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Subject:Re: Abbreviations From:Kim Ballard <ballardk -at- MACE -dot- CC -dot- PURDUE -dot- EDU> Date:Sat, 11 Sep 1993 16:08:32 EST
'Ken d'Albenas' writes in an earlier message
> -
> Simon North posted the list of abbreviations for U.S. states,
> and then added:
> >
> > I'm still looking for an authoritative source for other countries ....
> >
> Here are the abbreviations for Canada. The
> abbreviations used in normal writing are from personal
> knowledge - but, since I'm probably not quite the
> "authoritative source" you were hoping for, I also
> verified them in the Gage Canadian Dictionary.
> The 2-letter postal abbreviations come from Canada Post
> Corp's postal code directory.
> In east-to-west order:
> Provinces:
> Newfoundland (Nfld.) NF
> Nova Scotia (N.S.) NS
> Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) PE
> New Brunswick (N.B.) NB
> Quebec (Que. or P.Q.) PQ or QC*
> Ontario (Ont.) ON
> Manitoba (Man.) MB
> Saskatchewan (Sask.) SK
> Alberta (Alta.) AB
> British Columbia (B.C.) BC
> * I spoke to someone at Canada Post about this
> recently. She said PQ is French and QC is English.
> Sigh. Such is the illogic (okay, craziness) of a
> partially bilingual country with serious identity
> problems on both sides of the language wall.
> NOTE: a lot of people are using "QU" but this is
> not recognized at all by Canada Post.
> ** Nunuvut, the new territory carved out of N.W.T.,
> has no official standing with Canada Post yet.
> One last thing:
> In the past I have asked a couple of postal reps in
> both the U.S.A. and Canada about the 2-letter
> abbreviations, and gotten the same acknowledgment
> each time: when they stop to think about it, all
> those 2-letter postal abbreviations are pretty much
> _effectively_ obsolete. The street address and zip/
> postal code are what the posties use for standard
> processing. The postal/zip code reigns supreme!!
> If you omit it, the package drops out of the automated
> system, and at some point a human will try to interpret
> the address and direct it properly. It doesn't really
> matter any more whether you use a 2-letter abbreviation
> or something else. The human can understand Nfld.
> as easily as NF, or N.Dak. as easily as ND.
> Cheers,
> Ken d'Albenas
> STC Alberta Chapter
> (-::
> Replies to: kendal -at- autotrol -dot- cuc -dot- ab -dot- ca
> Flames to: kendal@/dev/not
> *****************************
--
Kim Ballard
Purdue University
ballardk -at- mace -dot- cc -dot- purdue -dot- edu
