Abbreviations Dictionary

The abbreviations dictionary is used for abbreviations (both with and without periods) which do not require the use of annotations in their translation.
The abbreviations dictionary is case-sensitive.  So for example, if you entered the key Mar to translate to "march," lower-case "mar" would still be pronounced as expected (`[mar]).
When you enter a key in the abbreviations dictionary, it is not necessary to follow it with a "trailing" period (such as "etc.").  The dictionary look-up routine will still find and pronounce the abbreviation as you have specified, whether or not it has a trailing period.  However, if you want an abbreviation to be pronounced as such only when it is followed by a period in the text, then you must enter the trailing period in the key.  The following table summarizes the use of trailing periods:

Key entry:	Will match:
inv	inv inv.
sid.	sid. (not sid)
An abbreviation dictionary entry invokes different assumptions about how to interpret a following period in the text than does a special words dictionary entry.  Since the period cannot be part of a special words entry, it is automatically interpreted as end-of-sentence punctuation.  A period following an abbreviations dictionary entry, on the other hand, is ambiguous.  It will only be interpreted as end-of-sentence punctuation if other appropriate conditions obtain (e.g., if it is followed by two spaces and an upper-case letter).  For example, input (a) will be interpreted as one sentence, while (b) will be interpreted as two sentences.

	(a) It rained 2 cm. on Monday.
	(b) On Sunday it rained 2 cm.  On Monday, it was sunny.

Allowable Abbreviations Dictionary Entries

Key 	Translation 
	sequences of one or more letters optionally separated by periods, (x.x.x or xx.xx.xx)	sequences of letters, with or without the trailing period that may be considered part of the abbreviation (xxx. or xxx)	upper or lower case letters	internal apostrophes (not the first or last character in the sequence)		one or more valid words in ordinary spelling, including both upper and lower case letters, separated by white space or hyphen
NO:  digits, non-letter symbols, white space, or punctuation (except periods)	NO: digits, punctuation, SPRs, tags, or annotations
Abbreviations Dictionary Examples

Key 	Translation 
Is.D.	eye ess dee  
punct	punctuation  
para	paragraph  
Ltjg	lieutenant junior-grade  
Fr	Friar
int'l	international  

See also:  
Special Words Dictionary
Roots Dictionary 

You can temporarily override the use of both internal and user-defined abbreviations with a tag; see Dictionary Processing of Abbreviations. 





