Re: punctuated abbreviations // was english spelling reform

 --- Tristan <kesuari@...> wrote: > Nik
Taylor wrote:
>
> >Adrian Morgan wrote:
> >
> >
> >>by and large "Mr" does not
> >>
> >>
> >
> >Is this true everywhere?  I do write Mr. and Mrs.,
> and never thought
> >that was odd.  Of course, I haven't really been
> paying attention to
> >whether or not other people do.
> >
> Err... no, that's actually how the discussion
> began... I pointed out
> that 'No.' for 'number' was the only abbrev. that
> ended in the last
> letter of the root word that had a fullstop at the
> end of it, and John
> Cowan pointed out that, indeed, Americans tended
> still to put periods on
> the ends of all abbrevs, regardless of how they were
> done. So, indeed,
> Commonwealth practice is for 'Mr' and 'Mrs' (and
> 'Miss' and 'Ms') but
> American practice is "Mr." and "Mrs." (and,
> presumably "Miss" and "Ms",
> though I have seen "Ms."... I guess no vowel makes
> it look like an
> abbreviation for something unwritable ('Miz'? 'Muz'?
> neither of which
> end in an 's', so 'Ms' can't be an abbreviation
> anyway...)).
>
> Tristan.
>
i tend to avoid dots completely, and 'number' comes
out as either No ( always with capital en ) or, if i
can render it in the medium ( formattable text or
handwriting ) capital en superscript underlined oh (
as in french ). if the font has a ligatured glyph i
sometimes use that as well

then again i really object to using titles,
particularly meaningless ones like mr and ms ( i avoid
mrs and miss altogether . . . comes of having a strong
feminist streak in the bloodline ) and address people
by their first ( or on envelopes full ) names wherever
possible. i still use titles like dr, prof, sir, dame,
lord and lady, but that's just cuz people with titles
like that often get offended if you leave them off (
then again the formalitites of addressing people with
noble titles are far too byzantine for my tiny brain,
and i have to consult other people whenever i have to
use them . . . uk civil service departments actually
produce booklets to brief people on how letters should
be addressed )

bn

=====
bnathyuw | landan | arR
stamp the sunshine out | angelfish
your tears came like anaesthesia | phèdre

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