daveb@rtech.UUCP (02/19/87)
At USENIX, I ran into a number of people talking about installing
something they called, "Ess Mail", two words. "How quaint," I thought,
and when I told Chris Seiwald, the first author, he chuckled too.
As pronounced in our office, smail rhymes with snail, using the same "sm"
sound in "small smile."
Just thought you'd like to know.
-dB
--
If it worked, we wouldn't call it high tech.
{amdahl, sun, mtxinu, cbosgd}!rtech!davebpage@ulowell.UUCP (02/20/87)
daveb@rtech.UUCP (Dave Brower) wrote in article <667@rtech.UUCP>: > smail rhymes with snail, using the same "sm" sound in "small smile." This is interesting (even though it is in comp.mail.uucp), since everyone I know calls it Ess Mail. It reminds me of Day Ta vs Dah Ta, or the way Doug Comer says 'XINU' vs the way Ed Gould says it. In the art world (is a program 'art'? What is 'art'?), there is a saying: Once you release a work, the interpretation is no longer yours, but belongs to the public. (Conceptually! No flames about Copyrights!) How do you say 'vi'? 'rn'? 'Usenet'? 'rm'? 'mv'? Should spaf (how do you say 'gatech'? 'cbosgd'?) put out a Usenet Guide to Pronunciation? :-) Thanks Dave (how do you say 'Brower'?), for a little humor in Usenet. Things *have* been a bit heavy lately, no? ..Bob >If it worked, we wouldn't call it high tech. Is this just your view of the world, or does 'we' mean RTI? ;-) -- Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept. ulowell!page, page@ulowell.CSNET
jordan@ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (02/21/87)
Bob Page <page@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu> writes:
How do you say 'vi'?
"vee-eye"
'rn'?
"are-enn"
'rm'?
"are-emm"
'mv'?
"move"
(how do you say 'gatech'? 'cbosgd'?)
"gay-tech" ... "see bogosity" (apologies to Erik Fair) ...
... and one I got strange looks about from people at Bellcore ...
'ioctl()'
"eye-octal" (some say "I/O control" ...)
/jordanmark@cbosgd.UUCP (02/22/87)
In article <17481@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> jordan@ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU (Jordan Hayes) writes: >Bob Page <page@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu> writes: > > How do you say 'vi'? > >"vee-eye" This is, of course, the correct way, although many people incorrectly say "vye". But I'll never forget the person who pronounced it "six" > (how do you say 'cbosgd'?) > >... "see bogosity" (apologies to Erik Fair) ... Ernie Rice calls it "Osgood". Locally, we generally say "Oh Ess Jee Dee", or sometimes just "Dee". By the way, cbatt is "see-bat". Mark
uusgta@sw1e.UUCP (02/22/87)
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? I heard a guy from Talaris pronounce "tdl" as "tibble". Anyone else ever heard this? How about "vi" as "veye" as in indiVIsible. A particularly widespread on seems daemon as either "DAYmon" or "DEmon". I've seen people get religous about this, sometimes using the spellings as jusification (daemon, demon). Any other strange ones out there? -- # ---Tom Adams--- # {bellcore,ihnp4}!sw1e!uusgta St. Louis MO 314-235-4237 # Opinions expressed here are mine, not those of Southwestern Bell Telephone
campbell@maynard.UUCP (02/23/87)
In article <17481@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> jordan@ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU (Jordan Hayes) writes: >... and one I got strange looks about from people at Bellcore ... > > 'ioctl()' > >"eye-octal" (some say "I/O control" ...) I say "eye-oh-cuttle". -- Larry Campbell The Boston Software Works, Inc. Internet: campbell@maynard.uucp 120 Fulton Street, Boston MA 02109 uucp: {alliant,wjh12}!maynard!campbell +1 617 367 6846 ARPA: campbell%maynard.uucp@harvisr.harvard.edu MCI: LCAMPBELL
solomon@crystal.UUCP (02/23/87)
I know that Bill Joy himself pronounces 'vi' /vee-eye/, but I still tend to say /vye/. I remember a friend in graduate school who, noting that 'PL/I' is universally pronounced /pee-el-one/, would pronounce the name of its home company /one-bee-em/. -- Marvin Solomon Computer Sciences Department University of Wisconsin, Madison WI solomon@gjetost.wisc.edu or seismo!uwvax!solomon
