Editing Abbreviation (section)

== Syllabic abbreviation ==
<!--irony is this is linked from the MOS on how not to do it like this! - see [[MOS:CAPSACRS]]-->
A syllabic abbreviation is usually formed from the initial syllables of several words, such as ''[[Interpol]]'' = ''International'' + ''police''. It is a variant of the acronym. Syllabic abbreviations are usually written using [[lower case]], sometimes starting with a [[capital letter]], and are always pronounced as words rather than letter by letter. Syllabic abbreviations should be distinguished from [[portmanteau]]s, which combine two words without necessarily taking whole syllables from each.

=== English ===
Syllabic abbreviations are not widely used in English. Some UK government agencies such as [[Ofcom]] (Office of Communications) and the former [[Oftel]] (Office of Telecommunications) use this style.

[[New York City]] has various neighborhoods named by syllabic abbreviation, such as [[Tribeca]] (Triangle below Canal Street) and [[SoHo]] (South of Houston Street). This usage has spread into other American cities, giving [[South of Market, San Francisco|SoMa]], San Francisco (South of Market) and [[LoDo, Denver]] (Lower Downtown), amongst others.

[[Chicago]]-based electric service provider [[ComEd]] is a syllabic abbreviation of ''Commonwealth'' and (Thomas) ''Edison''.

Sections of [[California]] are also often colloquially syllabically abbreviated, as in NorCal (Northern California), CenCal (Central California), and SoCal (Southern California). Additionally, in the context of Los Angeles, the syllabic abbreviation SoHo (Southern Hollywood) refers to the southern portion of the [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]] neighborhood.

Partially syllabic abbreviations are preferred by the US Navy, as they increase readability amidst the large number of initialisms that would otherwise have to fit into the same acronyms. Hence ''[[DESRON]] 6'' is used (in the full capital form) to mean "Destroyer Squadron 6", while ''[[COMNAVAIRLANT]]'' would be "Commander, Naval Air Force (in the) Atlantic".

Syllabic abbreviations are a prominent feature of [[Newspeak]], the fictional language of [[George Orwell]]'s dystopian novel ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]''. The political contractions of Newspeak—''Ingsoc'' (English Socialism), ''Minitrue'' (Ministry of Truth), ''Miniplenty'' ([[Ministry of Plenty]])—are described by Orwell as similar to real examples of German ''([[#German|see below]])'' and Russian (''[[#Russian|see below]])'' contractions in the 20th century. The contractions in Newspeak are supposed to have a political function by virtue of their abbreviated structure itself: nice sounding and easily pronounceable, their purpose is to mask all ideological content from the speaker.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Orwell |first=George |title=Nineteen Eighty-Four |publisher=Secker and Warburg |year=1949 |isbn=978-0-452-28423-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/nineteeneightyfo00orwe_1 }}</ref>{{rp|310–8}}

A more recent syllabic abbreviation has emerged with the disease [[COVID-19]] (Corona Virus Disease 2019) caused by the [[Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2]] (itself frequently abbreviated to [[SARS-CoV-2]], partly an initialism).

=== Albanian ===

In Albanian, syllabic acronyms are sometimes used for composing a person's name, such as ''[[Migjeni]]''—an abbreviation from his original name (''Millosh Gjergj Nikolla'') a famous Albanian poet and writer—or ''[[ASDRENI]]'' (''Aleksander Stavre Drenova''), another famous Albanian poet.

Other such names which are used commonly in recent decades are GETOAR, composed from ''[[Gegeria]]'' + ''[[Tosks]]'' (representing the two main dialects of the Albanian language, Gegë and Toskë), and ''[[Arbanon]]''—which is an alternative way used to describe all Albanian lands.

=== German ===
Syllabic abbreviations were and are common in [[German language|German]]; much like acronyms in English, they have a distinctly modern connotation, although contrary to popular belief, many date back to before [[1933 in Germany|1933]], if not the end of [[the Great War]]. {{lang|de|[[Kriminalpolizei]]}}, literally ''criminal police'' but idiomatically the [[Criminal Investigation Department]] of any German police force, begat {{lang|de|KriPo}} (variously capitalised), and likewise {{lang|de|[[Schutzpolizei]]}} (''protection police'' or ''uniform department'') begat {{lang|de|SchuPo}}. Along the same lines, the Swiss Federal Railways' Transit Police—the {{lang|de|Transportpolizei}}—are abbreviated as the {{lang|de|TraPo}}.

