We all like abbreviating things. From texting shortcuts to internet abbreviations, from names to government departments. There are differences in how we abbreviate, though. We Germans have a pretty interesting take on it!<\/p>\n
Germans like abbreviating stuff. Understandable, as German words can become really long sometimes.<\/a> Especially for words that are used a lot in everyday speech – an abbreviation makes speaking very\u00a0\u00f6konomisch<\/em> (efficient).<\/p>\n In Germany, abbreviations are used differently than in English. In English, words or a group of words are abbreviated with their first letter most of the time. For example:\u00a0Department of Defense\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0DoD<\/em>,\u00a0imo\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0in my opinion.\u00a0<\/em>There are also abbreviations\u00a0like UFO<\/em> or\u00a0NASA<\/em>, where the abbreviation is pronounced as a word – that is a\u00a0Kurzwort\u00a0<\/em>(literally “short word” – acronyms).<\/p>\n Kurzw\u00f6rter\u00a0<\/em>are words that are written in an abbreviated form and are also pronounced as such.\u00a0UFO\u00a0<\/em>will never be spoken as\u00a0Unidentified Flying Object<\/em>, whereas\u00a0DoD\u00a0<\/em>will most likely be spoken as\u00a0Department of Defense<\/em>. In Germany, we have those too:\u00a0Personenkraftwagen\u00a0<\/em>becomes\u00a0PKW, <\/em>and Christliche Demokratische Union Deutschlands\u00a0<\/em>becomes\u00a0CDU<\/em>,\u00a0for example. There are many varieties of\u00a0Kurzw\u00f6rter<\/em>, but I will focus on a particular kind of abbreviation that is barely used in English, but quite widespread in German:\u00a0Sil<\/em>benkurzw\u00f6rter<\/em>\u00a0(syllabic abbreviations).<\/p>\n Silbenkurzw\u00f6rter\u00a0<\/em>are\u00a0K\u00fcrzw\u00f6rter\u00a0<\/em>that abbreviate by taking the initial syllables of different words or word group and creating a new word that way.<\/p>\n For example:\u00a0Interpol\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0Inter<\/em><\/strong>national\u00a0Pol<\/strong>ice.<\/em><\/p>\n In German, there are many of these! Here a little list:<\/p>\n And many names for brands etc. are in fact\u00a0Silbenkurzw\u00f6rter<\/em>:<\/p>\n Why are these kinds of abbreviations so popular in Germany? I think it has all to do with pronunciation. Vowels just make it all a lot easier to pronounce, and makes the abbreviation much more a word. And guess what:\u00a0UFO\u00a0<\/em>is not pronounced as\u00a0U.F.O.\u00a0<\/em>in German, but as:<\/p>\nKurzw\u00f6rter <\/em>(acronyms)<\/h2>\n
Silbenkurzw\u00f6rter <\/em>(syllabic abbreviations)<\/h2>\n
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