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Letter sequences

Letter sequences occur in spelled words, ZIP-codes, acronyms and abbreviations (``D F W''; ``A P slash eighty''; ``P M''; ``C O''; etc.) Letters should be in upper case, separated by a space. If letters have several names, like Y in Dutch, the actual name used must be transliterated instead of ``Y''. The AM and PM of times (e.g. ``five thirty P M'') will be treated as examples of letter sequences, i.e. upper case and separated by a space, with no periods.

If a speaker pronounces letters, acronyms or abbreviations as a word, for example ``British Rail'' for BR, then these should be spelled out as words.

If a speaker realises letters, especially consonants, by producing their phonetic form, upper case letters within slashes are used, e.g. /B/ /A/ /L/ spelling the Dutch word `bal'.

As there can be different pronunciation schemes for letter spellings which it would be beneficial to identify, it is suggested that A B C...Z be used for the most common spelling form, and variations be marked by unique letter sequences which are not confusible with words, e.g. ZEE for US Z (cf. the final section on language specific issues).




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