Canadian subnational postal abbreviations 1614686 216218504 2008-05-31T17:21:04Z Thijs!bot 1392310 robot Adding: [[de:Postalische Abkürzungen für Provinzen und Territorien Kanadas]] This is a list of '''Canadian provincial and territorial postal abbreviations'''. [[Canada Post]] currently uses a code system of two [[capital letters]] to represent the 13 [[provinces and territories of Canada|provinces and territories]] on addressed [[mail]]. These abbreviations allow automated [[sorting]]. These codes replaced the inconsistent designation system used by [[Canada|Canadians]] in the [[1990]]s. == Current abbreviations == The sources of the current abbrevations vary. Some are from the initials of two of the words in the name of a province or territory, while others are from the first and final letter or from the first and some other letter in the name. All of these names are based on the [[Canadian English|English]] form of the name, though they also correspond to their French equivalents in various ways (for example, NT could be read for the first and last letters of Nord-Ouest, instead of Northwest Territories). For Quebec and New Brunswick, the two provinces with large numbers of French-speakers, the initials in both languages are identical. The lack of large numbers of Francophones in British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Northwest Territories, and Prince Edward Island would make an abbreviation based on the French name of the province impractical. Yet they once existed ''(see [[#Former abbreviations|Former abbreviations]])''. Manitoba's abbreviation is due to U.S. states already having abbreviations in all of the letters of the province's name besides "B". These abbreviations are fully compatible with the [[U.S. postal abbreviations|equivalent]] two-letter codes used for [[U.S. state|states]] and [[political divisions of the United States|territorial areas]] of the [[United States]], because no abbreviations overlap. The policy of not overlapping adjacent-country abbreviations effectively precludes use of [[Nevada|NV]] (Nevada) in [[Nunavut]] and [[Tennessee|T-N]] as « Terre-Neuve » ([[Newfoundland and Labrador|Newfoundland]]). This policy later became a formal agreement between Canada Post and the USPS. There are no Canadian provinces with names potentially overlapping any other adjacent-country territorial abbreviations, such as [[Saint Pierre and Miquelon|SPM]] and [[Greenland|GL]], so the issue is presently confined to US-style addresses. <center> {| class="wikitable" align="center" ! Abbreviation !! English name !! French name !! Source |- | '''AB''' || [[Alberta]] || Alberta || First letter of first two syllables |- | '''BC''' || [[British Columbia]] || Colombie-Britannique || Initials |- | '''MB''' || [[Manitoba]] || Manitoba || First letter of first and last syllables |- | '''NB''' || [[New Brunswick]] || Nouveau-Brunswick || Initials |- | '''NL''' || [[Newfoundland and Labrador]] || Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador || Initials |- | '''NS''' || [[Nova Scotia]] || Nouvelle-Écosse || Initials |- | '''NT''' || [[Northwest Territories]] || Territoires du Nord-Ouest || Initials |- | '''NU''' || [[Nunavut]] || Nunavut || First two letters |- | '''ON''' || [[Ontario]] || Ontario || First two letters |- | '''PE''' || [[Prince Edward Island]] || Île-du-Prince-Édouard || Initials of first two words |- | '''QC''' || [[Quebec]] || Québec || First and last letters |- | '''SK''' || [[Saskatchewan]] || Saskatchewan || First letter of first two syllables |- | '''YT'''<sup id="YT">[[#YK|&#91;A&#93;]]</sup> || [[Yukon]] || Yukon || Initials of "Yukon Territory" |} </center> (Note: The Canadian policy of adopting '''non'''-overlapping abbreviations to adjacent countries was opposite to the policy adopted by Mexico, where the most convenient two-letter combinations were chosen, regardless of whether that combination was already in use in the United States or Canada, e.g., CO Coahuila, MI Michoacán, MO Morelos, NL Nuevo León, BC Baja California.) Newfoundland and Labrador's abbreviation became effective [[21 October]] [[2002]] to reflect the provincial name change from "Newfoundland" to "Newfoundland and Labrador" on [[6 December]] [[2001]]. Nunavut's code became effective [[13 December]] [[2000]]; before this date and after Nunavut's creation on [[1 April]] [[1999]], the abbreviation "NT" was used for Nunavut as well as the Northwest Territories. The postal abbreviation could have been said to stand for "Nunavut Territory" (although "Territory" is not part of its official name), reflecting its creation out of Northwest Territories. Using NT for two sparsely populated territories might have been practical, precluding those in Nunavut from additional expenses of replacing signage, letterhead, business cards, and the like. The postal codes for the two territories also begin with 'X', the only two territorial or provincial jurisdictions to share the same initial postal code letter. However, the new code NU was chosen to stem possible confusion and to reflect the new territory's creation. These abbreviations have no relationship to letters in [[Canadian postal code|postal codes]], which are assigned by Canada Post on a different