Dear colleague, now it is more clear.
Jan. = "led." Feb. = "ún." Mar. = "břez." Apr. = "dub." May = "květ." Jun. = "červ." Jul. = "červen." Aug. = "srp." Sep. = "září" Oct. = "říj." Nov. = "list." Dec. = "pros." Yes, this is possible, because in theory you can shorten every word. It may be a little bit confusing since July is "červen." and červen (June) is "červ.". (červ is in Czech a "worm"). But this system is not used in the Czech Republic, because no Czech writes months in the first place. 5. 1. is therefore only 5th January and never 1st May.
All begin with lower case letters as shown.
In Czech language the month names are always written like that. Only first word of a sentence is natural exception: "Červen je šestý měsíc."
My personal preference remains to have the ISO standard format for dates (YYYY-MM-DD) but I have no illusion about this idea finding acceptance from most English speakers.
It is possible for storing dates, but for viewing we use only 2 systems: a) 1. února 2004 (month is in genitiv, therefore ended with -a) b) 1. 2. 2004
Arguments can be made for both abbreviated and numeric representations for months
I don't agree. Abbreviated months are not used.
and in the former Czechoslovakia numbers would have avoided any requirements to choose between different Czech and Slovak forms.
Czech and Slovak are two different languages. It something like English and French in Canada (if you don't care that Czech and Slovak are very close to each other which is not the case of English and French). Therefore the difference in month names in Czechoslovakia was the one of many more important differences.
For you the abbreviations might be most useful in dealing with confused expatriates who are now living in the United States. :-)
In which sense?
Yes, there are some computer lists which use this strange system.
V. Z.