#261654 - 28/07/2005 02:52
earl?
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/12/2000
Posts: 2665
Loc: Manteca, California
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I heard several coworkers today say "earl" meaning URL. Is this becoming common?
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Glenn
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#261655 - 28/07/2005 02:54
Re: earl?
[Re: gbeer]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 23/09/2000
Posts: 3608
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
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I haven't heard that one yet. I always get to hear dub dub dub.
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Matt
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#261656 - 28/07/2005 04:32
Re: earl?
[Re: gbeer]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
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I've heard it, but I don't think it could be considered common.
I had a friend once who referred to .EXE files as "eeks" files. I always thought that was extremely cute. He was a tech person, not some computer-illiterate, and I think he knew this was his own personal thing and it wasn't common usage. But I thought it was a neat way to save syllables.
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#261657 - 28/07/2005 04:40
Re: earl?
[Re: gbeer]
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addict
Registered: 23/12/2002
Posts: 652
Loc: Winston Salem, NC
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I heard about it here. Obviously if this guy is annoyed with it, I'd blow off your co-workers as being morons. 
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#261658 - 28/07/2005 05:34
Re: earl?
[Re: Cybjorg]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 09/08/2000
Posts: 2091
Loc: Edinburgh, Scotland
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Instead of dub dub dub, two I have heard recently are wubbly wubbly wubbly and the three bums (works if you draw it)
Both made me smile
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Rory
MkIIa, blue lit buttons, memory upgrade, 1Tb in Subaru Forester STi
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#261659 - 28/07/2005 09:09
Re: earl?
[Re: tfabris]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 12/01/2002
Posts: 2009
Loc: Brisbane, Australia
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Quote:
I had a friend once who referred to .EXE files as "eeks" files. I always thought that was extremely cute. He was a tech person, not some computer-illiterate, and I think he knew this was his own personal thing and it wasn't common usage. But I thought it was a neat way to save syllables.
I call them "exys" and I use "earl" although probably not 100% of the time. And I'm a tech person.
Another one I use is for unprintable/unpronouncable characters - "gwargers". Don't know how to spell it...
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Christian
#40104192 120Gb (no longer in my E36 M3, won't fit the E46 M3)
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#261660 - 28/07/2005 12:05
Re: earl?
[Re: gbeer]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 30/10/2000
Posts: 4931
Loc: New Jersey, USA
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I have been saying "earl" for URL for years. Most people I know say it like that.
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-Rob Riccardelli
80GB 16MB MK2 090000736
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#261661 - 28/07/2005 12:11
Re: earl?
[Re: robricc]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 10/06/1999
Posts: 5916
Loc: Wivenhoe, Essex, UK
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This is the first time I have every heard of URL being pronounced "earl". Everyone I have ever heard say it out loud has said "u-r-l".
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Remind me to change my signature to something more interesting someday
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#261662 - 28/07/2005 12:16
Re: earl?
[Re: andy]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 15/01/2002
Posts: 1866
Loc: Austin
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#261663 - 28/07/2005 12:45
Re: earl?
[Re: RobotCaleb]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 30/10/2000
Posts: 4931
Loc: New Jersey, USA
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I say E-X-E for .exe files.
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-Rob Riccardelli
80GB 16MB MK2 090000736
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#261664 - 28/07/2005 12:56
Re: earl?
[Re: robricc]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 09/08/2000
Posts: 2091
Loc: Edinburgh, Scotland
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I say U-R-L but also Exy
so inconsistent
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Rory
MkIIa, blue lit buttons, memory upgrade, 1Tb in Subaru Forester STi
MkII, 240Gb in Mark Lord dock
MkII, 80Gb SSD in dock
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#261665 - 28/07/2005 13:20
Re: earl?
[Re: frog51]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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I say U-R-L and have a real OS.
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Bitt Faulk
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#261666 - 28/07/2005 15:42
Re: earl?
[Re: wfaulk]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 06/04/2005
Posts: 2026
Loc: Seattle transplant
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I avoid the URL/earl debate entirely- I say "web address". Not a savings of sylables, but then again there's no shortage to worry about. I love to be VERBOSE! 
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#261667 - 28/07/2005 20:33
Re: earl?
[Re: Robotic]
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old hand
Registered: 14/08/2001
Posts: 886
Loc: London, UK
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I'm and erl and exy man. Always have been.
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#261668 - 28/07/2005 20:49
Re: earl?
[Re: furtive]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 2858
Loc: Atlanta, GA
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U-R-L and E-X-E
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-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.
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#261669 - 29/07/2005 00:44
Re: earl?
