How do you pronounce it?

[Cosmologicon]

I've never met anyone who pronounces "psi" as "psee" or "xi" as "xee", so why does anyone pronounce "phi" like "fee"?

So long as pi is "pie," and chi is "kai" and psi is "[p]sai", I see no reason why phi shouldn't be "fie". Really, there's no excuse.

Right, and then there's no excuse for epsilon not to be "ep-sai-lon" or sigma not to be "saig-ma".

Or... maybe you can't apply such strict logic to pronunciation of foreign words.

[Dingbats]

^: I don't pronounce it, nor think it.
XOR: eks-or

[cmacis]

Some of my lecturers say ep-sai-lon instead of ep-see-lon and I'll usually use the terms interchangeably with a bias for the latter.

[Andrew]

Here's another: ^
Is it pronouced "x-or" or "zor"?

Ex-or. Because that's what it is.

Almost every English word is pronounced by its etymology rather than by its spelling, so it's only logical to treat "javac" and "xor" the same way.

[Shadowfish]

^: I don't pronounce it, nor think it.
XOR: eks-or

What's wrong with writing xor as ^? That's how C++ does it. I can only remember a couple times that I have actually used a bitwise xor, but I figured it is still a valid way to write xor.

[Rysto]

^ can mean a lot of different things in a lot of different contexts, including "to the power of", "and" and dereference.

[mrputter]

For the PROLOG-ites in the audience:

=.. is pronounced how?

I'm teaching a course on PROLOG this semester, and when I got to a discussion of that predicate, realized I'd never actually heard it spoken out loud, only ever written. I just went with "equals dot dot" which sounds really... dumb. Or most of the time I write it on the board, point to it, and say "that thing."

Oh, and on the topic of calculus profs with bizarre pronounciations, I had the same prof for bofh Calculus III and IV, who pronounced "factor" as "fuct 'er". Good times...

[Shadowfish]

I got another. In the context of C++ and Java programming, !. Candidates are: "Not","Exclamation point", "Bang". I tend to say "not", but I have a friend who is adamant that it is pronounced "bang".

[Andrew]

I got another. In the context of C++ and Java programming, !. Candidates are: "Not","Exclamation point", "Bang". I tend to say "not", but I have a friend who is adamant that it is pronounced "bang".

It is pronounced "bang"... NOT!

[Peshmerga]

I've never met anyone who pronounces "psi" as "psee" or "xi" as "xee", so why does anyone pronounce "phi" like "fee"?

So long as pi is "pie," and chi is "kai" and psi is "[p]sai", I see no reason why phi shouldn't be "fie". Really, there's no excuse.

(But I use both pronunciations anyway, because I'm irrational.)

I thought chi was "chee"

[OmenPigeon]

I got another. In the context of C++ and Java programming, !. Candidates are: "Not","Exclamation point", "Bang". I tend to say "not", but I have a friend who is adamant that it is pronounced "bang".

Typesetters call it 'bang'. When programming I find it much more useful to name things by their function; '!' is definitely 'not'.

[SpitValve]

I thought chi was "chee"

"chee" as in "cheese" ???

I don't care how to do the vowels, but you gotta do a hard c...

[Peshmerga]

I thought chi was "chee"

"chee" as in "cheese" ???

I don't care how to do the vowels, but you gotta do a hard c...

Yeah, chee as in cheese.

[EvanED]

I always thought it was "kai", like "kite". Dictionary.com lists the pronunciation of chi when used in the sense of a Greek letter (as opposed to "the vital life force in the body supposedly regulated by acupuncture") as "kahy".

[elminster]

char = "char" as in "CHARcoal"
gif = "gif" as in "GIFt"

Although i dont think ive ever had to actually say char to anyone yet... or alot of the other things... i just paste code to them, or type it out. So im not entirely sure how id refer to some, i suppose what ever is most suitable at the time.

[SpitValve]

Whenever I read the name of this forum I read it as "Codine" for some reason... like some sort of drug or something... it "codine" a real word?

[Drostie]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codeine

[SpitValve]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codeine

ah, thanks

[LE4dGOLEM]

The official pronunciation (by the guys that made it) is "Jiff". I say, "Gif"
Char as "Car", but sometimes "char" for "charstring"

[adlaiff6]

Two notes:

1) When you say you pronounce the type "char" the same as the word "char" that really doesn't help us much.
2) "!" is always pronounced "bang," because it lets you debate the semantics of what happens when you "bang" various things.

[SpitValve]

2) "!" is always pronounced "bang," because it lets you debate the semantics of what happens when you "bang" various things.

Your logic is immutable. I have seen the light.

[warriorness]

2) "!" is always pronounced "bang," because it lets you debate the semantics of what happens when you "bang" various things.

Your logic is immutable. I have seen the light.

