IMHO abbreviations are shortened forms of words used to save time or effort in written language. In most cases the full form is used in spoken language, so why do some people use the short form when speaking? The most glaring example is in court cases, as in Brown v. Board of Education. Many times I hear this as Brown vee Board of Education, as opposed to Brown versus Board of Education. Why is this? We don’t pronounce Mr. Brown as Mur Brown, so why not say versus instead of vee?
The same goes for for pronouncing i.e. as eye eee instead of that is. In fact I used to have a Merriam Webster Collegiate dictionary (seventh editon, I think) that gave the pronunciation of i.e. as “that iz.”
When I see “vs.”, I pronounce it “versus”. I only ever see “v.” used for court cases. If some lawyer has a stick so far up his butt that he wants to save typing one extra letter, then I’m going to save myself the trouble of that extra syllable.
I question the OP’s premise. Do you always say “Federal Bureau of Investigation” or just “eff-bee-eye”. At the Olympics, is the chant “United States of America! United States of America” or “U-S-A! U-S-A!”? What about laser, radar, and sonar?
Because “Brown vee Board of Education” reflects exactly what is written. The brain does not have to translate the nice, short, simple “v” into a two-syllable word.
True. Tradition and habit. “Mister” is a word most people use every day, and have almost their whole lives. ETA: They automatically read “Mr.” as “mister.” “Versus,” on the other hand, is specialized and typically has very narrow applications. And there’s no compelling reason to say it instead of “vee.” It’s an apples and oranges situation.
That’s messed up. The meaning is “that is,” but the pronunciation of “i.e.” is in deed “eye ee.” One can paraphrase it into “that is,” but it’s read the way it’s written: “eye ee.”
Are you next going to complain that people read “e.g.” as “ee gee,” instead of saying “exempli gratia?” Here’s a hint to make your life easier: save your breath.
the v in court cases can be pronounced in at least four different ways: “vee,” “versus,” “against,” or “and.”
I.e. doesn’t really stand for “that is” though it is often read aloud that way. It stands for the Latin phrase “id est.” You will sound like a pretentious bore of you read it that way though. Take it from a recovering pretentious bore.
The abbreviation et al. can stand for five or six different Latin phrases: [ul]
et alius (and another person of unknown sex or known to be male)
et alii (and other people of unknown or mixed sex or known to be all male)
et alia (and another person known to be female)
et aliae (and other people known to be all female)
et aliud (and another thing)
et alia (and other things; spelled and pronounced the same as #3 but really a different form)[/ul]Even if you replace the abbreviation with an English phrase you still have to decide whether the writer meant “and others” or “and another”. Much easier just to pronounce it “et al.”
AM - ante meridian
PM - post meridian
AD - anno Domini
BC - before Christ
CE - common era
BCE - before common era
Ph.D. - Philosophiæ Doctor
M.D. - Medicinae Doctor
M.A. - Magister Artium
M.S. - Magister Scientiae
Ll.B. - Legum Baccalaureus
PS - post scriptum
QED - quod erat demonstratum
RIP - requiescat in pace
viz. - videlicet
q.v. - quod vide
Apparently in Indian English it is common to speak month abbreviations. At work I hear things like this all the time: “The document is due in Feb.” Common for Jan, Feb, but not the other months.