randy@chinet.UUCP (02/23/87)
In article <17481@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> jordan@ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU (Jordan Hayes) writes: >Bob Page <page@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu> writes: > > How do you say 'vi'? > >"vee-eye" And, according to Lauren, uucico? yu yu chiko. -- .. that's the biz, sweetheart... Randy Suess chinet - Public Access UN*X (312) 545 7535 (h) (312) 283 0559 (system) ..!ihnp4!chinet!randy
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
jsloan@wright.UUCP (02/24/87)
in article <486@sw1e.UUCP>, uusgta@sw1e.UUCP (uusgta) says: > 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? > Any other strange ones out there? I recall hearing a systems engineer at an IBM presentation (this was in my previous incarnation as an systems programmer on large IBM mainframes) pronounce re-IPL (Initial Program Load... boot to all the rest of us) as "ripple". As in, "for this change to take effect, you have to ripple the machine". Took me a while to figure out what the **** he was talking about. -- John Sloan CSNET: jsloan@CS.Wright.EDU UUCP: ...!cbosgd!wright!jsloan Computer Science Department, Wright State University, Dayton OH, 45435 +1 513 873 2491 belong(opinions,jsloan). belong(opinions,_):-!,fail. The only thing that depreciates faster than a computer is fresh fruit.
dave@lsuc.UUCP (02/24/87)
PLEASE! If everyone starts posting their pronunciations of "smail",
"vi" and "cbosgd", the net will break down yet further. This is one
of those topics that *everyone* will want to say something about.
If someone cares enough to collect MAIL on how people pronounce things,
go ahead and offer. But unless you have something unique to say
(Mark Horton's note on how cbosgd is pronounced at cbosgd qualifies),
PLEASE DO NOT FLOOD THE NET with your own pronunciations of things.
Thank you.
David Sherman, Toronto
--
{ seismo!mnetor cbosgd!utgpu watmath decvax!utcsri ihnp4!utzoo } !lsuc!daverupp@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!stirlingrickheit@ulowell.UUCP (02/25/87)
< nonesense! There's no such thing as a line-eater! I'll show you.. > 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? > >Any other strange ones out there? I think my favorite has to be 'tty', 'titty'. This, of course, sets you for a whole load of good stuff--'gtty' (get titty) 'stty' (set titty) ttyname (titty name), isatty (is a titty). If I'm in a good mood, I'm typing on a vitty two twenty. Then, of course, just to be boring, 'getty' gets pronounced the same way as the oil company. sigh. I get a few complaints about this of course, but when challenged, I just say 'but, I like titties,' and they get real quiet. Signing off, rik hite at you lole -- a lesser Power of Darkness UUCP: ...!wanginst!ulowell!rickheit : USnail: Erich Rickheit May you have the knowledge of a sage and : 85 Gershom Ave, #2 the wisdom of a child-Principia Discordia: Lowell, MA 01854
randolph@cognito.UUCP (02/25/87)
Printers call '#' "octothorpe" & a '/' a "virgule". -- Randolph Fritz sun!randolph randolph@sun.com
jona@clyde.UUCP (02/25/87)
... >I heard a guy from Talaris pronounce "tdl" as "tibble". Anyone else ever >heard this? Are you sure it wasn't 'tbl' - everyone here pronounces that as "tibble". Given that "Email" is generally pronounced 'ee mail' I found I prefer ess-mail to smail ryhming with snail. I always pronunce the '#' sign as a 'pound' sign - that is one of its meanings and it is quicker to say than 'number' - besides, who ever heard of 'number-define (== #define) - everyone here says 'pound-define'. an @ sign is just that - an 'at' sign. for ioctl() we say i-o-cottel. It seems to be a toss-up between lib (short i) and libe (long i) for slash lib (/lib). for troff and nroff I've generally heard tee-roff and en-roff which is at least consistant. Oh well, goes to show that nothing in Un*x is consistant.
