I know people in San Francisco hate it when you call it “Frisco”, but nobody in Las Vegas minds if you call it Vegas. Most people here say they live in Las Vegas, but if anyone says they are from Vegas, it is not like people are pissed off or anything.
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By that token, Johannesburg is routinely shortened to Jo-Burg in speech.
Milton Keynes, artificially created city in England. Known as MK, e.g. in the name of football team MK Dons. Named after economists Milton Friedman and John Maynard Keynes [sub]not[/sub].
I don’t think airport codes count. And I’ve never encountered LDN, except in the title of that Lily Allen song, or in BBC London adverts. Nobody says “I’m off to LDN tomorrow”, do they?
Isla Vista, the college student ghetto next to UCSB, is known as IV. Santa Barbara is quite often known as SB, hopefully nobody gets it confused with San Bernadino (San Berdoo).
[QUOTE=Usram]
I don’t think airport codes count. And I’ve never encountered LDN, except in the title of that Lily Allen song, or in BBC London adverts. Nobody says “I’m off to LDN tomorrow”, do they?
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I’ve seen it referred to as LDN in e-mails, text and the like, but I guess it’s not as widespread.
Glasgow gets referred to as GLA via text and type a fair bit, it just happens to also be the code for Glasgow International.
Barcelona, aka Barna, aka Barnacity (chiefly among the comic books, fantasy & sci-fi crowd, as that’s what it was called in a fanzine and table RPG), aka BCN pronounced besaena…
[QUOTE=matt_mcl]
Oh, and since someone mentioned states, the provinces of British Columbia and Prince Edward Island are universally abbreviated, in print and speech, to BC and PEI.
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New South Wales is “NSW” in writing, and often spoken as /en ess dub/.
South Africa, South America and South Australia are all “SA”, which can be very confusing in some contexts.
[QUOTE=Giles]
New South Wales is “NSW” in writing, and often spoken as /en ess dub/.
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(bolding mine)
I’m NSW born and bred, and I can unreservedly say that I have NEVER heard that.
It’s only three syllables in full - nobody shortens it, except sometimes to “New South”, and that’s a Melbourne thing.
You do occasionally hear it disparagingly referred to (by country residents complaining of funding to the big cities) as “Yeah, right; En Ess Double-U: Newcastle Sydney Wollongong!”
Surprisingly those who’ve mentioned T.O. have neglected GTA which I suspect is so commonplace here that it doesn’t stand out. Greater Toronto Area encompasses the surrounding communities, and GTA is easier to say than Torontopolis.