We need a new English phonics alphabet: A for “Af”, B for “bk ”, D for “def”, F for “finmin”, G for “Guj”, H for “hosp”, M for “mths ”, N for “nat’l”, O for “ops”, Q for “Qstn”, S for “secy”, V for “vax”, Y or “yrs”.
If you are perplexed, you are not reading today’s English newspapers in India. Some years ago, a common complaint was how text messaging and then social media was badly influencing the conversation style among young people. “U no wat i m tryn 2 say?” Now it has permeated the English newspapers: the headlines are so much abbreviated that often they don’t make sense to the uninitiated.
When I was a young sub-editor in Indian English dailies, my news editors would simply bin the newsprint on which I’d draft headlines if I used any cryptic abbreviations. “No sir, this is not allowed,” they would roar. And mind it, at the time, the papers were composed with metal types, which did not allow you to reduce the font/type size to fit in longer headlines in the available space. Yet we always managed to write clear headlines. Today, when one can easily adjust font size to fit the headline within the space available, such nonsensical abbreviations don’t make sense.
Take a look at some of the gems of headlines I have collected from 3 English dailies I read now in print. The biggest user of cryptic abbreviations are the sub-editors of “India’s largest English newspaper” (The Times of India, where I learned the craft some 33 years ago and was fortunate to have some of the best news editors during my time). My limited empirical evidence shows more than half of their headlines are cryptic to the point of being incomprehensible, while they can easily be edited to be concise and clear. Shout out to the copy editors in “India’s national newspaper since 1878” (The Hindu) who seem to be excellent in following this good practice.
You will need a primer to understand the headlines in TOI, The Hindustan Times and such papers, so here is my short compilation. What other nonsensical abbreviations have you come across?
Af = Afghanistan
anniv = anniversary
biz = business
bizman = businessman
bk = bank
B’shahr = Bulandshahr
bro(s) = brother(s)
Cal = Calcutta
def = defence
Del = Delhi
doc = doctor
fin = finance/financial
finmin = finance minister
govt = government
Guj = Gujarat
Gzb = Ghaziabad
hosp = hospital
hrs = hours
K’taka = Karnataka
Maha = Maharashtra
med = medical
mgmt = management
min = minister/ministry
mkt(s) = market(s)
mth(s) = month(s)
nat’l = national
Oly = Olympics
ops = operations
org = organization
Pak = Pakistan(i)
Pb = Punjab
qstn = question
secy = secretary
U’khand = Uttarakhand
vax = vaccines
yrs = years