If there is an undeniable trend in our current communication style, it is language economy. In other words, human beings are social by nature and, therefore, we seek to establish relationships through interpersonal interaction with other human beings and, let it be said, with other living beings. Essentially, this is one of the foundations that propelled the emergence of language as we currently know it, which has been evolving throughout millennia, centuries and the last decades, defining us as speakers and changing in order to adapt to our communication needs, which also mutate as we undergo a transformation in relation to our social environs. Recently, one of the most striking phenomena in the field of language, across the most established ones in the context of globalization and language coexistence, is language economy, whereby speakers tend to use a lesser number of words and sentences to express themselves. Indeed, this is not something new since language has always had resources to abbreviate words or entire expressions and insert them into our speech in a more fluid manner. The main difference is that these resources have exponentially increased their numbers in the past decades and are now fully installed in our speech. From the Bard’s pen, we know that brevity is the soul of wit. When less is more in communication, we tend to do it. If we are allowed to do so, we will do, because we have the resources for it. So, what are these resources?
In effect, we count on two main resources, which we will only comment on briefly in this article. First, we have the example of foreign words. Let us not fool ourselves: in Spanish, for instance, we often have longer words than in other languages such as English, so if a term is welcomed by Spanish speakers (phonologically and conceptually) and is shorter, it will be able to integrate in the internal language system and establish itself, especially among those who master both languages. This is incredibly popular in the field of neologisms, which are words that are created to name new realities and which are automatically imported to the other languages as it is a complex task to find an entirely accurate translation or with a similar length (for example, geobragging, cellfish, geek, which are understood at once in English, but require a specific translation in Spanish to explain the composition or word game behind them). Isn’t it odd how we would rather adopt words that we do not understand based on our mother language system instead of finding a more localized term? That’s language economy. Secondly, the role played by abbreviations deserves a special mention, since they help us compress expressions so we can write them in less time, utter them faster and even turn them into independent words. Specifically, the most prolific resource is the creation of acronyms, since not only does it shorten words and expressions, but it just keeps their initials and makes them fully operable within the speech.
Acronyms can be pronounced in three different ways in English:
- a) Acronyms with normal syllabic reading:are read as they are written: NATO, INTERPOL [Esp .], AIDS.
Many of these abbreviations end up being incorporated as common names to the lexicon of the language.
Nevertheless, we must take into account that when an acronym only consists of vowels, each one is independently pronounced and keeps their phonetic accent: EU [ee] + [yoo], and not *[ué] nor *[e-ú]; AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) must be pronounced [áay-áay], and not *[oéa] nor *[oeá]. - b) Unutterable acronyms which need to be spelled out: FBI [ef-bee-eye], DDT [dé-dé-té], KGB [ká-jé-bé].
Based on these acronyms, actual words have been occasionally created by integrating the vowels required for their pronunciation, which have found their way into dictionaries such as: Humvee, originally HMMWV [Esp .] (High-Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle). - c) Acronyms that are read by combining both methods:JPEG [pe-cús] (Jay-PEG), or CD-ROM [cee-dee-rom] (Compact Disc Read-Only Memory) [Méx .].
In this case, full words can also be created based on the acronym: scuba [Am .](Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) or laser [Esp .](light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation).
Moreover, acronyms are a typical resource in professional settings in some sectors, as they are shaped in-house, that is, the words most commonly used in a profession are abbreviated and, unconsciously, most people associate a greater level of proficiency to those who use them. In other words, the more acronyms someone uses, the more knowledge they appear to possess, or that seems to be the trend. However, occasionally we end up producing texts that are packed with acronyms which, when they are not obvious for the target reader, can lead to confusion. However, what are the most common acronyms in the field of language service providers?
CMS: Content Management System
DTP: Desktop Publishing
EOB: End of Business
COB: Close of Business
COP: Close of Play
SOB: Start of Business
GMT: Greenwich Mean Time (GMT + 00:00)
BST: British Summer Time (GMT + 01:00)
CET: Central European Time (GMT + 01:00)
LSP: Language Service Provider
TSP: Translation Service Provider
MLV: Multi-Language Vendor
MT: Machine Translation
NT: Non-Translatable
DNT: Do not Translate
OPI: Over-the-Phone Interpretation
QA: Quality Assurance
TQC: Translation Quality Control
SEO: Search Engine Optimization
SLV: Single-Language Vendor
TB: Term Base
TEP: Translation, Editing and Proofreading
TM: Translation Memory
TMS: Translation Management System
Image reference: https://www.freepik.es/fotos/sopa-de-letras
