NOTE: In Merriam Webster's Dictionary, under acronym, it says: "a word (as
NATO, radar, or laser) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of
the successive parts or major parts of a compound term; also : an
abbreviation (as FBI: initialism)"
Abbreviation says: 
"1 : the act or result of abbreviating : abridgment 
2 : a shortened form of a written word or phrase used in place of the whole
<amt is an abbreviation for amount>"

Therefore , by definition, an acronym is a form of abbreviation.  This
argument is spurious.




-----Original Message-----
From: Alexander Johannesen [mailto:alexander.johannesen@g...] 
Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2008 11:38 AM
To: Steve Bjorg
Cc: fmeschini@t...; xml-dev@l...
Subject: Re: [xml-dev] R: Re: [xml-dev] Is "XML" an abbreviation or an
acronym?

On Sun, Aug 24, 2008 at 20:15, Steve Bjorg <steveb@m...> wrote:
> 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.

Hang on; from http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/text.html#h-9.2.1
"FBI" is listed* as an acronym, and it too is clearly not
pronounceable. Now what? I don't think it is clear at all.


* "Western languages make extensive use of acronyms such as "GmbH",
"NATO", and "F.B.I."

Alex
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