[Re: JeffS]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12341
Loc: Sterling, VA
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Ditto, U-R-L and E-X-E. I don't usually like to shorten things. I tend not to say WWW anyway, since if you don't it's usually implied as a default (or not even needed sometimes).
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Matt
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#261670 - 29/07/2005 01:06
Re: earl?
[Re: Dignan]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 06/10/1999
Posts: 2591
Loc: Seattle, WA, U.S.A.
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I mostly don't shorten. "Sequel" for S-Q-L still gives me the creeps. 'Course, I have taken to using "dub-dub-dub" and I have been genuinely surprised that many folks don't employ the phonetic "fak" for F-A-Q. I hate spelling that one out.
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Jim
'Tis the exceptional fellow who lies awake at night thinking of his successes.
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#261672 - 29/07/2005 05:47
Re: earl?
[Re: jimhogan]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
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Quote:
"Sequel" for S-Q-L still gives me the creeps.
I once knew a guy that pronounced it "squirrel". Makes some kind of sense: "Structured QueRy Language".
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-- roger
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#261673 - 29/07/2005 07:48
Re: earl?
[Re: Roger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 10/06/1999
Posts: 5916
Loc: Wivenhoe, Essex, UK
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Quote:
I once knew a guy that pronounced it "squirrel". Makes some kind of sense: "Structured QueRy Language".
Eryl insists on pronoucing it squiggle and she refers to the interweb (which I quite like).
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Remind me to change my signature to something more interesting someday
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#261674 - 29/07/2005 08:10
Re: earl?
[Re: Roger]
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addict
Registered: 05/05/2000
Posts: 623
Loc: Cambridge
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Quote:
I once knew a guy that pronounced it "squirrel". Makes some kind of sense: "Structured QueRy Language".
I was told at Uni that 'Squirrel' was proposed as a pronunciation of SQL after finding that sequel couldn't be used because of a trademark dispute.
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#261675 - 29/07/2005 08:19
Re: earl?
[Re: Roger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 13/07/2000
Posts: 4180
Loc: Cambridge, England
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Quote:
I once knew a guy that pronounced it "squirrel".
There was a RiscOS database package actually called Squirrel. IIRC this wasn't because it supported SQL, but to draw your attention from the fact that it didn't.
For the record: F-A-Q, S-Q-L and U-R-L, but "dot-exy". Tech linguistics is interesting because so many people are self-taught from purely written resources such as the internet, and so they make up the pronunciations themselves. Most of Empeg pronounce Linux with the short "i" of "fin", and I sometimes slip into that, but I always used to use the long "i" of "fine". And yes, I've heard the WAV (that's "wav" with a short "a", not W-A-V) of Mr Torvalds using the "ee" sound of "fine herbes".
Peter
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#261676 - 29/07/2005 08:56
Re: earl?
[Re: peter]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/01/2002
Posts: 3996
Loc: Manchester UK
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So how do you pronounce debian?
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Andy M
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#261677 - 29/07/2005 09:17
Re: earl?
[Re: David]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 2858
Loc: Atlanta, GA
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Now that I think about it, I used to say S-Q-L, but fell into "sequel" when I started referring to "SQL Server" (which many refer to as M-S-S-Q-L). I'm not sure what I use when referring to the language, though. I might still say S-Q-L. I'll have to listen to myself and find out!
So how about id (as in the company that created Doom)? I always pronounced it as a word (as in the whole ego thing), but when I met my brother in law he called it I-D. It struck me at that point that I'd always just assumed the pronunciation, since I only ever read the name.
I remember going to a Delphi meeting and hearing all of these people pronounce the "i" like an "e" when I've always pronounced it like an "i". That's when you start wondering if you were "wrong" all along. After a few years in a vacume with just written words, its difficult to adjust to having something spoken differently than you learned it.
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-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.
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#261678 - 29/07/2005 09:27
Re: earl?
[Re: andym]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 13/07/2000
Posts: 4180
Loc: Cambridge, England
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Quote:
So how do you pronounce debian?
DEB-yun, short e, two syllables (maybe just a ghost of the middle syllable). And I'd been calling Qt "Q-T" for ages before I realised it was probably intended to be pronounced "cute". And it's only when I noticed that Ximian's logo was a monkey that I started calling it "simian" and not "zimian".
Peter
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#261679 - 29/07/2005 09:38
Re: earl?
[Re: andy]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 09/08/2000
Posts: 2091
Loc: Edinburgh, Scotland
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I like "World wide information superhighway web" 
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Rory
MkIIa, blue lit buttons, memory upgrade, 1Tb in Subaru Forester STi
MkII, 240Gb in Mark Lord dock
MkII, 80Gb SSD in dock
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#261680 - 29/07/2005 09:40
Re: earl?
