AIDS/sida in Romance & Other Languages

[ugly_boy]

While perousing Radio-Canada, I noticed this headline:

Bill Clinton et Bill Gates appellent la communauté internationale à faire de la lutte contre le sida une priorité

I recognize « sida » from Spanish as the word for AIDS, but it surprised me that the name was not in all caps, like it is in English, and like other acronyms are in French, i.e.

Comments

[aprendiz]

Is "sida" pronounced as a word in the same way AIDS is pronounced in English? I've noticed that the BBC doesn't fully capitalize pronounced acronyms (NASA is printed as Nasa, for one), so, maybe it's just the style of the source you were reading to have pronounceable acronyms in lowercase, while OQLF, for example, would remain as is.

The fact that you get varied results implies to me that it's a house style issue, but I don't know.

[ugly_boy]

I know for a fact that SIDA is pronounced as a word (/sida/) in Spanish and I assume that the same is true for French, especially when lowercased.

I've never seen the Nasa thing, although I'm not an avid BBC reader. Thanks for the info.

[dontbeakakke]

Yes, ugh that gets annoying, BBC. Same with the convention of referring to countries as plural: "England are slated to win the cricket match. Tea."

Oh well, I can deal with it.

[dontbeakakke]

Or should I say Bbc ???

Re: a/c

[jira_rd]

a.) I have really only seen SIDA in French, although I'm American, but I've been studying it for six yeras now and I have never not seen it capitalised.

c.) I believe in French is usually a masculine synonym, but I shall research that tonight.

[sparkofcreation]

In Spanish, acronyms take the genders of the principal noun: it's el sida because it's el síndrome... and la ONU because it's la Organización de Naciones Unidas.

The same applies to proper nouns, for example el [restaurán] McDonald's, la [película] Hable con ella. (-¿Qué visteis anoche? -«Hable con ella». -¿Y te gustó? -No, mi amiga quería verla, pero para mí fue bastante aburrida.)

The Diccionario panhispánico de dudas says that the use of "sida" instead of "SIDA" is because it's pronounced as written (see-dah, not esseh-ee-deh-ah) and is a common (not proper) noun.

[ugly_boy]

Gracias por la información. Aúnque el Diccionario panhispánico de dudas recomienda «sida,» parece que se lo suele escribir «SIDA.» Por lo menos, éso es lo que vi en mi busqueda de Google.

[fainic_thu_fein]

In Irish it's SEIF (Siondróm Easpa Imdhíonachta Faighte) and acronyms are always capitalized.

[ugly_boy]

Is it pronounced as a word like AIDS in English?

[fainic_thu_fein]

Yes, it sounds like the English word "chef"

[angelus_reborn]

I've seen some acronyms written in minuscule letters in newspapers here when the acornym had become so commonly used that it becomes an actual word.
Can't remember which acronyms I've seen written like that and how professional the sources were, but can vouch for having seen it before.

[ugly_boy]

By "here" do you mean the US?

[angelus_reborn]

Woops, sorry. In Quebec, Canada, so it's all langue maternelle stuff.

[ugly_boy]

Ah, merci.