biagioni@unc.UUCP (02/25/87)
In article <1277@beta.UUCP> hp@beta.UUCP (Akkana) writes: >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?) cad-ould-d-ad-er, of course. Comes from caddr (cald-ould-er, the third element in a list) and cdadr (could-ad-er) which is not a very useful selector. (can you say tail of second element in the list?). Ed Biagioni biagioni@cs.unc.edu (seismo|decvax)!mcnc!unc!biagioni
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?
arosen@ulowell.UUCP (02/25/87)
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? No controversy there. It says in the docs to pronounce the "G". >I'd be interested in hearing how other people pronounce Unix-related Is a "^" a carrot or an up-arrow? I pronounce "su" ess-you(unless someone uses it against me, then it's sue :-), I once said eff-stab before I realized what the file was for. Then there's dot-mail-rick. Also, dit, double-dit and back-dit(' " and `). A new one I heard was hash-include-studio-dot-aich. USnail: Andy Rosen | ulowell!arosen | ************* ULowell, Box #3031 | | * RD in '88 * Lowell, Ma 01854 | | *************
allbery@ncoast.UUCP (02/26/87)
As quoted from <17481@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> by jordan@ucbarpa.Berkeley.EDU (Jordan Hayes): +--------------- | Bob Page <page@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu> writes: | | (how do you say 'gatech'? 'cbosgd'?) | | "gay-tech" ... "see bogosity" (apologies to Erik Fair) ... +--------------- "gay-tech" "see-boz-giddy" +--------------- | ... and one I got strange looks about from people at Bellcore ... | | 'ioctl()' | | "eye-octal" (some say "I/O control" ...) +--------------- "eye-oh-kittil" -- ++Brandon (Resident Elf @ ncoast.UUCP) ____ ______________ / \ / __ __ __ \ Brandon S. Allbery <backbone>!ncoast!allbery ___ | /__> / \ / \ aXcess Co., Consulting ncoast!allbery@Case.CSNET / \ | | `--, `--, 6615 Center St. #A1-105 (...@relay.CS.NET) | | \__/ \__/ \__/ Mentor, OH 44060-4101 \____/ \______________/ +1 216 974 9210
amit@umn-cs.UUCP (02/26/87)
/* Written 12:56 pm Feb 87, 19783 by clyde!jona in umn-cs:comp.sources.d */
> an @ sign is just that - an 'at' sign.
Nope -- it's also 'snail', and (my favorite) 'strudel'.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
whm@arizona.UUCP (02/26/87)
A friend of mine once eyed a SNOBOL4 book I had and asked:
"What sort of a language is snobble?"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
eer@ritcv.UUCP (02/26/87)
In article <1104@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu> arosen@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu (Andy Rosen) writes: >In article <1277@beta.UUCP> hp@beta.UUCP (Akkana) writes: >>Everybody I've met seems to pronounce the "G" in Gnu. Is this just >Is a "^" a carrot or an up-arrow? > I got into the bad practice of calling it a 'hat' - like a dunce cap - with customers on a Honeywell minicomputer, who used ^ as the prefix identifier for disk volume names...it got to be a habit to call the fixed disk platter by its name 'hat - fixed zero', or ^FIXED0. Only once did one of our customer developers spend more than 2 hours talking to a novice customer trying to get a directory listing of 'HATFIXED0'. -- ------------------------------------------------- Ed Reed - Rochester Institute of Technology phone: (716) 334-3006 Delphi: EERTEST GEnie: SQA.INC Usenet: ...rochester!ritcv!eer -------------------------------------------------
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
crs@cpsc6b.UUCP (02/27/87)
In article <122@wright.EDU>, jsloan@wright.EDU (John Sloan) writes: > in article <486@sw1e.UUCP>, uusgta@sw1e.UUCP (uusgta) says: > > 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? > > Any other strange ones out there? > > ... > John Sloan CSNET: jsloan@CS.Wright.EDU UUCP: ...!cbosgd!wright!jsloan How about /etc. I have always pronounced it slash-eht-cee, but today I encountered someone who actually said 'etcetera'. 'If I make this change in etcetera inittab...'. Are we having fun yet? Chris Seaman AT&T working on a Signature...
grog@runx.UUCP (02/27/87)
'#' - SHARP '\' - SLOSH ksh - KEESH (as in quiche) any others??? ...............................Grog............. ADDRESS: grog@runx.ips.oz
neitzel@infbs.UUCP (02/27/87)
> As pronounced in our office, ...
