Basics
AHKExpansionsList is a text expansion dictionary - ie a list of abbreviations for words, formatted as AutoHotkey hotstrings.
Each hotstring consists of a pair of strings (an abbreviation plus the full form of a word or phrase), plus double colon (::) delimiters. When you type the abbreviation plus an ending character, AutoHotkey automatically expands it (ie replaces it with the full form). This can save a lot of typing.
The list could be easily converted into another format for use with a different text expansion program.
The first few lines of the file, before the list of hotstrings, are AutoHotkey settings and directives.
Prerequisites
AutoHotkey
Vocabulary
The list includes some of the most common words and short combinations of words in the English language.
As well as individual words and short combinations of words, the list also includes some personal names and place names, and a few computing terms and programming language keywords.
The list generally uses British English, rather than American English, though it's not completely consistent on this.
Steps used to generate abbreviations
I originally used VBA, then various bash scripts and commands, to generate abbreviations. I've also added many abbreviations manually.
Choosing abbreviations often involves a trade-off between keeping them both short and memorable, so the following steps haven't been followed rigidly.
Some shorter words don't have abbreviations at all.
Where 2 words (eg back and book) would otherwise share an abbreviation (eg bk) generated by the steps below, this is sometimes prevented by including another letter (often the first vowel which is different) in the abbreviation for the less common word (eg bok for book). In other cases, the less common word is not included at all in the list.
| Step to generate abbreviation | Example word or phrase | Abbreviation |
|---|---|---|
| all vowels removed | there | thr |
| - including y (where used as a vowel) | hypnotise | hpnts |
| - except the first leading vowel | Austrian | astrn |
| - and last trailing vowel | Austria | astra |
| -- though silent trailing -e is removed | table | tbl |
| all double consonants replaced with single ones | channel | chnl |
| trailing -ing replaced with -g | reading | rdg |
| tion replaced with n | radiation | rdn |
| ck replaced with k | block | blk |
| trailing -ble replaced with b | memorable | mmrb |
| trailing -ly replaced with y | usually | usy |
| trailing -you replaced with u | have you | hvu |
| dj replaced with j | adjust | ajst |
| ph replaced with f | physics | fscs |
| ct replaced with c | expect | expc |
| dg (where pronounced j) replaced with j | knowledge | nlj |
| w (where not pronounced as a consonant) removed | elbow | elbo |
| sch (where pronounced sh) replaced with sh | schedule | shdl |
| ch (where pronounced c) replaced with c | school | scl |
| gh (when pronounced f) replaced with f | enough | enf |
| sci/sce (when c silent) replaced with si/se | scientist | sntst |
| silent letters removed | through | thro |
| all spaces removed | in case | incs |
| (almost) all punctuation removed | they're | thyr |
| all letters lower case | America | amrca |
| (q used to prefix miscellaneous abbreviations, often using initials of each word) | by the way | qbtw |