Why "university" and not "university": how to understand the spelling of abbreviations once and for all

Very often, the abbreviation of the phrase "higher education institution" is written in capital letters. but University - it is not right. Let's figure out how it happened and how not to be mistaken in writing other abbreviations.

What are the abbreviations

Abbreviations are compound abbreviated words that are made up of the first letters or syllables of a phrase.

Some of them can be spelled when we pronounce the name of each, as in the alphabet: the USSR - [es-es-es-er], not [ussr]; State of emergency - [che-peh], not [chp]; Russian Railways - [er-zhe-de], not [rzhd]; UFO - [en-el-o], not [ufo]. These are letter abbreviations.

There are also some that are read by sound, that is, we pronounce them in the same way as any other ordinary words: UN - [un], not [o-o-en]; Ministry of Foreign Affairs - [mid], not [um ‑ i ‑ de]; Moscow Art Theater - [mkhat], not [uh-ha-a-te]. These are, accordingly, sound abbreviations.

How to write abbreviations correctly

Not so long ago there was a ruleD. NS. Rosenthal. Russian language reference: spelling and punctuation, which can be found in the classic Rosenthal reference:

• Abbreviations read by the names of letters are written in capital letters, as well as abbreviations read by sounds, if they are formed from their own names.
• Are written in lowercase abbreviations, readable by sounds, formed from common nouns.

Abbreviation university we pronounce by sounds, not by the names of letters: [university], not [ve-u-ze]. This is not a proper name, as UN or Moscow Art Theater. Therefore, for many years now, the word university written in lowercase letters.

However, even in Rosenthal's handbook there is a caveat: behind the abbreviations Hydroelectric power station, GRES and ZhEK the spelling was fixed in capital letters. That is, for a very long time, native speakers began to write common nouns in large letters. Contrary to the rule in force.

Over time, the rule has changedRussian spelling and punctuation rules. Complete academic reference book edited by V. V. Lopatina. Sound abbreviations are now rendered in capital letters: Traffic police, AIDS, mass media, Research institutes. By the way, when declining such words, uppercase is preserved in the base, and lowercase appear at the end: Youth Theater, AIDS, ZhEKa.

So why is it still university, but not University? The rules of the Russian language are very fond of exceptions. By tradition, writing in lowercase letters was preserved behind words university, technical college, pillbox and bunker. And some sound acronyms got two equally correct spelling options: marriage registry and marriage registry, NEP and NEP.

Perhaps we will still see in dictionaries and University, but now writing in lowercase letters is considered literate - university.