[misc.misc] smail pronounciation

hp@beta.UUCP (02/24/87)

In article <486@sw1e.UUCP>, uusgta@sw1e.UUCP (uusgta) writes:
> In article <667@rtech.UUCP>, page@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) writes:
> > How do you say 'vi'?  'rn'?  'Usenet'?  'rm'?  'mv'?  Should spaf (how do
> > you say 'gatech'? 'cbosgd'?) put out a Usenet Guide to Pronunciation?
> 
> How about "vi" as "veye" as in indiVIsible. 
> Any other strange ones out there?

I recently met someone who pronounced ".cshrc" as "dot see-shirk".
I liked that, since I pronounce csh as "see-shell" or "see ess aich",
but I've been unable to train myself to pronounce it that way.
(I usually call it "dot kashirk", which sounds like it's asking for a
"gezsundheit!" (um, I never took German), except when I'm talking to
people for whom I expect to have to spell it out.)

When I was first learning Unix, I was trained to call '~' a "twiddle",
but seemingly the rest of the world calls it "tilde".  Bang, backquote,
backslash and star seem fairly universal (although I have a terrible
time trying to teach the secretaries here, who are just learning Unix,
which is forward and which is backward), but is '#' a number sign,
a hash-mark, or something else?  (A colleague and I coined "scratch" for
'#' and "snail" (or "nautilus") for '@', but they never caught on.)
Come to think of it, I used to know someone who would run ay point out
after a compilation, which I though was odd at the time since everybody
else I know says ay dot out.

I always thought that "/lib" was pronounced as in "Libby's", but lots
of people around here call it "lybe".  (I've never heard "bine" as in
"binary", though.)  Mostly the same people who use "Megs" as the plural
of "Meg" (I use "Meg" for both singular and plural of "megabyte").
Come to think of it, they also tend to mispronounce my name, too ...

Everybody I've met seems to pronounce the "G" in Gnu.  Is this just
regional, or does rms pronounce it this way too?  Does Latex have a long
'a', or is it pronounced "lah-teck" (which, to my mind, isn't nearly as
funny)?

A popular command here is "tibble pipe ee cue en pipe trough".  "Ptroff",
though, is pronounced "pee-tee-roff", not "pee-trough".

I knew I had joined the ranks of REAL Lisp programmers when I found out
that "cdr" was pronounced "could-er" instead of "cooder" the way the
books said.  (But how do you pronounce cadddadr?)

I'd be interested in hearing how other people pronounce Unix-related
things.  I should probably post this to misc.misc.  Hmm, maybe I will.

Back to work?  Oh, yeah ...


..
	...Akkana         Center for Nonlinear Studies, LANL
	akkana%cnls@lanl.arpa   hp@lanl.arpa   ihnp4!lanl!hp

"The guy sure looks like plant food to me."
			-- Little shop of Horrors

rupp@cod.UUCP (02/24/87)

In article <1277@beta.UUCP> hp@beta.UUCP (Akkana) writes:
>
>When I was first learning Unix, I was trained to call '~' a "twiddle",
>but seemingly the rest of the world calls it "tilde". 

That's because it *is* a tilde!

>is '#' a number sign,

How about 'pound sign'?

>Come to think of it, I used to know someone who would run ay point out
>after a compilation, which I though was odd at the time since everybody
>else I know says ay dot out.

'point' would imply a numeric value, no?  'dot' is more appropriate for
alpha characters.

>Everybody I've met seems to pronounce the "G" in Gnu.  Is this just

A gnu is an actual animal.  The g in gnu is not pronounced, so why
should the G in Gnu be pronounced?

>though, is pronounced "pee-tee-roff", not "pee-trough".

That makes sense, since the origin of the word is the original 'roff'.
Keeping the integrity of the original word seems to be a good idea.
For instance, 'ruptime' is derived from 'uptime,' so the word *should*
be pronounced 'r-uptime.' (But since my name is Rupp, I break the rule
and pronounce is 'Rupptime.')

