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Comment by memsom | Hacker News Reader

So, "sequel" as a name, as opposed to "ess-cue-ell" is pretty universally used in English. Most people who use it call the Microsoft RDBMS "sequel server" not "ess-cue-ell server" and I hear "sequel" slightly more than spelling out the acronym these days. The UK does tend to prefer to make a word out of an acronym though, so we tend to say things like OS (Operating System) as "oss" not "oh-ess". This led me in a conversation once to only realise at the end that the guy was talking about "RTOS" (which I had only ever read, and used the more American "AR-TEE-OH-ESS") when he was saying "are-toss".

Edited to clarify we are talking about English usage because apparently, someone speaking French down voted me because French is not English..

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Not sure if you saw my other comment, but I still disagree that it is "universal" based on my own experience of frequently hearing S Q L as opposed to 'sequel' from English-speaking peers. It's honestly a super interesting thing to explore, if you ask me. I am sure there are multiple cultural and linguistic influences at play, though I am not versed enough if either of those fields to say exactly how. Has there been any data/research on this, that you know of?

I've also heard a bunch of people saying "ess-cue-ell" rather than "sequel" (in English). Probably as many as I've heard saying "sequel".

I don't think neither is "universal". Personally I switch between them depending on my current mood.

Yeah - it is complicated. I had never heard "sequel" till I started my first day job in the late 90's. But I swear the closer people are to databases management, the more I hear "sequel". SQL being spelled out is seemingly more people new to databases or used interchangeably like everyone has identified. I do say it either way, but I would always say "Sequel Server" for example.

I guess when I say "universal", I never hear someone say "what is that?" I mean - most programmers understand the term. I favour it as it seems easier to say.

> So, "sequel" as a name, as opposed to "ess-cue-ell" is pretty universally used

Nope - 100% of French speakers pronounce it "ess-cue-ell".

I wasn't talking about French speakers. We are speaking about English usage. I have heard French people say "Sourcecodes" or "Sources" too, but that is also something I would never personally use in English. Sourcecode is uncountable, so it is already implicitly multiple things, so plural is redundant.

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