Shortening is the process and the result of forming a word out of the initial elements (letters, morphemes) of a word combination.
Shortenings are produced in 2 ways: To make a new word from a syllable (rarer two) of the original words. The latter may lose it’s beginning (telephone – phone, defence - fence), it’s ending (holidays – hols, advertisement- ad), or both the beginning and the ending (influenza – flu, refrigerator - fridge) To make a new word from the initial letters of a word group: U.N.O – United Nation Organization, B.B.C. and etc. Shortening (landing) strip. The Abbreviations are words formed from the initial letters of each of the parts of a phrasal term. There are 2 types of abbreviations: 1) Acronyms (word-combinations pronounced as a word, popular especially in politics and technological vocabulary): NATO — the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, National Organization for Women – NOW. They may be homonyms to ordinary word); 2) Alphabetisms (pronounced as a series of letters, retaining correlation with prototype: B.B.C- the British Broadcasting Corporation, SOS – Save Our Souls). Graphical abbreviations are symbols used instead of words in written English, for economy of space (gvt - government, DC – District of Columbia).