>I knew I had joined the ranks of REAL Lisp programmers when I found out
>that "cdr" was pronounced "could-er" instead of "cooder" the way the
>books said.  (But how do you pronounce cadddadr?)

I don't understand why a three letter command should not just be
pronounced as its spelled; i.e. 'cee dee are.'  

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
These thoughts are my own, and do not reflect the official or unofficial
position of my employer.........How's that, Gary!!!!!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

geoff@desint.UUCP (02/25/87)

In article <1277@beta.UUCP> hp@beta.UUCP (Akkana) writes:

> (But how do you pronounce cadddadr?)

Rhymes with "cadaver"...
-- 

	Geoff Kuenning
	{hplabs,ihnp4}!trwrb!desint!geoff

stirling@fortune.UUCP (02/25/87)

I thought I'd clutter up the net with my ideas on pronumciation of various
UN!X terms:

! - bang (USA), shriek (UK), exclamation mark
@ - at sign
# - pound sign, number sign (USA), hash (UK)
^ - carat, up arrow
* - star, asterisk
( - paren (USA), bracket (UK)
{ - curly bracket (anywhere), brace (UK)
[ - bracket (USA), square bracket (UK)
~ - tilde, squiggle (me)
. - dot
_ - underbar, sub

I think the rest are obvious. Note the opportunity for Us/UK misunderstandings
with brackets! Generally I spell out commands (eg ceepee, emvee etc) unless
they're obvioulsy pronounceable (eg tar, mount, T-roff). One poster said that
he pronounced vi as veye as in inVIsible - but to me the i there is as in pig
not hide! I say vee-eye. Enough said.
patrick
{ihnp4, hplabs, amdcad, ucbvax!dual}!fortune!stirling

randolph@cognito.UUCP (02/25/87)

Printers call '#' "octothorpe" & a '/' a "virgule".
--
Randolph Fritz
sun!randolph
randolph@sun.com

singer@spar.UUCP (02/25/87)

In article <517@cod.UUCP> rupp@cod.nosc.mil.UUCP (William L. Rupp) writes:
>In article <1277@beta.UUCP> hp@beta.UUCP (Akkana) writes:
>>is '#' a number sign,
>
>How about 'pound sign'?
>
I've heard this referred to as 'number sign', 'sharp', and 'octothorpe'.
Does the 'pound sign' come from the fact that in UK ASCII this position
is/was printed as a British poubd sterling currency marker?

rpw3@amdcad.UUCP (02/26/87)

In article <356@spar.SPAR.SLB.COM> singer@spar.UUCP (David Singer) writes:
>Does the 'pound sign' come from the fact that in UK ASCII this position
>is/was printed as a British poubd sterling currency marker?

No, long before that freight companies used it (and still use it) to mean
"pound", as in weight. So if you see "23#" on the side of a box, it means
"this weighs twenty-three pounds".


Rob Warnock
Systems Architecture Consultant

UUCP:	{amdcad,fortune,sun}!redwood!rpw3
DDD:	(415)572-2607
USPS:	627 26th Ave, San Mateo, CA  94403

elisa@mmm.UUCP (02/26/87)

> In article <1277@beta.UUCP> hp@beta.UUCP (Akkana) writes:
> > (But how do you pronounce cadddadr?)

ca-duh-duh-dader



-- 
@>--->---- 
Elisa Collins  3M  St. Paul, MN ...!ihnp4!mmm!elisa
Not necessarily the opinions of 3M

roger@celtics.UUCP (02/27/87)

In article <1277@beta.UUCP> hp@beta.UUCP (Akkana) writes:
>
>Everybody I've met seems to pronounce the "G" in Gnu.  Is this just
>regional, or does rms pronounce it this way too?