[Re: peter]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 09/08/2000
Posts: 2091
Loc: Edinburgh, Scotland
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And how about SUSE? S-U-S-E, Suzi or Soos
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Rory
MkIIa, blue lit buttons, memory upgrade, 1Tb in Subaru Forester STi
MkII, 240Gb in Mark Lord dock
MkII, 80Gb SSD in dock
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#261681 - 29/07/2005 09:58
Re: earl?
[Re: peter]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/01/2002
Posts: 3996
Loc: Manchester UK
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Quote:
Quote:
So how do you pronounce debian?
DEB-yun, short e, two syllables (maybe just a ghost of the middle syllable). And I'd been calling Qt "Q-T" for ages before I realised it was probably intended to be pronounced "cute". And it's only when I noticed that Ximian's logo was a monkey that I started calling it "simian" and not "zimian".
Peter
Thanks for that Peter. I'd always assumed Qt was Q-T too, it was only when I watched one of their audio-annotated demo thingies on their website did I hear the guy refer to it as 'cute'.
As for SuSE, I've always called it soos.
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Andy M
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#261682 - 29/07/2005 10:14
Re: earl?
[Re: frog51]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 13/07/2000
Posts: 4180
Loc: Cambridge, England
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Soozer, on the basis that German doesn't go in for weak final e's ("Freunde, nicht diese toene"). But unlike Debian or Linux, that's one I never had much confidence in. I don't speak German; perhaps a real German would pronounce it "sooser"?
Peter
Edited by peter (29/07/2005 10:23)
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#261683 - 29/07/2005 16:40
Re: earl?
[Re: peter]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Those pronunciations are much funnier when read with an accent that actually emphasizes Rs, like most American ones.
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Bitt Faulk
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#261684 - 29/07/2005 16:57
Re: earl?
[Re: jimhogan]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12341
Loc: Sterling, VA
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Quote:
I mostly don't shorten. "Sequel" for S-Q-L still gives me the creeps. 'Course, I have taken to using "dub-dub-dub" and I have been genuinely surprised that many folks don't employ the phonetic "fak" for F-A-Q. I hate spelling that one out.
This is the only one I have difficulty with. I prefer to use "fak", for some reason (I spell everything else out), but I'm never absolutely certain if the person I'm talking to is going to know what I'm talking about.
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Matt
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#261685 - 29/07/2005 18:57
Re: earl?
[Re: peter]
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member
Registered: 24/10/2000
Posts: 106
Loc: San Jose, CA
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Let's see if I can catch up here. For the record, I pronounce things thusly: Linux: Lynn ux (short "i") Debian: Debb ee un (short inital e) Suse: Suzie URL: U-R-L Exe: eggsy (although I also use a "real" OS lol) WWW: Doubleyou doubleyou doubleyou (I despise "dub dub dub") FAQ: F-A-Q SQL: Both Sequel and S-Q-L depending OSX: Oh Ess Ten (had to break the Oh Ess Exx habit) gif: hard G. Jif is a peanut butter, not a graphics format jpg: jpeg Hmm, did I miss any? -- Gary F.
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#261686 - 29/07/2005 19:26
Re: earl?
[Re: Foz]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 10/06/1999
Posts: 5916
Loc: Wivenhoe, Essex, UK
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#261687 - 29/07/2005 19:45
Re: earl?
[Re: andy]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Choosy moms choose
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Bitt Faulk
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#261688 - 29/07/2005 21:52
Re: earl?
[Re: Foz]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 27/06/1999
Posts: 7058
Loc: Pittsburgh, PA
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When first reading this thread, I started to think that my position on pronouncing letters vs. making words from acronyms was inconsistent. However, the more I look at some of the examples, I've figured out that I actually have an algorithm in my head that governs this selection process. I don't know all of the coefficients and fudge factors in the equation, but in general, my likelihood of making a word out of an acronym:
- varies in proportion to how much shorter that word is (in syllables) compared to spelling the letters out
- varies inversely with how goofy that word sounds when pronounced
Of course, Linux, Debian, etc. aren't subject to this policy, only things like EXE and SQL. For instance, SQL is 33% shorter than "S Q L" and sounds like a real word ("sequel") so I use it. "Eggsy" or "ecksie" are the same 33% shorter, but they both sound goofy, so I spell out "E X E."
"Com" instead of "C O M" (as in COMMAND.COM) is a no-brainer, because it's 66% shorter and doesn't sound goofy at all. Others that fall into this category for me are "ping" for PNG and "jay-peg" for JPG.