With the National Socialist German Workers' Party gaining power came a frenzy of government reorganisation, and with it a series of entirely new syllabic abbreviations. The single national police force amalgamated from the {{lang|de|Schutzpolizeien}} of the various states became the OrPo ({{lang|de|[[Ordnungspolizei]]}}, "order police"); the state KriPos together formed the "SiPo" ({{lang|de|[[Sicherheitspolizei]]}}, "security police"); and there was also the [[Gestapo]] ({{lang|de|Geheime Staatspolizei}}, "secret state police"). The new order of the [[German Democratic Republic]] in the east brought about a conscious [[denazification]], but also a repudiation of earlier turns of phrase in favour of neologisms such as {{lang|de|[[Stasi]]}} for {{lang|de|Staatssicherheit}} ("state security", the secret police) and {{lang|de|VoPo}} for {{lang|de|Volkspolizei}}. The phrase {{lang|de|politisches Büro}}, which may be rendered literally as "office of politics" or idiomatically as "political party steering committee", became {{lang|de|[[Politburo|Politbüro]]}}.

Syllabic abbreviations are not only used in politics, however. Many business names, trademarks, and service marks from across Germany are created on the same pattern: for a few examples, there is [[Aldi]], from ''Theo Albrecht'', the name of its founder, followed by ''discount''; [[Haribo]], from ''Hans Riegel'', the name of its founder, followed by ''Bonn'', the town of its head office; and [[Adidas]], from [[Adi Dassler|''Adolf "Adi" Dassler'']], the nickname of its founder followed by his surname.

=== Russian ===
Syllabic abbreviations are very common in Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian languages. They are often used as names of organizations. Historically, popularization of abbreviations was a way to simplify mass-education in 1920s (see [[Likbez]]). The word ''[[kolkhoz]]'' (''kollektívnoye khozyáystvo'', [[collective farm]]) is another example.

Leninist organisations such as the ''[[Comintern]]'' (''Communist International'') and ''[[Komsomol]]'' (''Kommunisticheskii Soyuz Molodyozhi'', or "Communist youth union") used Russian language syllabic abbreviations. In the modern Russian language, words like ''Rosselkhozbank'' (from Rossiysky selskokhozyaystvenny bank — [[Russian Agricultural Bank]], RusAg) and ''Minobrnauki'' (from Ministerstvo obrazovaniya i nauki — Ministry of Education and Science) are still commonly used. In nearby [[Belarus]], there are ''Beltelecom'' (Belarus Telecommunication) and Belsat (Belarus Satellite).

=== Spanish ===
Syllabic abbreviations are common in [[Spanish (language)|Spanish]]; examples abound in organization names such as [[Pemex]] for ''Petróleos Mexicanos'' ("Mexican Petroleums") or Fonafifo for ''Fondo Nacional de Financimiento Forestal'' (National Forestry Financing Fund).

=== Malay and Indonesian ===
In Southeast Asian languages, especially in [[Malay languages]], abbreviations are common; examples include [[Petronas]] (for ''Petroliam Nasional'', "National Petroleum"), its Indonesian equivalent [[Pertamina]] (from its original name ''Perusahaan Pertambangan Minyak dan Gas Bumi Negara'', "State Oil and Natural Gas Mining Company"), and [[Ministry of Transportation (Indonesia)|Kemenhub]] (from ''Kementerian Perhubungan'', "Ministry of Transportation").

Malaysian abbreviation often uses letters from each word, while Indonesia usually uses syllables; although some cases do not follow the style. For example, general elections in Malaysian Malay often shortened into PRU ('''p'''ilihan '''r'''aya '''u'''mum) while Indonesian often shortened into pemilu ('''pemil'''ihan '''u'''mum). Another example is Ministry of Health in which Malaysian Malay uses KKM ('''K'''ementerian '''K'''esihatan '''M'''alaysia), compared to Indonesian Kemenkes ('''Kemen'''terian '''Kes'''ehatan).

=== Chinese and Japanese kanji ===
East Asian languages whose writing systems use [[Chinese characters]] form abbreviations similarly by using key Chinese characters from a term or phrase. For example, in Japanese the term for the [[United Nations]], ''kokusai rengō'' (国際連合) is often abbreviated to ''kokuren'' (国連). (Such abbreviations are called [[:ja:略語|ryakugo]] (略語) in Japanese; see also [[Japanese abbreviated and contracted words]]). The syllabic abbreviation of [[kanji]] words is frequently used for universities: for instance, ''Tōdai'' (東大) for ''Tōkyō daigaku'' (東京大学, [[University of Tokyo]]) and is used similarly in Chinese: ''Běidà'' (北大) for ''Běijīng Dàxué'' (北京大学, [[Peking University]]). Korean universities often follow the same conventions, such as ''Hongdae'' (홍대) as short for ''Hongik Daehakgyo'', or [[Hongik University]]. The English phrase "[[:wikt:gung ho|Gung ho]]" originated as a Chinese abbreviation.