He advocates pronouncing the "G", so nobody thinks you're saying
"the new Emacs".
-- 
 ///==\\   (No disclaimer - nobody's listening anyway.)
///        Roger B.A. Klorese, CELERITY (Northeast Area)
\\\        40 Speen St., Framingham, MA 01701  +1 617 872-1552
 \\\==//   celtics!roger@seismo.CSS.GOV - seismo!celtics!roger

install@kosman.UUCP (02/27/87)

In article <356@spar.SPAR.SLB.COM>, singer@spar.SPAR.SLB.COM (David Singer) writes:
> In article <517@cod.UUCP> rupp@cod.nosc.mil.UUCP (William L. Rupp) writes:
> >In article <1277@beta.UUCP> hp@beta.UUCP (Akkana) writes:
> >>is '#' a number sign,
> >
> >How about 'pound sign'?
> >
> I've heard this referred to as 'number sign', 'sharp', and 'octothorpe'.
> Does the 'pound sign' come from the fact that in UK ASCII this position
> is/was printed as a British poubd sterling currency marker?

Nope, it's because in some commercial usages, it is used to indicate pounds
of weight, as in 145# is 145 pounds, somewhat as ' and " are for feet and
inches as well as minutes and seconds of arc.


-- 
                         Kevin O'Gorman
                         ...{decvax,allegra}!philabs!hhb!kosman!kevin
			 BIX:KOSMANOR GENIE:tko Compuserve:73267,317
Beam me up, Scotty; it ate my phaser!

bobd@dshovax.UUCP (02/27/87)

In article <356@spar.SPAR.SLB.COM> singer@spar.UUCP (David Singer) writes:
>Does the 'pound sign' come from the fact that in UK ASCII this position
>is/was printed as a British poubd sterling currency marker?

If I remember correctly, the '$' in ASCII occupies the "national currency
symbol" position in the ISO character set standard. The British equivalent
puts the Pound Sterling symbol in that position, the Japanese the Yen symbol,
and I think a few other countries put their currency symbol there.

cjdb@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP (Charles Blair) (03/06/87)

The lone Unix type in my shop pronounced "!" as "bang." Everybody else
pronounced it "gasp." So for a while there I had to watch my bangs and
gasps.

By the way, how do people pronounce "char," as in "getchar?" I've only
heard it pronounced with a soft "ch" as in "chair;" my instinct at
first was to pronounce it hard, like "car." What do others do?

news@rlvd.UUCP (03/07/87)

In article <356@spar.SPAR.SLB.COM> singer@spar.UUCP (David Singer) writes:
>In article <517@cod.UUCP> rupp@cod.nosc.mil.UUCP (William L. Rupp) writes:
>>In article <1277@beta.UUCP> hp@beta.UUCP (Akkana) writes:
>>>is '#' a number sign,
>>
>>How about 'pound sign'?
>>
>I've heard this referred to as 'number sign', 'sharp', and 'octothorpe'.
>Does the 'pound sign' come from the fact that in UK ASCII this position
>is/was printed as a British poubd sterling currency marker?

Everyone I know refers to the symbol '#' as hash.
US ASCII has no pound (sterling) symbol, so in the UK it is normal to use
'#' when a symbol for pound (sterling) is required. In case anyone does not
know, a real pound (sterling) symbol is a curly l with two horizontal lines
through it.

   Look after the pennies and the hashes will look after themselves.....

Ian Gunn                               UK JANET : ian@uk.ac.rl.vd
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory             UUCP : ..!mcvax!ukc!rlvd!ian 
Chilton, Didcot, Oxon OX11 0QX             ARPA : @ucl.cs.arpa:ian@vd.rl.ac.uk
England.	                         'phone : (0235) 21900 ext: 5707

dce@mips.UUCP (03/07/87)

In article <1229@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> cjdb@sphinx.UUCP (Charles Blair) writes:
>By the way, how do people pronounce "char," as in "getchar?" I've only
>heard it pronounced with a soft "ch" as in "chair;" my instinct at
>first was to pronounce it hard, like "car." What do others do?

I tend to pronounce abbreviated and partial words as though the rest of
the word was still there, as opposed to turning it into it's own word.

So, I pronounce 'char' as 'care', as though I was going to say 'character'
but stopped. I pronounce 'lib' as 'lybe', as though I was going to say
'library' and stopped.

