3 ms·

I mean, acronyms are pretty common to the modern English language in general. Is what you're talking about a bit different? Can you dive in a bit?

vram22 4y ago
Sure they are common in modern English. (I only speak that version, being modern myself ;) [1] >Is what you're talking about a bit different? Can you dive in a bit? Sure I can. Thanks for asking. Yes, I was talking about something different. But I seem to have been misunderstood by a few people in this subthread. No worries, it happens. Human languages are not perfect, nor are they always unambiguous. Nor are humans perfect, in writing or interpretation. :) I wrote the comment casually, so did not think to check how it might be understood differently by others. When I said >many such short forms come from or are unique to Indian English. , I meant, first of all, just "some", because "many" does not necessarily mean "most", let alone "all". It just means "many", for some value of "many". It does not necessarily imply a comparison or relative valuation, such as, "many" relative to the total number of acronyms. (5000 is a big number on its own, but not compared to 5 million.) And secondly, I had first come across usage such as gf and bf in emails between Westerners and Indians known to me, some 15-odd years ago, and Indian (techie) English has many :) possibly unique acronyms such as o/p for output, i/p for input, so I thought at the time, that gf and bf might be Indian English acronyms, having not come across them in general Western English usage, at least before that. [1] An arcane reference to an Asterix comic issue, maybe Asterix in Rome (or Italy), where they talk about learning modern languages such as Latin :)
highwaylights 4y ago
I don't know this, but I think the parent maybe meant the term boyfriend/girlfriend rather than the acronym? It is strange to parse given that it means "person that I'm non-platonically involved with" (i.e. not simply friends).
- vram22 4y ago
  Your second paragraph raises an interesting and seemingly valid point, but your first paragraph gets me wrong: I did mean the acronym, i.e. gf or bf (and some other such ones; not all, by a long chalk). Anyway, thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt. :)

vram22 4y ago

Sure they are common in modern English. (I only speak that version, being modern myself ;) [1] >Is what you're talking about a bit different? Can you dive in a bit? Sure I can. Thanks for asking. Yes, I was talking about something different. But I seem to have been misunderstood by a few people in this subthread. No worries, it happens. Human languages are not perfect, nor are they always unambiguous. Nor are humans perfect, in writing or interpretation. :) I wrote the comment casually, so did not think to check how it might be understood differently by others. When I said >many such short forms come from or are unique to Indian English. , I meant, first of all, just "some", because "many" does not necessarily mean "most", let alone "all". It just means "many", for some value of "many". It does not necessarily imply a comparison or relative valuation, such as, "many" relative to the total number of acronyms. (5000 is a big number on its own, but not compared to 5 million.) And secondly, I had first come across usage such as gf and bf in emails between Westerners and Indians known to me, some 15-odd years ago, and Indian (techie) English has many :) possibly unique acronyms such as o/p for output, i/p for input, so I thought at the time, that gf and bf might be Indian English acronyms, having not come across them in general Western English usage, at least before that. [1] An arcane reference to an Asterix comic issue, maybe Asterix in Rome (or Italy), where they talk about learning modern languages such as Latin :)

highwaylights 4y ago

I don't know this, but I think the parent maybe meant the term boyfriend/girlfriend rather than the acronym? It is strange to parse given that it means "person that I'm non-platonically involved with" (i.e. not simply friends).

vram22 4y ago
Your second paragraph raises an interesting and seemingly valid point, but your first paragraph gets me wrong: I did mean the acronym, i.e. gf or bf (and some other such ones; not all, by a long chalk). Anyway, thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt. :)