FDR would be amazed

Americans love acronyms. They are ubiquitous. Just think of how much time you spend on CBS, NBC, and ESPN watching NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA not to mention CSI, CSI:NY, and NCIS. The government is in on it too: CIA, FBI, DEA, FDA, etc. (or perhaps ad nauseum).

One of the contributing factors to this is that all but one of the names for letters in English are monosyllabic. (You're smart enough to figure out which one isn't.) This fact is more important than you think. By contrast, in Spanish ten letters have two syllables (f, h, j, l, m, n, r, s, x, z), one has three (w), and one has four (y). What this means is that approximately half of the letters require two or more syllables to pronounce. That can lengthen the pronunciation of an acronym by 50-100% easily.

Consider ESPN. In English this is an unproblematic string of single syllables: ee-es-pee-en. But in Spanish (and yes, we have ESPN access here) two of the letters are double syllable making it eh-ese-pe-ene, or 50% longer. Worse still is Major League Soccer, the MLS. All three of these are double syllable--eme-ele-ese--making the acronym 100% longer than the English original.

To compensate Spanish speakers make their acronyms longer. The point of this is to form the acronym into a collection of letters that can be pronounced as a word. The result is some astounding acronyms. A skim through the paper here on an average day yields an absolute alphabet soup of these, so many I can't keep track of them all. ENEE, SANAA, CONASIN, UNAH, IHNFA, FARP, AHCORENA, SOPTRAVI, etc. The list is endless. (Notable examples of the same phenomena  in English would be POTUS and MADD). Explaining one will suffice. One of my favorites is INJUPEMP. It just looks silly to me and doesn't even work that well as a Spanish word. That m-p consonant blend is unusual. Here's what it stands for: Instituto Nacional de Jubilaciones y Pensiones de los Empleados (roughly translated: National Institution for Workers' Retirements and Pensions).

The NFL suffers the same fate as MLS; its acronym requires six syllables rather than three. Maybe it could improve its chances if it modified its acronym in Latin American countries to NaFoL, or better yet LiNFA for Liga Nacional de Fútbol Americano.

That and if it could somehow become as interesting and beautiful a game as fútbol.