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

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 out when we pronounce the name of each, as in the alphabet: USSR - [es-es-es-er], not [ussr]; PE - [che-pe], not [chp]; RZD - [er-zhe-de], not [rzhd]; UFO is [en-el-o], not [UFO]. These are letter abbreviations.

There are also those 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]; MFA - [mid], not [um-i-de]; MKHAT - [mkhat], not [um-ha-a-te]. These are, accordingly, sound abbreviations.

How to write abbreviations correctly

Not so long ago, there was a rule that can be found in the classic Rosenthal handbook:

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.
Abbreviations are written in lowercase, readable by sounds, formed from common nouns.

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

However, there is a reservation in Rosenthal's handbook: the abbreviations HPP, GRES and ZhEK were written 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 changed. Now sound abbreviations are given in capital letters: traffic police, AIDS, mass media, research institutes. By the way, when such words are declined, uppercase ones are retained in the base, and lowercase ones appear at the end: Youth Theater, AIDS, ZhEK.

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

Perhaps we will also see the university in dictionaries, but now spelling in lowercase letters is considered literate - university.