How do you say...... (words with different pronounciations)

denny - I haven't had the pleasure of knowing any one from tiwan but I was told that in schools children are tought English to a very high standard and most people can speak English exceptionally well is this true or only true for the good schools?
 
CodeBlock said:
How do you say some of the internet/*nix derived words, like "GUI" and "regex"... Here's some of mine:

/usr => 'slash you ess are',
/var => 'slash var',
/etc => 'slash e tee see',
vi => 'vee eye',
vim => 'vim' (just like it looks),
regex => 'reg ex' (reg like register),
fstab => 'eff ess tab',
gnu => 'gee enn you',
sudo => I mix between 'so do' and 'sue dough'

"user file system and related items" /usr
"variables for services such as settings and messages" /var
"et cetera 'and such' for different configuration settings" /etc
vi "possibly visual interface" not sure
vim "vi improved" [man pages]
regex "regular expressions" [man pages are great]
"file system tablature a table of values for mount points"fstab
"Gnu's Not UNIX. This goes back to the UNIX multics onomatopoeia" gnu
"Super user" sudo
 
sudo
=> 'sue dough' or 'soooh dough' (again depending on the audience)
It's it short for "super user do"? I pronounce it as above, but it should probably be pronounced as the English verb "do".

GNOME => "GUH-noam" (I like to put a ton of emphasis on the GUH, as if I was some brain-damaged hillbilly (NB: I am))
GNU => "Stallman is an ***"
KDE => "This is a family forum, I'll not use such language here"
emacs => "ugh *shudder*"
viman.png
 
I've never understood pronouncing the G in GNOME. It's not like it's some bizarre, alien word. It spells out a real English word. Why not pronounce it like that word?

I even know people who pronounce it "gee-nome" (like the English word "genome"). WTF? :)
 
Also, it only dates from the 18th century, so it's still Greek to me.

phoenix said:
I've never understood pronouncing the G in GNOME. It's not like it's some bizarre, alien word. It spells out a real English word. Why not pronounce it like that word?

In ancient Greek the "g" was probably pronounced (cf γνωμολογητέον) so: atavism:D. Also, exaggeratedly mispronouncing something is an excellent way to demonstrate a limited amount of contempt.
 
GNOME is another one of the GNU foundations fascinations with recursive acronym like GNU - GNU's not unix. In gnomes case it sadly makes less sense as it stands for GNU Network Object Model Environment is it sad that every GNU or Linux related project has a silly or is it just me?
 
fronclynne said:
It's it short for "super user do"? I pronounce it as above, but it should probably be pronounced as the English verb "do".
You may be right, but I think most people read 'sudo' as a new word (rather than an abbreviation/contraction) that looks an awful lot like a certain Japanese martial art that involves lots of throwing other people around. And therefore pronounce it as such.

Alphons
 
Tang-Soo-Do you mean? it's Korean ;)
Don't say it's Japanese to anyone from Korea who knows Tang-Soo-Do ..
 
saxon3049 said:
denny - I haven't had the pleasure of knowing any one from tiwan but I was told that in schools children are tought English to a very high standard and most people can speak English exceptionally well is this true or only true for the good schools?

I can't really answer this question since I don't attend English classes right now (sort of quizzed out). However, I've observed that many students are able to pass exams, but they can't speak English or write English well (many grammar mistakes and a strong accent as well). The education system forces many students just learn how to do multiple choice questions.

In recent years, more emphasis has been put on speaking and writing, but there's still room for improvement.
 
Thanks for that, in England we tend to concentrate on French or German but hardly any one leaves school fluent in it as you said it's more of a multiple choice best out of 3.
 
/usr --> "slash user"
/var --> "slash vair"
/etc --> "slash ee tee see"
vi --> "vee eye"
vim --> "vim"
regex --> "rayg -eks"
fstab --> "eff stab"
gnu --> "g'nu"
gnome --> "g'nome"
sudo --> "sue doe" or "pseudo" :p
scsi --> "scuzzy" (but I've heard it joking called "sexy")
ide --> "eye dee ee"
atapi --> "a tap ee"
gui --> "gooey"
char --> "care"


I think that covers most of 'em.
 
The oldtimers who taught me *nix always pronounced /etc as et-see, and so do I.

SCSI has always been scuzzy. I've never heard it any other way.
 
phoenix said:
Interesting how many people pronouce "vi" as two separate letters. Is there a historical reason for that?
Most of th' older references (some edition of the O'reilly book on unix & the ever valuable Operating Systems by Harvey Deitel) I have seen refer to it as the "visual interface" for ex.

Code:
494757 -r-xr-xr-x  6 root  wheel  337160 Aug 23 16:21 /usr/bin/ex
494757 -r-xr-xr-x  6 root  wheel  337160 Aug 23 16:21 /usr/bin/vi
 
In various years of working with talented geeks, I've picked up malformations like "slash uzzer" for /usr and "scoozee" for SCSI (maybe because I had to apologise to Italians so often). For /etc I use "slash ay tay say" (Dutch pronunciation).
 
Why would you pronounce "cash" differently from "cache"? They are the same. Check the phonetics in any English dictionary, and they will be identical.

Computer terms, I can understand there being differences in pronunciation. But simple English words like this? That would be like someone pronouncing "head" as "hee-d". ;)
 
fronclynne said:
Most of th' older references (some edition of the O'reilly book on unix & the ever valuable Operating Systems by Harvey Deitel) I have seen refer to it as the "visual interface" for ex.

Code:
494757 -r-xr-xr-x  6 root  wheel  337160 Aug 23 16:21 /usr/bin/ex
494757 -r-xr-xr-x  6 root  wheel  337160 Aug 23 16:21 /usr/bin/vi

Hrm, that makes sense. Thanks. (I'll continue to call it "vie", as in to "vie for someone's attention".) :)
 
On closer inspection, the Dutch pronunciation of the vowel in "cash" (which is a pretty common word around here) is shorter, hence the difference to me. In fact, almost every vowel is short in Dutch, which is why we have those weird words with double vowels that trip everyone else up ;) (aardvark, anyone?)

SirDice will love this .. "Het duurt veel meer dan een uur voordat we de vuurmuur aan de praat hebben, hoor, en op voorwaarde dat je dat geklaag staakt."
 
scsi --> "scuzzy" (but I've heard it joking called "sexy")

We can thank John Scully for that one (when he ran Apple). There was a large contingent pushing for "sexy" but Scully would not have it. So "scuzzy" it became.

I always heard "et-see" and "vee eye" even in the old days at Berkeley (around 4.2BSD).
 
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