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Common pronunciations of Linux directories, commands, etc. (2017)

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Re: Common pronunciations of Linux directories, commands, etc. (2017)

#121

Post by KineticLensman »

glitchcrab wrote: post #109
combatentropy wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is for the same reason that anyone ever nudges anyone else about pronunciation, spelling, or grammar: speed of communication. If you pronounce "/etc" as "et cetera", then it will add a step in me parsing your speech ("Oh, he means 'etsy'"). Second, now I have an awkward decision to make when speaking back to you. Do I adapt my pronunciation to yours for the length of this conversation? Or do I pronounce it my way,…

I just want to point out that pronouncing etc as etsy isn't universal by any means - in fact I suspect it's a very American pronunciation. If you pronounced it 'etsy' in a sentence here in the UK, people wouldn't understand what you're talking about.

Agree. Most English people at least would be nonplussed if you said "etsy etsy" rather than "etcetra etcetra" to indicate something that goes on and on.

Re: Common pronunciations of Linux directories, commands, etc. (2017)

#122

Post by KineticLensman »

dschuetz wrote: post #81
BossingAround wrote: post #73

I found there is this "pride in the correct pronunciation" in the opensource community. It seems to be a signal of a group membership and a creed validator. Who cares though? Why does "correct pronunciation" matter? Linux is nowadays used by many more non-native English speakers who will pronounce it very differently. This attempt at correcting others seems like gatekeeping and, to me personally, feels like a very an…

Jeez, how did you get from correct pronunciation to anti-inclusive ?! Most people just want to know what you are talking about when you say libe or cat slash prots slash mem in fo or worse. Nothing is more infuriating when people start using wrong words in a 10h telco instead of agreed upon vocabulary, which includes the correct pronunciation! Scratch correct . It's the agreed upon pronunciation we all ought to use w…

> Nothing is more infuriating when people start using wrong words in a 10h telco instead of agreed upon vocabulary

Totally agree. This is also why doctors say 'pancreatic islets' rather than 'pink wibbly bit'.

Using precise technical language does create a barrier to entry but this is a side-effect of the primary purpose of precise technical language: to allow practitioners to communicate accurately and unambiguously.

Re: Common pronunciations of Linux directories, commands, etc. (2017)

#123

Post by philwelch »

KineticLensman wrote: post #121
glitchcrab wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just want to point out that pronouncing etc as etsy isn't universal by any means - in fact I suspect it's a very American pronunciation. If you pronounced it 'etsy' in a sentence here in the UK, people wouldn't understand what you're talking about.

Agree. Most English people at least would be nonplussed if you said "etsy etsy" rather than "etcetra etcetra" to indicate something that goes on and on.

American here and I say “et cetera” when I mean “et cetera”, but /etc is “etsy”.

Re: Common pronunciations of Linux directories, commands, etc. (2017)

#124

Post by elric »

dschuetz wrote: post #101
elric wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is or isn't intuitive depends highly on context and background. Good luck finding something that's intuitive for everyone. People have tried and failed with artificial languages.

That's why people try to agree upon terms and their pronunciation first. Most languages are unintuitive and it's worse with tech jargon. So, when you work in tech business, or even in some tech club you cannot just walk in and talk like a child and expect everyone to treat you like an adult.

Exactly. It's just another thing to learn, and usually something you easily pick up through immersion. Jargon files (like The Jargon File [1]) are pretty amusing and can help illustrate where some of the quirkier conventions originated, but you can get by without them.

[1] http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/

Re: Common pronunciations of Linux directories, commands, etc. (2017)

#125

Post by kelnos »

snorrah wrote: post #100

oh god /etc as ‘etsy’? no way. never heard it called that, don’t want to (british)

Probably an Americanism? I'm American and I've been calling it 'etsy' since the late 90s. I hear 'E T C' and 'et cetera' on occasion, but the speaker is usually someone new to unix.

Re: Common pronunciations of Linux directories, commands, etc. (2017)

#126

Post by kergonath »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #79

> /var: rhymes with jar While I've heard people pronounce it that way, given that "var" is short for "variable" or "varying" (as in capable of changing), I've primarily heard people pronounce it as the first syllable of "variable": vair. (I have also, rarely, heard people pronounce "variable" as though the first syllable rhymes with "far".)

Isn’t there a US/UK difference? It seems to me that English people pronounce this closer to (though not exactly) a as in “jar” than to e as in “very”, though I think I’ve heard both ends of the spectrum.

To my (admittedly non-native) ears, an open and long sound is strange in such a word, and the closed a sounds better. Same with i versus ai in bin or lib.

Re: Common pronunciations of Linux directories, commands, etc. (2017)

#127

Post by kelnos »

blackfawn wrote: post #52
giomasce wrote: post #7

To me etc is pronounced "etch".

Since the /etc pronunciation was first in the list, I initially thought this might be some joke list of crazy pronunciations until I saw the rest. Do people really say "etsy" when referring to /etc? I've never ever heard anyone say this. Usually I hear the spelled out E-T-C and occasionally "et cetera" but never "etsy"

Are you British? I (American) have been pronouncing it "etsy" for over 20 years. When I hear something different it's usually from someone who is new to unix and just hasn't learned all the jargon yet.

Re: Common pronunciations of Linux directories, commands, etc. (2017)

#128

Post by glitchcrab »

philwelch wrote: post #123
KineticLensman wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. Most English people at least would be nonplussed if you said "etsy etsy" rather than "etcetra etcetra" to indicate something that goes on and on.

American here and I say “et cetera” when I mean “et cetera”, but /etc is “etsy”.

That makes a little more sense. /etc is e-t-c for me, but I may be in the minority there.

Re: Common pronunciations of Linux directories, commands, etc. (2017)

#129

Post by tpoacher »

KineticLensman wrote: post #122
dschuetz wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jeez, how did you get from correct pronunciation to anti-inclusive ?! Most people just want to know what you are talking about when you say libe or cat slash prots slash mem in fo or worse. Nothing is more infuriating when people start using wrong words in a 10h telco instead of agreed upon vocabulary, which includes the correct pronunciation! Scratch correct . It's the agreed upon pronunciation we all ought to use w…

> Nothing is more infuriating when people start using wrong words in a 10h telco instead of agreed upon vocabulary Totally agree. This is also why doctors say 'pancreatic islets' rather than 'pink wibbly bit'. Using precise technical language does create a barrier to entry but this is a side-effect of the primary purpose of precise technical language: to allow practitioners to communicate accurately and unambiguously…

Interesting example, since doctors notoriously mispronounce stuff all the time. Especially names.

Re: Common pronunciations of Linux directories, commands, etc. (2017)

#130

Post by oblio »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #112
pacaro wrote: post #2

This is one of those surprisingly useful and obvious things that I'm surprised not to have seen before. Knowledge of (including pronunciation) jargon is a classic gatekeeper In my experience, I'm in the minority in pronouncing sudo as soodoo, the majority seem to say pseudo. OTOH I've never heard anyone say fsck as anything other than f-suck From personal experience at Microsoft the backslash was frequently pronounce…

> pseudo I'm originally Italian and my English is now quite good. A very, very common mistake among most "mediterranean" and "romance languages" (Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, Romanian) people when speaking English is to pronounce ps as in "pissed" without the "i", instead of just the "s" (the "p" is silent), which is the correct way to pronounce it in English. Another very common mistake in my language group…

For Romanians, we pronounce signal correctly, though. We have "gn" as a sound in Romanian, for example "a răstigni" (to nail to a cross"), we don't change it to "ni".

But we do have the same problem as Italians with "pseudo": the "p" is right there, why are you skipping it?!? :-p

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