basis than these abbreviations. While postal codes are also used for sorting, they allow extensive regional sorting. In addition, several provinces have postal codes that begin with different letters. A sample of a proper address<ref name="CanadianAddressingGuide">[http://web.archive.org/web/20070113051435/http://canadapost.ca/personal/tools/pg/manual/b03-e.asp#655244| "Canadian Addressing Guide", ''Canada Postal Guide''], Canada Post, 2006; accessed July 19, 2006</ref><ref name="CanadianAddressingGuidelines">[http://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual/PGaddress-e.asp#1379590| " Addressing Guidelines", ''Postal Guide''], Canada Post, 2007; accessed December 20, 2007</ref>: <blockquote><font face="Monaco,'Courier New',Courier"><span style="font-family: Monaco,'Courier New',Courier,monospaced;"> PAT ANYONE<br> 1643 DUNDAS ST W APT 27<br> TORONTO ON&nbsp;&nbsp;M6K&nbsp;1V2 </span></font></blockquote><!-- RETAIN both types of font-styling markup; they are for different generations of browsers. --> Note that the street type, unit type, and city quadrant, if applicable, are abbreviated, without periods (though using periods, or even spelling out every word in its entirety, is unlikely to affect delivery in any way). Note also the lack of a comma between municipality and province/territory, the double space between the latter and the postal code, and the single space between segments of postal code, all on one line. Addresses should be done in all-upper-case without punctuation, and the unit number may precede street number, with a hyphen, e.g., "27-1643 DUNDAS ST W" using the above example.<ref name="CanadianAddressingGuidelines" /> <ref name="PostalStandards">[http://web.archive.org/web/20070103222648/http://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/standards/cps1-05-e.asp#c014|"Addressing", ''Postal Standards''], Canada Post, 2006; accessed July 19, 2006)</ref> <ref name="PostalStandards2">[http://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual/PGaddress-e.asp#1379590|"Civic Addresses", ''Postal Standards''], Canada Post, 2007; accessed December 20, 2007)</ref> == Former abbreviations == These are all [[deprecated]] as postal abbreviations (but not as abbreviations in any other context). It is noteworthy that some of the abandoned French versions included a hyphen. The eventual goal became to standardize all abbreviations into two-character units. In French, with the hyphen, it became a three-character abbreviation, yet, without it, conflict arose with US state abbreviations, e.g., a hyphenless T-N became TN (a duplicate of Tennessee); N-E became NE (a duplicate of Nebraska). Over time, the English forms became standard. Nunavut (created in 1999) does not have a former abbreviation because it did not exist when these codes were phased out. * [[Alberta]] - '''Alta.''' <sup id="Alta">[[#Alb|&#91;C&#93;]]</sup> * [[British Columbia]] - '''B.C.''' and '''C.-B.''' (the latter is the French version, for ''Colombie-Britannique'') * [[Labrador]] - '''LB''' This appeared in Canada Post publications (e.g., The Canadian Postal Code Directory) for the mainland section of the province of Newfoundland. * [[Manitoba]] - '''Man.''' * [[New Brunswick]] - '''N.B.''' * [[Newfoundland and Labrador|Newfoundland]] - '''Nfld.''' and later '''NF''' (the two-letter abbreviation used before the province's name changed to Newfoundland and Labrador) and '''T.-N.''' (French version, for ''Terre-Neuve'') <sup id="Nfld">[[#LB|&#91;D&#93;]]</sup> * [[Northwest Territories]] - '''N.W.T.''' and '''T.N.O.''' (French version, for ''Territoires du Nord-Ouest'') * [[Nova Scotia]] - '''N.S.''' and '''N.-É.''' (French version, for ''Nouvelle-Écosse'') * [[Ontario]] - '''Ont.''' * [[Prince Edward Island]] - '''P.E.I.''' and '''Î.P.É.''' (French version, for ''Île-du-Prince-Édouard''); * [[Quebec]] - '''Que.''' and '''P.Q.''' (French version, for ''Province de Québec''); later, '''PQ''' evolved from P.Q. as the first two-letter non-punctuated abbreviation. Later still, '''QU''' evolved as the second two-letter non-punctuated abbreviation, making Quebec's abbreviation consistent with other provinces insofar as using letters solely from the name of the province, but not the word "province", as PQ did. There may also have been political considerations, as "PQ" was and is common shorthand for the [[Parti Québécois]]. * [[Saskatchewan]] - '''Sask.''' * [[Yukon]] - '''Yuk.''' == See also == * [[Canada Post]] * [[Canadian postal code]] * [[U.S. postal abbreviations]] * [[ISO 3166-2:CA]] ==Notes== : <span id="YK">A.</span> '''[[#YT|^]]''' Commonly though unofficially '''YK''' (also used in the [[.ca#Second-level domains|second-level country code domain]] name space [http://www.gov.yk.ca yk.ca]). ISO-3166-2 lists YT as official [http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_3166-2_newsletter_i-1_en.pdf]. : <span id="Alb">C.</span> '''[[#Alta|^]]''' Also commonly, but unofficially '''Alb.''' in French. : <span id="LB">D.</span> '''[[#Nfld|^]]''' '''LB''' was commonly but unofficially used for Labrador. ==Notes== {{reflist|2}} [[Category:Lists of Canadian abbreviations]] [[Category:Canada Post]] [[de:Postalische Abkürzungen für Provinzen und Territorien Kanadas]]