• From: Steve Bjorg <steveb@m...>
• To: "fmeschini@t..." <fmeschini@t...>
• Date: Sun, 24 Aug 2008 11:15:15 -0700

As pointed out by others, XML is an abbreviation.  The sheer fact that  
it contains no vowels should make it clear that it's unpronounceable  
as an acronym.

- Steve

--------------
Steve G. Bjorg
http://wiki.mindtouch.com
http://twitter.com/bjorg

On Aug 24, 2008, at 10:23 AM, fmeschini@t... wrote:

>> The XML specification, http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/REC-xml-20060816/
> starts with,
>> Extensible Markup Language, abbreviated XML, describes
> ...
>> So the spec says, it's an abbreviation ...
>
> Probably because
> 'acronymied' is a little bit of a cacophony, and to write 'abbreviated
> through the acronym' was too complex of a sentence.
>
> Technically XML is
> an acronym, as GNU, SQL, FAT, BBC or TARDIS are. Probably we should
> discuss whehter an 'acronym' is a subtype of the more general
> 'abbreviation' type which is at the same time disjointed from the
> 'contraction' subtype (e.g. Dr. for Doctor).
>
> Fede
>
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• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: R: Re: Is "XML" an abbreviation or an acronym?
    • From: "Alexander Johannesen" <alexander.johannesen@g...>

• References:
  • R: Re: Is "XML" an abbreviation or an acronym?
    • From: "fmeschini@t..." <fmeschini@t...>