Re: punctuated abbreviations // was english spelling reform

bnathyuw wrote:

> --- 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
>
That ligatured glyph is, in my experience, extremely ugly... When
handwriting it, I tend to do the superscripted O thing, just like when
handwriting my surname in lower case, I superscript the C, but I don't
do this when typed (or at random when writing in small caps. And for
various reasons of legibility, I've come to more often than not write my
surname in small caps).

>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 )
>
You and me both ;)

> 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 )
>
>
Yeah... I was just somewhere tonight and there was a guest there who was
supposed to be called 'Mrs V'. Asian cultures---and these made up the
majority of people---seem to have a much more important respect thing
than Aussies... I really hated having to refer to her as 'Mrs V' so
avoided it... (And if you think that's stupid, then you might as well
say it's stupid that some people insist on using title+surname whenever
possible, especially of married women. Damnit, she's herself, not her
husbands... And then, of course, because I'm horribly double standarded,
I'd appreciate it if my wife, were I to have one, would change her
surname to 'McLeay'. Unless she had a really cool surname, in which case
I might take it instead ;) ).

Tristan

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