I don't agree, simply because it'd be too hard breaking the habit of saying "not" (this is, of course, assuming that you're talking about the boolean operator), and also because "not" reflects the meaning of the operator.

I will say, however, that the interrobang is the coolest-named (coolestly named?) punctuation mark ever.

[Andrew]

1) When you say you pronounce the type "char" the same as the word "char" that really doesn't help us much.

It does if you speak English.

[simen]

2) "!" is always pronounced "bang," because it lets you debate the semantics of what happens when you "bang" various things.

Your logic is immutable. I have seen the light.

I will say, however, that the interrobang is the coolest-named (coolestly named?) punctuation mark ever.

Yeah, that's pretty cool. What sort of function would it have in programming and logic, though? I think it would have to be something fuzzy, like shifting the truth value 10% towards 0.5.

[adlaiff6]

1) When you say you pronounce the type "char" the same as the word "char" that really doesn't help us much.

It does if you speak English.

I was being facetious؟

[Paulustrious]

1) When you say you pronounce the type "char" the same as the word "char" that really doesn't help us much.

It does if you speak English.

I was being facetious؟

Facetious - interesting word, has all the vowels in order (if you add ly to the end). Just like abstemious. But we can do without that.

It is a shame that not all the posters show their location. I have worked in IT in 14 different countries. Pronunciation depends both on location and native language. Char tends to be CHAR(coal) in the UK and CAR(buncle) in the US, including variations like varchar and nchar. The Dutch and Germans have different spin on CH as it has a more gutteral sound. In French it is soft. # is hash in the UK, pound in the US (and Canada) , but sometimes gate. In IT 'industry' it just takes too long to say 'exclamation mark' so it gets abbreved to bang (and sometimes shriek). Occasionally, something happens to define a word or symbol, so C# is now definitively See Sharp. It comes as a shock when you hear new versions.

SQL; S-Q-L, sequel, squeal
Linux
New
Math(s)

And if you live in Canada you know what Javex is.

[LE4dGOLEM]

#

Octothorpe.

[Ycros]

This is how I pronounce things:

char: "CHARred wood"
#: hash
^: zor (I used to say ecks-or, but zor is much easier)
!: not if referring to a not operator, bang/exclamation mark otherwise
javac: javak
C++: see-plus-plus
C#: see-sharp/d-flat
SQL: ess-que-ell OR sequel, I started off with the former, and now I alternate between the two. o_O
Linux: the way Linus pronounces it
gif: GIFt


I'm Australian, and this is how everyone else I've interacted with has pronounced these things as well. (I also work in a software company, so we use a lot of these terms daily)

[william]

If you say it with a hard G you don't have to pay them royalties.

You don't have to pay them royalties either way now, honey. The patent's expired.

[william]

I've never met anyone who pronounces "psi" as "psee" or "xi" as "xee", so why does anyone pronounce "phi" like "fee"?

So long as pi is "pie," and chi is "kai" and psi is "[p]sai", I see no reason why phi shouldn't be "fie". Really, there's no excuse.

(But I use both pronunciations anyway, because I'm irrational.)

I thought chi was "chee"

Not when used to refer to a Greek letter. When "ch" is used in words of Greek origin it's really a "kh" or a "k".

Also: C# is pronounced C-hash, with the first h silent.

[blob]

I thought chi was "chee"

"chee" as in "cheese" ???

I don't care how to do the vowels, but you gotta do a hard c...

Yeah, chee as in cheese.

In Greek, it would be chee as in loch or ach.

[SpitValve]

In Greek, it would be chee as in loch or ach.

That's what my greek lecturers said though make sure the "ee" is a short "ee" sound...

[Nidht]

'equals equals'!

# - hash, pound, or sharp (ignoring C#)

Octothorpe!

[LE4dGOLEM]

'equals equals'!

# - hash, pound, or sharp (ignoring C#)

Octothorpe!

#

Octothorpe.

Bindun.

[frozendevil]

'equals equals'!

# - hash, pound, or sharp (ignoring C#)

Octothorpe!

Bindun.

what about octothorn?

[SpitValve]

So if Americans call "#" a "pound", what do you call "£" ?

[Drostie]

Americans don't use the symbol £ anywhere near as often as they use the symbol #, but they call the first "pounds" and the second "pound" or "the pound sign." Weird lot, they.

And I pronounce char like "care". Because, y'know, it's short for "character," and well, that's how you pronounce the first syllable.

[LE4dGOLEM]

Americans don't use the symbol £ anywhere near as often as they use the symbol #, but they call the first "pounds" and the second "pound" or "the pound sign." Weird lot, they.

And I pronounce char like "care". Because, y'know, it's short for "character," and well, that's how you pronounce the first syllable.

"Care-eck-tor"... what?

[Drostie]

Well, more like kār' ik tər, but yeah.

[SpitValve]

I can fully imagine an american (or even an australian) saying "care-ick-ter"... I think we do a shorter "a" sound here though.