Hungarian Orthography - Abbreviations and Acronyms - Acronyms

Acronyms

Acronyms are classified into two groups: those consisting only of initials (betűszók lit. ‘letter-words’), and those consisting parts of the original word (szóösszevonások ‘word contractions’).

The first group is divided again by whether they denote proper names (written in uppercase, e.g. ENSZ < Egyesült Nemzetek Szövetsége ‘United Nations Organization’, note that both letters of the digraphs SZ are capitalized) or common names (written in lowercase, e.g. vb < végrehajtó bizottság ‘executive committee’, note that it is written as one word despite the two elements). Some acronyms created from common names are still written in uppercase, though, especially in sciences (URH < ultrarövidhullám ‘ultra-high-frequency’) but other capitalized acronyms may be accepted too (TDK < tudományos diákkör ‘students’ scholarly circle’). In some cases, full-fledged words are created from the pronounced form of acronyms standing for common names (e.g. tévé < tv < televízió).

Acronyms of the second group are created from longer parts of the original words (in fact, at least one word of the original should keep at least two letters, not including digraphs). Their letters are not all capitalized, only the initial of acronyms that derive from proper names (e.g. Kermi < Kereskedelmi Minőség-ellenőrző Intézet, ‘Commercial Quality Control Institute’ cf. gyes < gyermekgondozási segély ‘maternity benefit’).

Neither type of acronyms need a full stop between their elements or at their end.

Acronyms take suffixes in accordance with their pronounced forms, whether their letters are pronounced one by one or as a full word (e.g. tbc-s ‘one with tuberculosis’). Those from the first group, consisting only of word initials, are suffixed with a hyphen. Their capitalized types will retain their uppercase even in their adjectival forms (ENSZ-beli ‘one from the UN’), and their ending vowel letter will not be lengthened even if it would be phonologically justified (e.g. ELTE-n ‘at ELTE’). Those from the second group, however, consisting of shorter pieces of the constituting words, take suffixes without a hyphen (e.g. gyesen van ‘she is on maternity leave’). The same happens to those words that were created from pronounced letters (e.g. tévézik ‘watch TV’). Proper name types of these acronyms are written in lowercase if an adjective is formed out of them (e.g. kermis ‘Kermi-related’). In addition, their ending vowel letter may be lengthened in accordance with general phonological rules (e.g. Hungexpo > Hungexpónál ‘at Hungexpo’).

Compounds are created with acronyms by the following rules: those from the first group take other elements with a hyphen (e.g. URH-adás ‘UHF broadcast’), and proper name types of the second group behave the same way (e.g. Kermi-ellenőrzés ‘control by Kermi’). The common name types of the second group, however, can be written as one word with other elements, except if they require a hyphen because of length (e.g. tévéközvetítés ‘TV transmission’).