Wine, Texting and Acronyms

Does drinking wine turn texting abbreviations into acronyms?

This is what I saw as I turned the corner at the grocery store the other day - 

Even if I had been drinking, I am not sure I could have pronounced "GR8RW" as an acronym. Sure, "GR8" is a texting abbreviation (semiotics included) for "great" and "RW" is an initialization for "red wine", but an acronym these two do not make.

Of course I had to look up this new wine when I returned home. 

What I found left me even more confused (and I still hadn't had a drink).

From the ad copy: "...created without taking any shortcuts." "No abbreviations necessary."

I'd Like a Syllable and an India Ale, Please

I'm not really in the mood for a Samuel Smith's, so...

make it a Wig Top IA.

As explained at Wikipedia - India Pale Ale or IPA is a beer style within the broader category of pale ale. It was first brewed in England in the 19th century. The first known use of "India pale ale" is an advertisement in the Liverpool Mercury in 1835. It was also referred to as "pale ale as prepared for India", "India Ale", "pale India ale" or "pale export India ale".

While IA may not be a common initialism for the beer style, I can't help but think about beer whenever I pass the above pictured store due to the familiarity of IPA as an initialism combined with the unusual bullet point insertions in the store's name and the recent influx of oddly named beers.

Yellowpages.com lists the store's name as Wigtopia Beauty Supply. Even without the addition of "beauty supply", when the bullet points are removed it is much more clear that the store name is meant to be verbalized as one word with syllable breaks like so: /wɪg.to.pi:ʌ/. This was also confirmed when I phoned the store and the clerk answered as such.

Perhaps the store owners designed the signage to be phonetically playful. Wigs do top the head and they probably do sell what they consider to be the ideal wigs, thus: /wɪg.tɑp.i:ʌ/.

Regardless, I can't do it; I will continue to read the store name as two words and an initialism: /wɪg tɑp aɪ eɪ/.

India Ale image here
Wig Top image from Yelp 

ESL, EFL, Etc. and Location, Location, Location

ESL - English as a second language
EFL - English as a foreign language
TESL - Teaching English as a Second Language
TEFL - Teaching English as a Foreign Language

If a language is a foreign language to a speaker, it seems obvious that it would be that speaker's second language (or third or forth), so why the differentiation?

The answer is location.

English is considered a foreign language when it is taught or learned in a non-English speaking country; it is considered a second language when it is taught or learned in an English speaking country.



Thanks to 22 Words for bringing this uproarious video to my attention.

However, if the class mentioned in the video is truly EFL, I would think the enrollment counselor would not be speaking English. It would be more semantically correct if the class was ESL, but it wouldn't be as humorous.

Mixed Messages - Semiotics and Text Message Initialisms Don't Mix

If you see someone

DROWNING

lol

CALL 911

If it weren't for the initialisms created through text message communication, this sign would not have appeared on Fail Blog.

In the old days, the image would have been interpreted semiotically as a swimmer's head and two arms waving for help, not as a comment that suggests people should "laugh out loud" at the sight of a drowning person.

WTF ROTFL LOL - JK

WTF does ROTFL mean? I am truly not a prescriptivist, but I am still not LOL.


This past December, Language - The Journal of the Linguistic Society of America published a review of The gr8 db8 by David Crystal. I have not read the book but I have been meaning to mention my initial thoughts about the frequency of initialisms in texting.

The thing that annoys me most about the initialisms associated with texting is that the majority of the most common initialisms are not abbreviations for phrases that anyone I know actually used before the invention of instant messaging.

On the other hand, when I was coming of age and we sent messages that were not so instant ("Hey, please pass this note to so and so.") the only abbreviation/initialism that I recall using with any frequency was "JK" and we used the phrase "just kidding" in normal conversation on a regular basis.

Just sayin. (See, I am really not a prescriptivist)

Clarification on Acronym vs. Initialism Post

I want to call your attention to the comments (thank you readers) on today's post about acronyms and initialisms. I have added another comment that might help make the post a bit clearer, or it might not.

"A" and "An" with Acronyms and Initialisms

There was an article a week or so ago in the Detroit Free Press that mentioned something about "an NWA employee." As I was reading the article, I read "NWA" to myself as "Northwest Airlines" (out of habit), thus the preceding "an" sounded incorrect. Remember the rule - always use "a" before a word that begins with a consonant sound and "an" before a word that begins with a vowel sound. This got me to thinking about the use of the determiners "a" and "an" with acronyms and initialisms.

Acronyms are pretty much straightforward compared to initialisms. An acronym is generally formed from the initial letters or syllables of a name and it is always verbalized as a word - Think of NATO, it is never read or spoken of as "N"-"A"-"T"-"O" so there is not a question that it would be "a NATO meeting," and not "an 'N'-'A'-'T'-'O' meeting."

On the other hand, initialisms, though also formed from the initial letters of a name and written as such, are not always verbalized as individual letters (contrary to the definition). This is why when reading "an NWA employee" as "an Northwest Airlines employee," the use of "an" as a determiner sounded and would be considered incorrect.

I could not find a rule regarding this problem in the Associated Press Stylebook. I would guess that because initialisms are made of initials and the initials are not used to form a separate word as they are in acronyms, determiner usage should be based on the verbalization of the first letter of the initialism.

In sum, I believe the Free Press was correct and it was my fault for reading "NWA" as "Northwest Airlines." The only problem would be if a person encountered an unknown abbreviation that could be read as an acronym or an initialism.