OUR office practices promouncing, too:
"vi" can be heard in various flavours: vee-eye, of course,
and new are two versions with national Aussprache: fow-eeh, Vee
The at-sign '@' is called "spider-monkey" due to its appearing,
BUT... since we are in Germany, we say "Klammeraffe" wich sometimes
will be abbreviated (okay: 'coded') as "Klaffe". [Sounds like "cluffe!"]
White space in command lines is pronounced as "Loch!" (hole),
the return key at the and of a command listens to the name "Zack!"
`.do .skip .od' Martin Neitzel ~..~
..seismo!mcvax!unido!infbs!neitzel (OO)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!
raanan@bc-cis.UUCP (02/27/87)
In article <1112@chinet.UUCP> randy@chinet.UUCP (Randy Suess) writes: >> >> How do you say 'vi'? >> >>"vee-eye" > > And, according to Lauren, uucico? > yu yu chiko. Enough with this "xxx pronounciation". -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Raanan Herrmann (...!delftcc,phri!bc-cis!raanan)
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.
play@mcvax.UUCP (02/28/87)
In article <1602@lsuc.UUCP> dave@lsuc.UUCP writes: > (Mark Horton's note on how cbosgd is pronounced at cbosgd qualifies), In my opinion his note on the pronunciation of vi quialified more.
langdon@lll-lcc.UUCP (02/28/87)
This discussion reminds me of the intolerance my teenagers have of their
parents' Canadian pronounciation that differs sometimes from
that of the centre of the universe where they are growing up, sort of.
Except the contributors to this discussion have better humor about it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bruce Langdon L-472 langdon@lll-lcc.ARPA
Physics Department "langdon#bruce%d@lll-mfe.ARPA"
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Livermore, CA 94550 (415) 422-5444
UUCP: ..{ihnp4,qantel,ucdavis,pyramid,styx,topaz}!lll-lcc!langdon
..{gymble,ll-xn,seismo}!lll-crg!lll-lcc!langdonjames@mucs.UUCP (03/02/87)
> Given that "Email" is generally pronounced 'ee mail' I found I prefer > ess-mail to smail ryhming with snail. > > I always pronunce the '#' sign as a 'pound' sign - that is one of its > meanings and it is quicker to say than 'number' - besides, who ever > heard of 'number-define (== #define) - everyone here says 'pound-define'. > This is a 'hash', a pound sign is something else !!! > > for ioctl() we say i-o-cottel. > i-oktel -- *=============================================================================* * James P Moir, | UNIX Systems Manager * * Dept of Computer Science, | * * The University of Manchester, | Tel: (+44) 61 273 7121 Ext 5549 * * Oxford Road, Manchester | JANET: james@uk.ac.man.cs.ux * * M13 9PL, | UUCP: seismo!mcvax!ukc!man.cs.ux!james * * UNITED KINGDOM. | ARPA: james%uk.ac.man.cs.ux@cs.ucl.ac.uk * *=============================================================================*
winton@btnix.UUCP (03/02/87)
in article <6905@clyde.ATT.COM>, jona@moss.ATT.COM says: > > I always pronunce the '#' sign as a 'pound' sign - that is one of its > meanings and it is quicker to say than 'number' - besides, who ever > heard of 'number-define (== #define) - everyone here says 'pound-define'. > Hmmmmm.... at the risk of seeming pedantic (but why should that bother me, no-one else seems TOO worried :-), here in the UK, where it actually matters how we represent our currency, a `#' is most definitely NOT a `pound' sign. A real pound sign looks rather like this __ / | There used to be a double bar across === <--- the centre, but these days we seem to | have been reduced to one... ----- Now it may not be worth much these days, but it's all we've got! The confusion probably arises from the fact that the UK version of the ASCII character set often has `#' replaced by a pound sign (as do UK keyboards). Incidentally, I believe the origin of the `real' pound sign is from a modified `L' standing for `Lire' (latin (?) for `pound'). Back in the not-so-good-old days before we went decimal we used to earn our daily bread in Lsd --- that's pounds, shillings and pence, or really Lire, Sestertii and Denarii. In fact it came as quite a shock to me a couple of years ago when visiting Italy to discover that the Italians too use the `pounds' sign for Lire. Being as the exchange rate at the time was 1 pound = 2200 lire seeing apples sold for several hundred `pounds' seemed very odd... Oh, on the vexed question as to what to call a `#', well, I'm of the `hash' school (hash-include-stud-eye-oh-dot-aitch). Anyway, that's my twopennuth... (reach for a dictionary of British slang :-) Neil ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Neil Winton | Email: Try... British Telecom | ...!mcvax!ukc!{inset|ist}!btnix!winton Ipswich UK | or | winton@btnix.UUCP ) Not suitable for those Tel: +44 473 221471 | winton@r11.bt.co.uk ) of nervous disposition! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "UNIX programmers do it with forks!"