-- 
			David Elliott

UUCP: 	{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!decwrl!mips!dce, DDD:  	408-720-1700

oleg@quad1.UUCP (Oleg Kiselev) (03/08/87)

>> (But how do you pronounce cadddadr?)
>Rhymes with "cadaver"...

... with a stutter: "could-d'd-d'd-udr"
-- 
Oleg Kiselev  --  oleg@quad1.UUCP  --  {...!psivax|seismo!gould}!quad1!oleg
		  oleg@oacvax.ucla.edu    olg@locus.ucla.edu
DISCLAIMER: All grammatical and spelling errors are inserted deliberately to
test the software I am developing.  In fact, that is the only reason I am 
posting. Yeah, that's the ticket! All my postings are just test data! Yeah!!

pes@bath63.ux63.bath.ac.uk (Paul Smee) (03/08/87)

In the Multics world, '!' is 'shriek'  (rarely, 'screech').

char is one of the most variable ones.  Due to the influences of an early
professor of Computer Science, I pronounce it as 'care' -- that is, exactly
the way I pronounce it when it's part of the word 'char-acter'.

Because of their usage in moving through the hierarchy when entering path names, '>' and '<' are often called 'down' and 'up' respectively.  (Which may be why
^'s are hats, and not 'up-arrows' -- so as to avoid confusion with <'s.

edhall@randvax.UUCP (Ed Hall) (03/17/87)

In article <200@quacky.mips.UUCP> dce@quacky.UUCP (David Elliott) writes:
>  .  .  .  . I pronounce 'lib' as 'lybe', as though I was going to say
>'library' and stopped.

Then I'm sure you pronounce 'bin' as 'byne', as though you were going
to say 'binary' and stopped.  (One person I pointed this out to said
that he'd rather change his pronounciation to 'binnary' than to make
his pronunciation of 'bin' consistant with his pronunciation of 'lib'.)

Me?  I pronounce 'lib' as 'lib', 'bin' as 'bin', and 'usr' as 'OO-sir'
or 'yoo-ess-are' (so as not to confuse it with 'user', which it ain't).


		-Ed Hall
		decvax!randvax!edhall

laura@hoptoad.uucp (Laura Creighton) (03/19/87)

In article <517@cod.UUCP> rupp@cod.nosc.mil.UUCP (William L. Rupp) writes:
>
>>Everybody I've met seems to pronounce the "G" in Gnu.  Is this just
>
>A gnu is an actual animal.  The g in gnu is not pronounced, so why
>should the G in Gnu be pronounced?

This should have been posted by hoptoad!gnu, but what the hell...
The g is pronounced.  It is a aspirated click.  Of course, only speakers
of certain African languages will be able to get it down right. 


-- 
	
Laura Creighton		Master of Chaos and Possibility
ihnp4!hoptoad!laura  utzoo!hoptoad!laura  sun!hoptoad!laura

straka@ihlpf.UUCP (03/20/87)

> >>Everybody I've met seems to pronounce the "G" in Gnu.  Is this just
> >A gnu is an actual animal.  The g in gnu is not pronounced, so why
> >should the G in Gnu be pronounced?
> This should have been posted by hoptoad!gnu, but what the hell...


It's just a joke.

Come on, hasn't anybody heard someone say something like "what's gnu?",
pronouncing the "g"?

Just like pronouncing 'knife', "ka niffe".

or 'ghoti', "fish" :-) for those who remember.

-- 
Rich Straka     ihnp4!ihlpf!straka

nather@ut-sally.UUCP (Ed Nather) (03/23/87)

In article <1909@hoptoad.uucp>, laura@hoptoad.uucp (Laura Creighton) writes:
> 
> The g is pronounced.  It is a aspirated click.  Of course, only speakers
> of certain African languages will be able to get it down right. 

Which of the three "clicks" in the Xhosa language is the most suitable?
They are all distinct (except over the white-man's telephone system) ...

-- 
Ed Nather
Astronomy Dept, U of Texas @ Austin
{allegra,ihnp4}!{noao,ut-sally}!utastro!nather
nather@astro.AS.UTut
>m cm