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In article <26OCT199219491219@ctrvx1.vanderbilt.edu> mitcheec@ctrvx1.vanderbilt.edu (Elliott Mitchell) writes:
>How and when did 'Tennessee' become 'tn?'
>Are Tennesseans really so lazy that they can't bring themselves to 
>abbreviate the word 'Tennessee' as 'Tenn.' anymore?   Has the US Postal 
>service and IBM got so many people brainwashed that they've totally 
>forgotten how to abbrevate 'Tennessee' (not to mention the names of 
>virtually every other state in the union).

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. 

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.

Besides, if you are talking about being too lazy to write "Tenn" vs
"TN", why abbreviate at all, why not just write "Tennessee"?

-Rodney

--
rlw@issm1.memst.edu
weaverr@memstvx1 (bitnet)

> 
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

In <26OCT199219491219@ctrvx1.vanderbilt.edu> mitcheec@ctrvx1.vanderbilt.edu (Elliott Mitchell) writes:

>How and when did 'Tennessee' become 'tn?'

...stuff deleted...

>Now that we've got those responses out of the way, are there any others?

Well, consider the problem of usenet traffic.  Suppose all posters spelled
out their state's name instead of using the 2 char form.  So if the state
name is in 10000 messages a day, and if the 2 char form saves an average of
6 chars a name then we get a savings of 60000 bytes a day in message 
traffic.  What's wrong with that?  :-)


Neal McClain               | Beam me up Scottie, there's no intelligent 
Murfreesboro, Tn           | life down here!   
root@fincomp.raidernet.com | uunet!mjbtn!fincomp!root

In article <27OCT199216340954@ctrvx1.vanderbilt.edu>, mitcheec@ctrvx1.vanderbilt.edu (Elliott Mitchell) writes:
>
>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!

Well, I wouldn't say letting the Post Office determine the postal
abbreviations is that far out of line, but it's really no big deal.  I read in
the paper recently that it's now "legal" to use other unambiguous
abbreviations.  I've been using "Tenn." on mail for a few weeks now without
any problems.  I've even received mail back with "Tenn.".

-- 
Dave Sill (de5@ornl.gov)           For every Bill Joy there is a Kirk McKusick.
Martin Marietta Energy Systems     For every Bill Gates there is a Richard
Workstation Support                Stallman.                     --Paul Graham

In article <1992Oct28.151119.27030@fincomp.raidernet.com>, 
root@fincomp.raidernet.com (Neal McClain) writes...

>Well, consider the problem of usenet traffic.  Suppose all posters spelled
>out their state's name instead of using the 2 char form.  So if the state
>name is in 10000 messages a day, and if the 2 char form saves an average of
>6 chars a name then we get a savings of 60000 bytes a day in message 
>traffic.  What's wrong with that?  :-)
> 
Nothing's wrong with that, in fact a friend of mine made the same point 
about mass mailings, as that's one of his businesses.  But 1) I'd speculate 
that the amount saved in the way you describe is dwarfed by the sheer bulk 
of non-sense that passes for communication on usenet anyway ( :^{)  ) and 
2) I'm really more concerned about the use of the codes in everyday written 
English.

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

	This is the dumbest topic.


bsl


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