Submitted 4 hours ago by N0x0n@lemmy.ml to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
Is there some hidden pronounciation rule I’m not aware of? And why do we say F.B.I and not FBI or U.S.B and not USB ?
I know it seems a really silly question seeing the actual situation with the ICE eveywhere on the news… But this really bothers me on why people yell ICE when it’s actually the I.C.E :/.
As far as I’m aware, the rule is “if it can easily be pronounced, it should be pronounced. If it can’t, fall back to spelling it.” For example, if it was the Federal Investigation Bureau, we would probably call it the Fib, barring some major marketing campaign to prevent that.
If someone told me this is specifically why it isn’t called that, I’d believe it.
FBI and USB aren’t words, ICE is.
POTUS isn’t actually a word, but it’s often pronounced that way.
The Depot of Transportation is often reduced to DOT.
ICE=Immigration and Customs Enforcement
FBI=Federal Bureau of Investigation
USB=Universal Serial Bus
None of those are words :/ but a contraction of 3 words.
Perhaps you should read twice before you try to correct someone.
Did you know that acronyms are types of words?
And many modern words are elisions and concatenations of words we no longer use.
Where do you stand on OK, where it’s actually a word, or laser and modem which are nouns with specific meanings even though they were derived originally?
What about cole instead od coca cola, cocaine and compressed coal?
Acronyms vs Initialisms
No one is going to try pronounce Fbi, it’s awkward.
There are terms that bridge the Acronym/Initialism divide. SQL-Sequel, URL-Earl and GUI-Gooey are some that come up fairly regularly in my line of work.
The bottom line is; Language is used to communicate concepts. We are lazy and do it as efficiently as we can get away with. The rules have changed a LOT to get us where we are today. It would be blind hubris to think the change will stop just because we don’t like it.
Funny enough… I do say S.Q.L or U.R.L 😅
Me too. And I say them on the World Wide Web, which is quicker to say than the WWW.
SQL, back in 2015, officially transitioned from being pronounced Sequel to being pronounced EssQueueEll.
I still call it Sequel.
Then again, I say U R L, but also pronounce URI as Yuri. I also say L O L instead of Loll and I R L instead of Earl.
And then there’s mixed acronyms like Jaypeg and Empeg.
Yup, those are contested
ICE is actually pronounced “shitfuck”
Because it is a word, or it’s easier to say, or funnier.
It’s definitely not the only case. NATO comes to mind, or GOAT, NIMBY. Yesterday I heard someone say (in a tv series episode) ‘fudney’ for FDNY
What it ‘actually’ is does not matter.
It’s ICE, as in: cold as
Yeaah ice (water in solid state) does indeed is a word ! But the I.C.E isn’t !
I do get that we are very lazy, and it does sound better… but without context it seems like people are protesting against ice (solid water) which seems silly.
So, you now learned that human behaviour is often silly when observed without context
What about NASA?
N.A.S.A.? What about it? /s
Maybe this is some sarcasme… But why then follow rules if we can just say things how we prefer? GIF or JIF?
I’ma chargin’ ma ell ay zed ee arr!
Apepollo11@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
NASA, NATO, Radar, Sonar, Laser, Scuba, AIDS, PIN, SWAT, YOLO, CAD
The rule genuinely is “if it can be said as a word, it might be said as a word”.
They’re called acronyms.
BBC, TV, USSR etc. can’t easily be said as a word - these are just initialisations.
N0x0n@lemmy.ml 3 hours ago
Okay I get that ! But in the case of the ICE both are actually acceptable.
I.C.E sounds good so those ICE. I guess in this context as some else said, it’s because they are “ice cold” (in this context).
Would it be acceptable in a conversation to talk about the I.C.E ?