses.” tWuksatWuksa kWu psiWu WiSaWiSa - tree in sleep WiSa - "WiSaWiSa sleep in trees” tWuksa kWu psiWu kwi sa - tree in sleep not I - "“I do not sleep in a tree.” LOL. 7. World/Earth Minimal Language: A very enterprising scholar has proposed a new worldwide language which he calls "Earth Minimal Language." The kwu formation exists also in this proposed language. The website http://ebtx.com/lang/changes.htm has one "kwu" example which he now says that it is basically unusable (as originally defined) so he is redefining it to mean "furniture". Are your eyes glazing over yet? Hey, this is serious stuff. Please do not tell me that it is also boring stuff. Whenever and wherever kwu/KWU is discussed, boredom is the farthest thing from my mind, especially if we remembers that KWU acronym (if it is an acronym) properly stands for the fine, legitimate, and accredited christian instutution, Kansas Wesleyan University, and no other. Please carry on with the acronym discussion/debate. Thanks.
