lished in 1851. Using a Latin abbreviation does not relieve you of the obligation of punctuating your sentence. Again, if you avoid Latin abbreviations, you won t get into this sort of trouble. The abbreviation ca. `approximately is properly used only in citing a date which is not known exactly, and then usually only if the date is given in parentheses.famous Basque cemetery of Argi? eta in Elorrio (ca. ad 883) shows tombs with sun-discs but no crosses. Roger Bacon (ca. 1214- 1 294) was known as the Admirable Doctor raquo ;. Here the use of ca. shows that the date of the cemetery and the date of Bacon s birth are not known exactly. If neither birth date nor death date is known for sure, then each is preceded by ca. Outside of parentheses, you should usually avoid the use of ca. and prefer an English word like about or approximately: The city of Bilbao was founded in about 1210.Do not write ... in ca. 1 210 .abbreviation etc. calls for special comment. It should never be used in careful writing: it is vague and sloppy and, when applied to people, rather offensive. Do not write something like this: Africa was explored by Livingstone, Stanley, Brazza, etc., rewrite the sentence in a more explicit way: Africa was explored by Livingstone, Stanley and Brazza, among others. orCentral Africa was explored by several Europeans, including Livingstone, Stanley and Brazza.you do find yourself using etc., for heaven s sake spell it and punctuate it correctly. This is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase et cetera `and other things raquo ;, and it is pronounced ET SETRA, and not EK SETRA. Do not write ghastly things like ect. or e.t.c. Such monstrosities make your writing look hopelessly illiterate. Again, if you avoid Latin abbreviations, you won t fall into such traps. [10], there are two further (and highly objectionable) Latin abbreviations ibid. and op. cit.that it is usual to write Latin abbreviations in italics, but this is not strictly essential, and many people don t bother. has recently been a fashion in some circles for writing Latin abbreviations without full stops, and you may come across things like ie and eg in your reading. I consider this a ghastly practice, and I urge you strongly not to imitate it. (Note, however, that et al. Has only one full stop, since et `and is a complete word in Latin.) One final point: very many people who should know better use the Latin abbreviation cf., which properly means` compare raquo ;, merely to refer to published work. It is now very common to see something like this: Australian language Dyirbal has a remarkable gender system; cf. Dixon (1972) .is quite wrong, since the writer is not inviting the reader to compare Dixon s work with anything, but only to consult that work for more information. Hence the correct form is this: Australian language Dyirbal has a remarkable gender system; see Dixon (1972) .widespread blunder is a signal reminder of the danger of using Latin abbreviations when you don t know what they mean. Far too many writers fall into this trap, and write ie when they mean e.g., or something equally awful. If you must use a Latin abbreviation, make sure you re using the right one. In most circumstances, though, you are best advised to avoid these abbreviations: almost every one of them has a simple English equivalent which should usually be preferred., Some abbreviations may come to resemble blends by combining larger sets of initial and non-initial letters. However, such forms still differ crucially from proper blends in that they do neither obey the three pertinent prosodic constraints, nor do they necessarily conform to the semantic property of blends described above.spelling and pronunciation of abbreviations may seem trivial, but nevertheless offers interesting perspectives on the formal properties of these words. Consider the following abbreviations with regard to their spelling and pronunciation differences: as soon as possibleCooperative for Assistance and Relief EverywhereCentral Intelligence Agency.g.-for exampleet ceteraFederal Bureau of InvestigationNorth Atlantic Treaty Organizationvalue added taxradio detecting and rangingStrategic Arms Reduction TalksUnited States of Americaorthographic and phonetic properties of the abbreviations are indicated in the following table. For some abbreviations there is more than one possibility: spellingpronunciationin capitalsas individual lettersin capitalsas individual lettersin capitalsas individual lettersin capitalsas individual lettersin capitalsas a regular wordin capitalsas a regular wordin capitalsas a regular wordin lower case letters with dotsas individual letters.g. in lower case letters with dotsas individual letters. in lower case letters with dotsas individual letters.sap in lower case letters with dotsthe abbreviated words are.g. in lower case letters with dotsthe abbreviated words are. in lower case letters with dotsthe abbreviated w...
