Initials

The acronym INRI, in Latin, Iēsus Nazarēnus, Rēx Iūdaeōrum. As it is a widely used acronym, over time it has acquired the use of a word of full law, as in the expression "for more inri".

An acronym is a word formed from each initial grapheme (letter) of the main terms of a complex expression.

An example of a legitimate acronym is UN (OOrganization of UnitedNationsations) because the initial of the three has been taken main terms (organization, nations and united) and not secondary ones (of and the); Main terms are nouns, adjectives and verbs, while secondary terms are the independent morphemes: determiners, prepositions and conjunctions.

An example of a sigloid that incorporates several graphemes of a term is RENFE (or ReNFE), Red Nacional de Frailroads ESpanish. An example of incorporating secondary terms is pyme (or PyME), psmall and medium e b>company.

Sometimes, certain acronyms become common words. Thus, UFO ceased to be just an acronym for "unidentified flying object" to become a common word with a different spelling: UFO.

Properties

Writing

• The rules concerning the writing of the acronyms are flexible, because they reflect the progress of the acronym incorporation process to the usual language.

When the acronym is composed, although the initials of the original terms have an accent, the acronym never does, unlike abbreviations, since its pronunciation is new, and therefore also the tonic syllable. Acronyms that, if they are ordinary words, should be accentuated graphically according to current standards and conventions, should not be marked either, such as CIA, whose intermediate I should be marked if it is not an acronym.

In general, an acronym is written with capital letters, while widely used acronyms have been included as a common name in dictionaries (ICU, 'intensive care unit').

Acronyms that are pronounced as they are written with only the initial capital letter if they are proper names and have more than four letters (Unicef, Unesco).

Unlike abbreviations, acronyms normally do not have abbreviative points, because as they are usually spelled, their evolution has tended towards extreme simplification and, consequently, the suppression of superfluous elements, in this case the space and the period. However, in a text written in capital letters, periods can be written after each letter to facilitate understanding: Example, O.E.A. BULLETIN (Organization of American States). However, given the current level of evolution of acronyms, abbreviative points can be dispensed with even in these cases, as explained in the Ortografía de la lengua española of 2010.

Pronunciation

Many acronyms are spelled out, for example LGBT: "the ge be te".

Acronyms and sigloides transcend written language, that is, they can always be pronounced following their writing. For example, we can read ovni by pronouncing the acronym, [ov-ni], or by developing it (unidentified-flying-object).

Not counting the pronunciation of the developed expression, which is not an acronym, acronyms have two modes of pronunciation: spelling and syllabic. The spelling is simply pronouncing the name of each letter (or grapheme): ONG (o-ene-ge). The syllabic pronunciation is the one that reads the acronym as a word: JASP (jasp). The latter arises automatically whenever the speaker is able to pronounce it according to the phonetics of his language, which produces a "feeling of familiarity." Therefore, trying to make the speaker feel comfortable, the sigloides are created, which integrate graphemes with the aim of facilitating pronunciation and avoiding spelling, distorting the concept of acronym.

This distinction between pronunciations has led some linguists to speak of syllabic acronyms (JASP, jasp) and consonantal acronyms (ONG, oenegé), although there are still others who prefer to use the word "acronym" considering:

• literary (NGO, spelled reading, translating the English concept initialism) and
• acronym (JASP, pronounced as a word).

The word «acronym» is surprisingly equivocal in meaning due to the underhanded importation of foreign concepts (see acronym).

The pronunciation of the acronym indicates its greater lexicalization, its greater incorporation into the usual lexicon, greater in pronounced acronyms, then in spelled ones. Therefore, in many cases the strangeness of the meaning of an acronym makes it convenient to develop it so that the receiver understands the message; for example, few would understand the meaning of the acronym PUR, which stands for ‘PCranian Uart Rrevolutionary’.

Lexicalization

Lexicalization is the goal of the process of incorporating an acronym into the vocabulary. It occurs when the acronym is considered as one more word by the speakers, such as UFO, radar or AIDS and follows the general grammar rules of a language. In Spanish, for example, several factors are taken into account to differentiate acronyms and words:

• Plural

The acronyms do not have plural graphics; to show that an acronym goes in plural, the article is used in the writing: “an NGO, four NGOs”, although in the oral language it can be pronounced, [four-oenejés]. In English they sometimes proliferate acronyms with the written plural mark, for example NGOs u NGOs’sthat in Spanish it is recommended to avoid.

However, lexicalization affects the plural of the words formed by the acronyms; an example of this is the incomplete writing process of the acronym of a compact disc: as an acronym is "a CD", "two CDs" or, at times, in a manner unseen by the academies, "two CDs", while as words of full law is "a cede", "two cede".

Writing the pronunciation of an acronym contributes to its lexicalization.

• Referred words

A curious process of the lexicalization of the acronym is the creation of words derived from it. It is done by writing its pronounced form and adding the necessary morphemes. Often, despite these derivatives the acronym retains its original writing. For example, “pepero” (“someone from the Spanish PP”, “cegetista” (‘pertenecent to the Argentine CGT’).

Composition

Flag of the former Colombian guerrilla Movement April 19, popularly known for its acronym M-19 or simply “El Eme.

In general, the graphemes that make up the acronyms are usually letters, although that does not prevent alphanumeric acronyms from being formed, often for dates such as 11-M ('[atentados] del 11 de marzo'), institutions such as the G8 ('g group of eight [most influential countries]') or models of a series, such as R5 ('Renault 5'). In these cases we speak of numeronyms.

Assessment

Currently, the process of creating words through acronyms is the most prolific in language in general communication and in the media in particular.