🚀 go-pugleaf

> 
Rodney said...>Finally, some real Tennessee talk in tn.talk...
> 
>It seems to me that "TN" is used because, thanks to the Post Office, 
>"TN" is a nationally known and recognized abbreviation for Tennessee. 

Well I'd agree with you that many, if not most folks do equate "TN" with 
the state of Tennessee.  I find, however, that other states' codes are not 
so clear to people and there is general confusion about several of them, 
for example, AK, AL, and AR to name just a few.

> 
>Without a standard abbreviation, people would start using variations
>of abbreviations, for example, Pennsylvania is known as Pa, Penn, and
>Penna. A state like North Carolina would have even more choices,
>NoCar NoCaro NorthCaro, etc.

Agreed about Penn. (my personal choice for the abbreviation).  But I will 
admit to never having seen the choices you list for N.C.
> 
>Besides, if you are talking about being too lazy to write "Tenn" vs
>"TN", why abbreviate at all, why not just write "Tennessee"?

Often, when I ask folks why they write "TN" for Tennessee, they say "It's 
faster and easier."  Of course, what they usually write down is actually 
"Tn." which is *still* faster and easier.  Perhaps I used too strong a word 
with 'lazy' but I'd continue to maintain that people prefer the shortcut 
way.

But to see the illogical extremes to which this can go on, watch "Larry 
King Live" on CNN some evening.  Whoever is responsible for designing the 
fonts that identify callers has some system that requires nearly every 
state to follow the UC LC PERIOD format (like "Tn." "Tx." and, so help me 
I've really seen it: "Nj.")

The longer it goes on the less important I find it.  I'm old enough that I 
was using the older abbreviations long before the state codes arrived and 
I've watched the codes overtake traditional English for many years.  It 
still astounds me that the federal government can set itself up as the 
final arbiter of the English language and that the majority of people will 
buy into it without question!


+ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
| Elliott Mitchell
|  Peabody College at Vanderbilt University
|  Nashville, Tenn. Home of the Grand Ole Opry
|  IN: mitcheec@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu | BN: MITCHEEC@VUCTRVAX