Abbreviation for Avenue: Ave or Av?

[1995hoo]

The bilingual names thing is stupid regardless because it is a well established standard that you don't translate proper nouns. It is "Rue Wellington", under no circumstance is calling it "Wellington Street" appropriate, even if you are speaking English. Also, not speaking French does not hinder comprehension of the former because hey, if it's on a street sign, what do you think it's referring to, a platypus?

....

Remember, though, that Canada doesn't necessarily follow US standards. The bilingualism thing, as you know, is a massive political issue there and that almost certainly plays into these sorts of signs where they're used. It's understandable why Ottawa, as the capital, would be particularly thorough.

From what I understand of French grammar, "rue" (or other road type) isn't considered a proper noun in French and it'd normally be written in all lowercase if it appeared mid-sentence (thus a BGS is an exception because its the first word). They only capitalize the "name," which itself is treated as an adjective because it tells you which street. (This is the same principle that explains why they call Concorde a "TSS" rather than an "SST"–in French it's "transport super-sonique" because you always put the adjective second.)

Thus, "drive two kilometres on Wellington Street" becomes "conduire deux kilomètres sur la rue Wellington."

[vtk]

Applying that information about the French language to American road sign design rules, I'd strongly lean towards "RUE Wellington" on street signs and BGS.  Or perhaps even "RUE Wellington St" to satisfy the political requirement for bilingualism.  And I know that asymmetry is going to be a problem for a lot of people here...

[mjb2002]

No difference for me. Where I live, it is AVE. Until 2010, the City of Aiken, S.C. used AV for their signs.

[Central Avenue]

Personally, I kinda like the bilingual street names. I guess it is kinda redundant, especially with words like Boulevard or Avenue that are the same in both languages, but I find it pleasant to look at and it really doesn't hurt anything.

Applying that information about the French language to American road sign design rules, I'd strongly lean towards "RUE Wellington" on street signs and BGS.  Or perhaps even "RUE Wellington St" to satisfy the political requirement for bilingualism.  And I know that asymmetry is going to be a problem for a lot of people here...

If you're going to go that far, it might even be better to just go all the way with "RUE Wellington ST". Not because the asymmetry bugs me (though it does ), but because it would help set the important part (the proper name) apart from the prefix/suffix.

As for Ave/Av: I like that "Av" is two letters because it matches most of the other common abbreviations, but I prefer "Ave".

[vtk]

Applying that information about the French language to American road sign design rules, I'd strongly lean towards "RUE Wellington" on street signs and BGS.  Or perhaps even "RUE Wellington St" to satisfy the political requirement for bilingualism.  And I know that asymmetry is going to be a problem for a lot of people here...

If you're going to go that far, it might even be better to just go all the way with "RUE Wellington ST". Not because the asymmetry bugs me (though it does ), but because it would help set the important part (the proper name) apart from the prefix/suffix.

...Except in English, that suffix is considered part of the proper name.  That's why we capitalize it, and that's why I left it in mixed-case in my example. Also note how in speech we emphasize the suffix word rather than the core name, except strangely for when the suffix is Street.

If we did de-annex the suffix from the proper name, in my mind we'd have to start adding a definite article.  Examples: the Gee lane, the Ricart freeway, the Wexner road, the Ohio street, the Twenty-Eighth avenue.

[builder_J]

Kansas City, Kansas uses "AV" on its ground-level signs, seemingly out of preference for all such abbreviations being two letters when possible ("boulevard" is "BL"). Weirdly, "Lane" is abbreviated to "LA" instead of "LN".

Also, in the Rosedale section of Kansas City, KS which borders the state line and is the only part of KCK where the Kansas City, MO street grid continues, "Avenue" is spelled out on the signs for the numbered streets in the area (ex. W 43RD AVENUE).

For the record, KCMO uses "AVE" on its signs.

[Scott5114]

Kansas City, Kansas uses "AV" on its ground-level signs, seemingly out of preference for all such abbreviations being two letters when possible ("boulevard" is "BL"). Weirdly, "Lane" is abbreviated to "LA" instead of "LN".

Also, in the Rosedale section of Kansas City, KS which borders the state line and is the only part of KCK where the Kansas City, MO street grid continues, "Avenue" is spelled out on the signs for the numbered streets in the area (ex. W 43RD AVENUE).

For the record, KCMO uses "AVE" on its signs.

KCK typically spells out STREET on numbered streets, too.

Didn't know that about Rosedale! (I'm most familiar with Argentine and the area around the racetrack.) Might be kind of confusing when the regular KCK grid comes into play too.

[empirestate]

...Except in English, that suffix is considered part of the proper name.  That's why we capitalize it, and that's why I left it in mixed-case in my example. Also note how in speech we emphasize the suffix word rather than the core name, except strangely for when the suffix is Street.

If we did de-annex the suffix from the proper name, in my mind we'd have to start adding a definite article.  Examples: the Gee lane, the Ricart freeway, the Wexner road, the Ohio street, the Twenty-Eighth avenue.

That was indeed the practice for much of English-speaking history, and still is for certain types of roads like expressways/freeways. In my neighborhood we have the Major Deegan Expressway, and I'm not to far from what, for most of its life, has been known as the Boston Post Road.

Or more strictly, the Boston post road, with only the proper name–Boston–capitalized. Except: earlier in English, like still in German, nouns were more frequently capitalized whether proper or not. So you might have "the Boston Post Road" just as you might generically refer to "the Post Road" or "meeting friends at the Tavern" or "criticising the Government".

[hm insulators]

I usually don't pay too much attention one way or the other.