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Comment by aspenmayer | Hacker News Reader

Maybe it’s just me, but ampersand sounds nothing at all like address to my English-speaking American ear. Am I missing something?

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Next they're going to tell us that "asterisk" sounds like "dereference".

That's just how they talked in 1972 in New Jersey where Bell Labs is located.

LOL!

My stepdad is from NJ and pronounces toilet as tore-let. He’s a real character and now I don’t know if you’re serious or not and it’s hilarious to me as a non-NJ person who has visited and met his side of the family.

We obviously can't take anyone seriously who says "wudder".

  *
  star
  start
  start of

;)

An equally confused BrE speaker reporting in! Can confirm it's not just AmE.

I've never seen BrE and AmE used so like this - fantastic! Apart from on mobile...bre and ame they will become. Hopefully context will explain.

The fact C was made on crack

It's where the C comes from!

Unlikely, but maybe your comment was.

These characters are from its predecessor, B, though.

Funnily enough, the guy that made B is also behind Go, where * and & are still a thing.

Well, maybe B is B because it was the Beta version of C

Same! Someone should post a video/audio recording of the pronunciation. Even trying to imitate different accents I'm familiar with, I can't find one where the two words sound even remotely similar lol

Thought that as well, but try to imagine someone bellowing the word over the incessant clacking of teletypes and it _almost_ works ...

I guess the similarity is between and & addr.

Depends.

Ampersand begins with æ.

Address can use æ or the reduced vowel ə.

AH-dress vs eh-DRESS

It's not just you.

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