Re: Abbreviations

FFlores wrote:
> For example, in my written Spanish I use <q'> for <que>,
> <x> for <por>, <xq'> for <porque>, <//> for <-mente>
> (in adverbs), etc.
In my journal I do similar things, I have:

th' = the
t' = to
a small + looking symbol = and
o' = of
-d = -ed
-in' = -ing
g'na = gonna
G'ville = Gainesville (fairly standard, actually)
P'cola = Pensacola (fairly standard, actually)
@ = at (but only sometimes, I can't figure out why it seems wrong
sometimes!)
-z = -s (only occasionally)
'bout = about
G'ma = Grandma
G'pa = Grandpa
fone = phone
w/ = with
t'night = tonight

And some playing with spelling, like using thorn, edh, ash, and
semi-phonetic spellings.  Of course, very informal writing.

And also incomplete sentences, like, from my entry Aug. 15:
"Saw Blair Witch Project.  Very Dull.  Hated it.  First Wave marathon.
Missed it.  Unplugged/unconnected computer", generally dropping subject
pronouns.

And also smileys and frowns.  Right-side up, not sideways  :-)  A handy
importation from the online world.

> And I've seen pictures of many old
> writings (mainly in Latin) where letters have a lot of
> marks -- I've been told those are shortcuts.
Yep, and a few have survived into modern writing - & from "et", ! from
"lo", and I think ? came from a word, but I'm not sure which.  It was
also common to do things like dropping final "m", using a macron to
indicate it.

--
"Old linguists never die - they just come to voiceless stops." -
anonymous
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