How the Code for Pronunciation of an Acronym Works

• The pronunciation is represented with lower case characters. This is because some auditory browsers will verbalize "X" as "capital x".
• The letters of an initialism are separated by spaces, to indicate that the letters are to be pronounced separately. The letters of a pronounceable acronym are not separated to indicate that the acronym is to be pronounced as a word. Therefore the pronunciation reference for NSA will indicate that it should be spelled out as "n s a" while NASA should be pronounced intact as "nasa". Some acronyms may be a combination of both initials and a pronounced acronym, such as "c d rom" for CD-ROM.
• For plural initialisms, the end of the pronunciations are indicated as possessives, such as "a's" or "i's". This is because two letter words such as "as" or "is" would be pronounced with a short vowel sound.

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Last updated Saturday February 21, 2009