TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Pronouncing initialisms/acronyms (was: e-mail) From:soundy -at- NEXTLEVEL -dot- COM Date:Mon, 15 Jan 1996 11:56:29 -0600
In <01BAE347 -dot- 21471640 -at- port25 -dot- gateway1 -dot- ic -dot- net>, on 01/15/96 at 11:39 AM,
Stuart Reynolds <reynolds -at- ic -dot- net> said:
>>yet? Is it "a you-are-ell" or "an earl"? And why (or why not)?
>Not that simple though, is it. As with most things, there are exceptions
>to the *rule*. Not all words beginning with a vowel get "an". Some get
>"a" because of the vowel. Uniform.. is not An Uniform.. it is A Uniform.
>"Universal Joint" gets "A Universal Joint", whereas "Opening" gets "An
>Opening".
And of course, some words beginning with consonants get an "an"... such an
"An historic whatever..."
>With regards to U-R-L and "earl", going back to a point
>earlier in you message, the "majority" use U-R-L.
Personally, I've kind of adopted a hybrid of the two.
I find that pronouncing it "You're'll" rolls off the tongue a lot easier
than "You-Are-Ell", but allows for less confusion than "Earl" (which, BTW,
is the name of a restaurant chain here in BC).
>Especially those
>involved in development and the infrastructure. And, You-Are-Ell, is
>using the initial letters of the words.. earl is not. So, that creates a
>difference also.
I'd like to point out the irony that the name of this list falls in the
same category - it's pronounce (unofficially :) "Techwhirl", even though
it's spelled "TECH-Double-You-Are-dash-Ell"
Of course, then, there are those of us that spell out "Eye-Are-See", and
those who merely call it "Irk"...
And so on. Unfortuantely, the Internet and its propensity for leaping
borders of all kinds (linguistic as well as social and geographic) makes
defining exact pronunciations for most of these terms and acronyms an
exercise in futility most times...
Your friend and mine,
Matt
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---*** NOTE: Windows 95 Fixpack now available! ***---
See http://www.austin.ibm.com/pspinfo/drk95.html for more info!
Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Next Level
Productions, or anyone else of sound mind from this planet or
dimension!