bobr@zeus.UUCP (03/05/87)
In article <667@cdx39.UUCP> wam@cdx39.UUCP (Bill MacLeod x7520) writes: >In article <1528@whuts.UUCP>, tes@whuts.UUCP (STERKEL) writes: >> ! exclamation point (not bang) > seriously now, do you expect me to use five syllables where one will do? and here all these years I thought it was "shriek!" -- I have two very rare photographs: one is a picture of Houdini locking his keys in his car; the other is a rare photograph of Norman Rockwell beating up a child. --Steve Wright -- Robert Reed, Tektronix CAE Systems Division, bobr@zeus.TEK
u3369429@murdu.OZ (Michael Bednarek) (03/06/87)
In article <246@roosta.btnix.uucp> winton@btnix.uucp (Neil Winton) writes: >Incidentally, I believe the origin of the `real' pound sign is from a modified >`L' standing for `Lire' (latin (?) for `pound'). Risking getting egg-faced: I believe the latin word is: librum, plural: libra . The Italian words are: Lira, plural: Lire BTW, who put this mis-spelled version of pronunciation in the subject line? Michael Bednarek (u3369429@murdu.oz.au)
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?
stever@videovax.Tek.COM (Steven E. Rice, P.E.) (03/06/87)
In article <246@roosta.btnix.uucp>, Neil Winton (winton@btnix.uucp) writes: > . . . > Hmmmmm.... at the risk of seeming pedantic (but why should that bother me, > no-one else seems TOO worried :-), here in the UK, where it actually matters > how we represent our currency, a `#' is most definitely NOT a `pound' sign. > . . . No idea where it came from, but the pound sign (#) was used in the U.S. to denote weight (as opposed to money) long before there were computers! Steve Rice ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- {decvax | hplabs | ihnp4 | uw-beaver}!tektronix!videovax!ste s
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
cjdb@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP (Charles Blair) (03/07/87)
In article <246@roosta.btnix.uucp> winton@btnix.uucp (Neil Winton) writes: > >Hmmmmm.... at the risk of seeming pedantic (but why should that bother me, >no-one else seems TOO worried :-), here in the UK, where it actually matters >how we represent our currency, a `#' is most definitely NOT a `pound' sign. >A real pound sign looks rather like this [drawing follows] By "real pound sign" you mean the sign for pounds sterling (or Italian Lire, as you indicate later). I have actually _seen_ pounds, when indicating weight, being abbreviated by a nurse in a U.S. hospital as "#" (placed after the numerals). This made me somewhat more tolerant of calling "pound sign" what I too call the "number sign." So I suppose there is a trade or professional origin to "#" being used to mean "pounds." -- "... ain't nobody's business if I do." ..!ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!cjdb -- Billie Holiday PMRCJDB@UCHIMVS1.Bitnet
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.
montante@silver.UUCP (03/08/87)
In article <246@roosta.btnix.uucp> winton@btnix.uucp (Neil Winton) writes:
# in article <6905@clyde.ATT.COM>, jona@moss.ATT.COM says:
#>
#> I always pronunce the '#' sign as a 'pound' sign - that is one of its
#> meanings and it is quicker to say than 'number' - besides, who ever
#> heard of 'number-define (== #define) - everyone here says 'pound-define'.
