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Comment by anonymous | Hacker News Reader

I just mispronounce them in my head. Then I mispronounce them in person. Then I don't care when people get their knickers in a twist. Because to me, I'm the one pronouncing them correctly and they should just deal with it. At least the "sql is pronounced sequel" people have died out.

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Odd, nearly everyone I know pronounces it "sequel" (including "my sequel" and "sequel server". The only people I interact with who spell it out are people who don't really know what it is, so it's kind of a warning flag when someone says it that way.

Is this wishful thinking on your part or a regional (Boston) thing?

Are they predominantly Microsoft people?

Spelling SQL as an acronym is very common here in Brazil (and I guess other non-english speaking countries). Saying sequel would be very weird because the closest sounding word for that means "trauma"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequela

> At least the "sql is pronounced sequel" people have died out.

No we haven't. :)

(But I don't correct others)

I still say "sequel" out loud because it's less of a mouthful than spelling out Ess Cue El.

I've always called it SQL since old school days, and still do.

I would call it Speedy as well, not EsPeeDeeWhy, that's another given.

Here in France, I've never heard anyone say "sequel". Or "engine-x" for nginx (which we usually pronunce as "n-ginx").

SPDY is a bit of a problem because saying "speedy" sounds silly, and the name of "Y" is really awkward in an acronym in French (it's two syllables, "i grec"). Not that it's really a problem since nobody uses it.

I wish people would stop using Y in acronyms or pseudo-acronyms. And W too. I don't even know how English-speaking people say "www".

Not far from "double you dubl dub you" :)

For what it's worth, "dub dub dub" as a pronounciation makes my skin crawl.

> which we usually pronunce as "n-ginx"

Is that like "en jinks"?

The people who think SCSI should be pronounced SEXY will never die out. NEVER.

I have never heard a tech person pronounce it "sexy" and I have never heard a marketing person /not/ pronounce it "sexy".

Tech people who've had to suffer with terminator resistors call it "scuzzy" for a reason.

On behalf of people that are more interested in the communication than in the pronunciation, thank you. You could pronounce SPDY as "super dimension fortress" and SQL and "purple monkey dishwasher" and I wouldn't care as long as I knew what you were talking about.

My next project is getting named "Purple Monkey Dishwasher"

Make that PuMD. ;-)

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