General > General Technical Chat
Do *you* pronounce the L in SOLDER ? (In the USA?)
themadhippy:
And then theres those who go to le dahls with there m+s carrier bags
BradC:
--- Quote from: pdenisowski on December 21, 2022, 10:54:31 am ---Wondering if I should start another thread just to discuss the pronunciation of VSWR :)
--- End quote ---
We always spoke of SWR as swahr, so VSWR was Vee Swahr. My physics teacher (who was also the licensed rad shack operator and had his own observatory) was extremely English, and was most particular about his pronunciation. Did I mention he was English? Very, very English. I have no idea where the "ah" in SWR came from, but it seemed to make sense when instructed.
He was also the one that was absolutely vociferous that a PUT was to be annunciated as a Pee You Tee and had absolutely no relation to golf as that was a silly game invented by the Scottish. Very, very English.
Dads family are all American, from Minnesota to Texas. We visited a lot over the years, and the astonishing range of colloquialism and pronunciation always fascinated me. I learned not to make it a *thing* because I came from a country that had a Koala in every tree and Kangaroos jumped down every suburban street. Stereotypes can be fun (especially as a 14 year old).
TimFox:
--- Quote from: eti on December 22, 2022, 08:05:20 am ---
--- Quote from: tooki on December 22, 2022, 07:54:43 am ---I just made myself chuckle by wondering if anyone ever pronounced IBM as “ibbum” or something. :P
A funny, now largely obsolete acronym, is SCSI: only noobs pronounce it “ess see ess eye”. Likely apocryphally, some people early on suggested pronouncing it “sexy”. But the pronunciation that stuck, not only in English but also in many other languages, was “scuzzy”.
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Well done for teaching the world the “correct” way to pronounce an acronym. lol.
Acronyms are, by their very definition, a contraction of a description into its initial letters to avoid tediously speaking out the entire description ; there is no “correct” way to pronounce them, they aren’t meant to be pronounced. To say what you’ve said is to say “that’s the incorrect pronunciation of that slang” - in essence, it’s a matter of choice whether one creates a phonetic analogue of said acronym so it rolls of the tongue more easily, or whether they formally say “Ess See Ess Eye” <—— (phonetically worded for clarity).
One might even say that formally pronounced, letter by letter, is more correct than the “slang” equivalent of forming these contractions back into words, since there’s only marketing people who sometimes create pronounced acronyms for the same reason anyone else does; to make them memorable (and profitable, in their particular case.)
“NICAM” is an example of this, but even then, that doesn’t mean it’s “right”, and that any other spoken version of “NICAM” letter by letter is, therefore, “wrong”, it’s just what happened to stick.
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The definition of an acronym is a pronounceable word formed from an abbreviation, i.e. "laser", "NASA", "radar", etc.
From Merriam-Webster on the difference between acronym and initialism:
(They weasel at the end about a sometimes use of acronym. I prefer careful usage.)
'What is the difference between an acronym and an initialism?
Both acronyms and initialisms are made up of the first letter or letters of the words in a phrase. The word acronym typically applies when the resulting thing can be read as a word; for example, radar comes from "radio detection and ranging" and scuba comes from "self-contained underwater breathing apparatus." The word initialism only applies when the resulting thing is read as an abbreviation; for example DIY, which comes from "do it yourself," is pronounced by saying the names of the letters. Note that the word acronym is also sometimes used to mean "initialism."'
Terms ending in "onym" include synonym, antonym, homonym, etc. for specific types of words.
I often harp on this question of careful usage, because I reject the following syllogism:
"An acronym is a specific type of abbreviation. Therefore, all abbreviations are acronyms."
ebastler:
--- Quote from: TimFox on December 22, 2022, 02:54:52 pm ---I reject the following syllogism:
"An acronym is a specific type of abbreviation. Therefore, all abbreviations are acronyms."
--- End quote ---
That's not a syllogism but a fallacy in my book.
tooki:
--- Quote from: themadhippy on December 22, 2022, 01:08:22 pm ---
--- Quote ---I wonder which came first, SCSI or SCPI ("skippy")?
--- End quote ---
skippys been bouncing around since 1968
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Every source I’ve found says the SCPI standard was published in 1990.
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