#
# Hmmmmm.... at the risk of seeming pedantic (but why should that bother me,
# no-one else seems TOO worried :-), here in the UK, where it actually matters
# how we represent our currency, a `#' is most definitely NOT a `pound' sign.
# [...]
# The confusion probably arises from the fact that the UK version of the ASCII
# character set often has `#' replaced by a pound sign (as do UK keyboards).
In my sordid youth in the American midwest I once learned '#' as 'pound sign'
-- as in "a 10# sack of potatoes" (about 5Kg, that is). I can't relate that
to Lire, Sestertii, and Denarii (at the time, 10# of potatoes cost less than
a buck :-).
An Australian professor of mine seems to have infected me with 'hash' (or
'hatch') disease. It does look vaguely like hashmarks/crosshatching, the word
is one syllable long, and fits okay with other phonemes (as in "hashinclude
studio H").uusgta@sw1e.UUCP (03/09/87)
I've been watching the storm but feel compelled to jump in now. As was
earlier stated "language is a form of communications". As such, standards
are formed and defended. A virgule is a trivia question, not a *current*
form of communication. Defense of obsolete, though correct nomenclature
is no more or less reasonable than support of obsolete theology, languages,
or operating systems. When enough people agree the standards change.
What is different here is that the standard board of publication is the (a)
dictionary. Websters (I expect) has little representation in this forum.
We all use the term most likely to provoke recognition. Perhaps what should
be done is to publish those terms in *this* forum, in a clear, democratic
compendium? eh?
--
# ---Tom Adams---
# {bellcore,ihnp4}!sw1e!uusgta St. Louis MO 314-235-4237
# Opinions expressed here are mine, not those of Southwestern Bell Telephonejgh@miduet.UUCP (03/09/87)
'->' == 'point' as in: 'p= p->next;' == 'pee becomes pee point next' -- Jeremy Harris jgh@gec-mi-at.co.uk ...!mcvax!ukc!hrc63!miduet!jgh
res@ihlpl.ATT.COM (Rich Strebendt @ AT&T Information Systems - Indian Hill West; formerly) (03/10/87)
In response to: > #> I always pronunce the '#' sign as a 'pound' sign - that is one of its > #> meanings and it is quicker to say than 'number' - besides, who ever > #> heard of 'number-define (== #define) - everyone here says 'pound-define'. > # Hmmmmm.... at the risk of seeming pedantic (but why should that bother me, > # no-one else seems TOO worried :-), here in the UK, where it actually matters > # how we represent our currency, a `#' is most definitely NOT a `pound' sign. > # [...] > # The confusion probably arises from the fact that the UK version of the ASCII > # character set often has `#' replaced by a pound sign (as do UK keyboards). > In my sordid youth in the American midwest I once learned '#' as 'pound sign' > -- as in "a 10# sack of potatoes" (about 5Kg, that is). I can't relate that > to Lire, Sestertii, and Denarii (at the time, 10# of potatoes cost less than > a buck :-). Gads, there doesn't appear to be a musical programmer in the bunch!! I thought EVERYONE knew that "#" is pronounced "sharp" !!!!! Pound, indeed. Next some of you would have us writing lb include <stdio.h> and lbdefine MAX 100 What is the world coming to??? :-) Rich Strebendt ...!ihnp4!iwsl6!res
ritchie@hplsdla.HP.COM (Dave Ritchie) (03/12/87)
Speaking of "#": Texas Instruments called it an "octothrope" in their book about telephone electronics. However, I can find no reference to "octothrope" as a word (yes, I looked in both Webster's Unabridged and Oxford English Dictionary). Has anyone heard of this word before? Dave Ritchie ..!ihnp4!hpfcla!hp-lsd!ritchie
pec@mtx5a.UUCP (03/12/87)
I like to call '*' SPLAT. I like GASP for '!'. But, what do
you call '|' (This is not a pipe. :-) )? All the words I have
heard to describe it have been system or language specific.
Not everyone understands '|' to be pipe or half a PL/I
concatenation. My son, at age 6, called it STICK, do you have
something better.