One additional note is that when a letter can produce multiple different sounds (such as a hard and soft consonant sound) I always try to make sure that sound is reflected in the word made from the letters. So GIF files are "giff" not "jiff" because it's not the Compuserve Giraffe Interchange Format (although that would probably make a great Gary Larson cartoon.)
"Earl" or "URL" is an interesting one. To me, it sounds goofy, because it's a guy's name. ("Who's Earl?") In addition, the U stands for Universal, which begins with more of a Y sound ("yooniversal") than any kind of U vowel sound. These two strikes against it lead me to sound out "U R L" despite its comparative awkwardness.
One of the toughest calls is "dub dub dub" vs. "W W W". The former is 33% in terms of syllables, but sounds absolutely retarded. The goofiness loses in the end, and I go with the 9-syllable monstrosity known as "W W W." (The compromise, "dubya dubya dubya" is out of bounds for me due to similarities to... well, some moron from Texas.)
Anyway, I'm sure if I thought long enough I could think of examples which break these criteria, especially as the acronyms get longer... But that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
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#261689 - 30/07/2005 01:02
Re: earl?
[Re: tonyc]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 2858
Loc: Atlanta, GA
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Wow, that's a lot of thought there. I think, however, that my "alogrithm" is pretty much the same. One thing I'd add about my own usage of words vs. letters is understandability. I think F-A-Q is a good example. "FAK" is shorter and doesn't sound silly to me, but I'd never be sure if people understood what I was talking about- especially the people I need to direct there!
_________________________
-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.
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#261690 - 30/07/2005 01:11
Re: earl?
[Re: tonyc]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 19/09/2002
Posts: 2494
Loc: East Coast, USA
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That's a smart little algorithm. I seem to follow that and never noticed it.
I've heard "earl" recently from some technology vendors or some software corporation rep or something. I figured it was the new fangled "get some mindshare" tricksey marketing way of saying the same old thing. Come on marketing guys, Universal Resource Locationdevice...thing
Oh, and some other funny ones I've heard, admittedly from hardware manufacturer tech support lines, so there's clearly a language barrier:
"Visit our website at H T T P column slash slash...."
"support dot abitusa dot com dot" (reading the period at the end of the sentence) (not sure if it was abit)
Oh there must be so many more... let me think... Now, if only Microsoft Office would stop spell checking PDF as "puff".
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#261691 - 30/07/2005 07:10
Re: earl?
[Re: andy]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
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Quote:
(or a cleaning product, but for reasons I don't understand they renamed it recently to Cif)
European product harmonisation: Spaniards can't pronounce 'J' sounds properly  .
_________________________
-- roger
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#261692 - 30/07/2005 14:42
Re: earl?
[Re: tonyc]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Quote:
"ping" for PNG
From libpng.org:
Quote:
So what is PNG, and why is it worthy of its own home site? PNG (pronounced "ping") is the Portable Network Graphics format ....
Some of its spiffier features include:
- unambiguous pronunciation (ooo, baby!)
Quote:
the U stands for Universal, which begins with more of a Y sound ("yooniversal") than any kind of U vowel sound
Also, I was thinking about it, and I tend to pronounce letters in things with a few exceptions, but the most common pronunciation of URL I hear is kinda like "your'l" or "yurrel" which would at least match the "U" sound from "universal"..
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#261693 - 01/08/2005 20:03
Re: earl?
[Re: andym]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 06/04/2005
Posts: 2026
Loc: Seattle transplant
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Quote:
So how do you pronounce debian?
In my mind it was clear how it should be pronounced- and this was confirmed by wikipedia:
Quote:
History
Debian was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock, then a student at Purdue University, who wrote the Debian Manifesto which called for the creation of a Linux distribution to be maintained in an open manner, in the spirit of Linux and GNU. He chose the name by combining the first name of his then-girlfriend (now wife) Debra with his own first name "Ian", forming the portmanteau "Debian", pronounced as the corresponding syllables of these names are in American English: /dɛbˈiːjən/.
Hah- well, the BBS doesn't support the pronunciation fonts, but you get the picture.
Anyway, I pronounce most -ian words like that, even (for amusement) 'par-meas-ian' (the cheeze).
Meanwhile, in a related Debian/pronunciation way, as I was loading Debian onto an old beige box this weekend my housemate looked over my shoulder and asked, "Debbie-Ann? Who is that?"
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#261695 - 02/08/2005 05:39
Re: earl?
[Re: Robotic]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 10/06/1999
Posts: 5916
Loc: Wivenhoe, Essex, UK
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That pronunciation of Debian would have never occured to me. I have been happily saying deeebian for years. Doh.
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