Just 26 letters make a language

It could be difficult to swallow the belief that Campbell’s alphabet soup was one of my favorite meals as a boy. But that could be related to my being “a man of letters,” namely the English alphabet. I did not achieve a B.A., M.A. or Ph.D., but squeaked out an A.A., but underwent a lot of OJT.

It might also be tough to comprehend that our alphabet, composed of only 26 characters from A to Z, involves 171,476 words in current use and 47,156 obsolete words, according to various sources. Not to mention more than 600,000 word forms when including derivatives and phrases.

Additionally, some sources state that there are in excess of a million words, although that would include scientific terms, jargon and words with limited usage. Cussing and fussing words apparently aren’t considered, but we won’t get into that now. I must confess, though, that having had much contact in my younger days with soldiers, sailors and marines, plus angry shipyard and logging workers, my blankety-blank vocabulary is extensive.

Moving on, I swear that none of those words will appear here. However, the idea for this bit of writing came to the fore, or maybe five, when I began to consider how many of us use the alphabet by utilizing abbreviations, acronyms and initialisms. Yes, we need to consider that ASAP and PDQ, especially if invited to a party needing an RSVP especially if it’s from POTUS.

In some of my medical days I have been an OR and ICU patient after suffering an MI and needing EMTs with a rapid ETA, visiting an ER and undergone help via an MRI and a CT. My BP was not good. I have been aided by MDs, RNs, CNAs, PAs, NPs and LPNs. When I order merchandise, often using the UPC, I sometimes have items delivered via the USPS, UPS or FedEx. Earlier this year I suffered from a case of RSV and had to add to my Rx collection.

It seems that we take acronyms for granted so much that full names are rarely used. We have the FBI, FEMA, IRS, NASA, NBA, AFL and NCAA. Also the BLM (land and race), USFS and NPS. For vacations some visit a VRBO or B&B.

We have RADAR, SONAR, PTSD,  AWOL (now shortened to UA), AARP and AA. The list is endless, although at work some use TGIF for relief. FYI, for security we must use a PIN in many cases, which is not a LOL matter. BTW, some have a YOLO philosophy and a FOMO.

As stated earlier, there are for eg. so many acronyms and abbreviations that this entire page could be filled with them, etc. Actually, IMO the use of OMG should be halted. Let us simply conclude that our readers are the GOAT so I’ll TTYL.