On Fri, Feb 04, 2000 at 04:28:59PM -0500, Bart Szyszka wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I just read this article and thought the beginning was rather harsh:
> http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,34079,00.html
I found the quote in the article to be clueless, and that the reporter
thought it meaningful was an equal lack of clue.
> Is the pronunciation of the word 'Linux' that much of an issue? So
> what if we don't pronounce it like Linus pronounces it? Words are
> adapted differently in each language. In some, 'Debian' might be
> Debby-In while in others it might be Debby-On and in others the
> Debby might be replaced with the 'Debi' in Debit. I don't see anything
> wrong with people adapting words like that to their languages and it
> seems rather petty of people to bicker about that. Some people
> pronounce GIF with a soft G and others with a hard one. Why is
> this bothering people?
It's not.
The amusing thing is that lie-nicks is the -old- correct
pronunciation. (Well the 'nicks' part isn't quite right, it's closer
to 'nucks', but the usual point of contention is the 'i'.) This
"rhymes with cynics" thing is new. From the (old) Linux FAQ (you can
still find this on the web if you look hard enough... some people
need to update their faqs... :)):
For the benefit of those of you who don't have the equipment or
inclination: Linus pronounces Linux approximately as Leenus,
where the ee is as in feet but rather shorter and the u is like a
much shorter version of the French eu sound in peur (pronouncing
it as the u in put is probably passable).
When speaking English I pronounce it Lie-nucks (u as in bucket)
--- this is an anglicised pronunciation based on the analogy with
Linus' name, which in English is usually pronounced Lie-nus (u as
in put). It is of course quite acceptable and common to modify
the pronunciation of a proper noun when it changes languages.
I think I can safely say that the pronunciation Linnucks (short i
as in pit, short u as in bucket) is wrong in English, as it is not
the original Swedish pronunciation, not a sensible direct
anglicisation of it, and not based on the anglicised version of
Linus' name.
At some point the last two paragraphs got removed and this whole "rhymes
with cynics" thing became the "right" way.
The truly stupid problem with the article is that a lot of people who
have been using Linux for 5-7 years say it the now "wrong" way... and
people who have been using it for 2 months or saw it on the news think
they are smart enough to correct the "wrong" pronunciation.
Linus himself doesn't care how it's pronounced, which is the -real-
measure.
The article is also wrong on the issue of the trademark. Linus didn't
choose to trademark the name at all.... he happened to -get- the
trademark when someone else did and tried to extort money from Linux
vendors for using "his" name. Enough people got pissed off and enough
lawyers and he gave the trademark to Linus.
I didn't make it any further in the article.
--
Brian Moore | Of course vi is God's editor.
Sysadmin, C/Perl Hacker | If He used Emacs, He'd still be waiting
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Netscum, Bane of Elves.
