Reply To: Keys transcribed in the Nemeth Code
Dear Georgia Braille,
I sent your inquiry to Betty Marshall and received the following responses:
- The revision to NC Section 187. Keying Technique, c. "...Contractions and letter combinations that correspond to short form words may not be used. ..." is from the March 1, 2011 BANA Nemeth Update.
- The TG Guidelines, approved in November 2010, section 5.8.2.3 states, "Some short form words that consist of two English letters may be used in a key. Even though the contraction for the word "letter" is "lr", it may still be used, since it is made up of two separate letters. The only short form contractions that can be used are: al, bl, fr, hm, xs, xf, lr, ll, pd, qk, sd, td, tm, tn, wd, yr. This is because this list is all made up of 2 English letters. Other short form contractions have contractions within them – for example, children is a short form word, but it contains a contraction chn not just 2 English letters.
The TG Guidelines were approved in 2010 and the Nemeth update was adopted in March 1, 2011. I will forward information about this situation to the BANA Nemeth Committee and BANA TG Committee chairs and ask them discuss.
Very impressive that your group pointed this out!!! Diane