Pete Costello
{ihnp4}!mtx5a!pecajs@hpfcdt.HP.COM (Alan Silverstein) (03/13/87)
> I thought I'd clutter up the net with my ideas on pronumciation of various > UN!X terms: History repeats! Let me clutter it up a bit further: TERMINAL MUMPS: Popular and Bizarre Character Names Summarized from USENET articles, circa 1983. Single characters listed in ASCII order, followed by multiples. For each character, "official" names appear first, thence others in order of popularity (more or less). ! exclamation point, exclamation, bang, factorial, excl, ball-bat, smash, shriek, cuss, wow, hey !? interrobang (as one overlapped character) " quotation mark, double quote, quote, dirk, literal mark, rabbit ears # pound sign, number sign, sharp, crunch, mesh, hex, hash, flash, grid, pig-pen, tictactoe, scratchmark, octothorp (from Bell System) $ dollar sign, currency symbol, buck, cash, string (from BASIC), escape (from TOPS-10), ding, big-money % percent sign, percent, mod, double-oh-seven & ampersand, amper, and, address (from C), andpersand ' apostrophe, single quote, quote, prime, tick, irk, pop, spark () open/close parenthesis, left/right parenthesis, paren/thesis, parenthisey, unparenthisey, open/close round bracket, ears, so/already, wax/wane * asterisk, star, splat, wildcard, gear, dingle + plus sign, plus, add, cross, intersection , comma, tail - hyphen, dash, minus sign, worm . period, dot, decimal point, radix point, point, full stop, spot / virgule, slash, stroke, slant, diagonal, solidus, over, slat : colon, two-spot ; semicolon, semi, hybrid <> angle brackets, left/right angle, less/greater than, read from / write to, from/into, from/toward, in/out, comesfrom/ gozinta (all from UNIX), funnel, brokets, crunch/zap, suck/blow = equal sign, equals, quadrathorp, gets, half-mesh ? question mark, whatmark, what, wildchar, ques, huh, quark @ at sign, at, each, vortex, whorl, whirlpool, cyclone, snail, ape, cat V vee, book [] square brackets, left/right bracket, bracket/unbracket, bra/ket, square/unsquare, U turns \ reversed virgule, backslash, bash, backslant, backwhack, backslat, escape (from UNIX) ^ circumflex, caret, uparrow, hat, chevron, sharkfin, to ("to the power of"), fang _ underscore, underline, underbar, under, score, backarrow, flatworm ` grave accent, grave, backquote, left quote, open quote, backprime, unapostrophe, backspark, birk, blugle, back tick, push {} open/close brace, left/right brace, brace/unbrace, curly bracket, curly/uncurly, leftit/rytit, embrace/bracelet | vertical bar, bar, or, v-bar, spike, pipe, gozinta, thru, pipesinta (last four from UNIX) ~ tilde, swung dash, squiggle, approx, wiggle, twiddle, enyay () bowlegs /* slashterisk */ asterslash >> cat-astrophe
authorplaceholder@labsms.UUCP.UUCP (03/13/87)
I had a college professor who called the '*' a 'nathan'.
He said he named it after one of our Countrys forefathers
Nathan Hale who stated he regretted that he had
only one "ASS TO RISK" for his country.
===========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
wheels@mks.UUCP (03/18/87)
I know it doesn't belong here, but everyone else is doing it...
I have one of those desk calendars with a separate page for each day.
On each page is the origin of a word (so I too can become literate).
This is the origin given for ampersand:
In early English schools, the symbol '&' was accepted as an equal to
the other letters of the alphabet. It had no name, however. In speech,
it was simply expanded to the word 'and'. Hence, when reciting the
alphabet, students would say "ex, why, zed, and, per se, and".
Those last four syllables are now ampersand.
[I'm sure you literate US folks will recognise the word 'zed' as the
Canadian and English version of the 26th letter of the alphabet.
However, toys like Speak'n'Spell are no help here.]
--
Gerry Wheeler {seismo,decvax,ihnp4}!watmath!mks!wheels
Mortice Kern Systems Inc.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
wagner@utgpu.UUCP (03/21/87)
I can't believe that this is comp.sources.d. Am I in the wrong room? I'm looking for discussion of recent sources posted, not linguistics. Michael
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