some computer-related pronunciations

SQL: “sequel”

In their SQL standard, the ANSI declared that the official pronunciation for SQL is "es queue el". However, many database professionals have taken to the "slang" pronunciation sequel, that reflects the language's original name, Sequel, before trademark conflicts caused IBM to perpetrate the current moniker.

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gif: “jif”

CompuServe used to distribute a graphics display program called CompuShow. In the documentation for version 8.33 in the FAQ section, it states: The GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), pronounced "JIF", was designed by CompuServe and the official specification released in June of 1987. There, straight from the inventors of the format.

source (which links to here and here)

GNU: “GNU”

ogg taken from wikimedia commons.

From a Richard Stallman speech:

So, the design decisions were made, the next thing I needed was a name.
Of course, we hackers
*always* want to pick
amusing, or naughty names
for all the software we write, that's part of the purpose of writing the software.
[laughter]
So,
yeah, why you write code is to give you the opportunity to use a funny name.
So,
there was a hacker tradition,
that,
when you're writing a program similar to some other program,
you can give the new one a name, which is a recursive acronym, saying "<this> is not <the other>".
For example,
in the 60's and 70's there were many TECO text editors.
And most of them were called this-TECO or that-TECO or whatchamacallit-TECO,
but,
one clever hacker called his version " TINT",
which stood for " TINT Is Not TECO".
The first recursive acronym.
Then,
in 1975, I developed the first Emacs text editor.
There were many Emacs-like text editors after that,
and many of them were called this-emacs or that-emacs or whoseswhatsis-emacs,
But one was called "FINE" for "FINE Is Not Emacs",
and there was "SINE" for "SINE Is Not Emacs",
and there was "EINE" for "EINE Is Not Emacs".
Then EINE was almost completely rewritten and the new version was called "ZWEI",
for "ZWEI Was EINE Initially".
[laughter]
So I looked for a recursive acronym name,
for " Is Not Unix".
But there was a problem; all the obvious four-letter possibilities were,
the problem was, none of them was a word.
Which means there was nothing to make it particularly funny.
Uhh... So,
I looked a little bit further, and,
I tried *other* ways of making a recursive acronym and I discovered,
that if I used a contraction,
I could get the,
the funniest word in the English language,
to be the name. And that word, of course, is "gnu",
which is used for a lots of, fuh, lots of jokes, lots of funny songs,
and...
'course it stands for
"GNU's Not Unix".
Now the reason why people have fun with it that the dictionary says it's pronounced "nu".
But actually,
you shouldn't believe a dictionary, because
the *real* pronunciation has a click sound in it, it's something like [click]nu.
I'm probably not saying it right,
but the British colonists didn't even try.
[laughter]
You know,
they just said "nu",
and the wrote it with a "G", meaning:
"We're not pronouncing something here".
[laughter]
And then that,
that got put in the dictionary and labeled as "correct".
Anyway,
when it's the name of our system,
please pronounce a hard "G", pronounce it "gnu".
If you speak of the "nu" operating system, you'll get people very, very confused.
[laughter]
Because, we've been working on it for sixteen years now, so it's not so "new" anymore.
source

TeX

There are two theories:

  1. Tex is pronounced "Tech", with "ch" like in the Scottish "Loch".
    source
  2. LaTeX is usually pronounced "LAY-tech" (where ch represents the sound of ch in German mich or German Technik, but not Scottish loch: the last character in the name is actually a capital chi, as teX derives from Greek technê. See the International Phonetic Alphabet article for more information.)

    source

LaTeX

LaTeX (pronounced either "Lah-tech" or "Lay-tech")

misc

tcl “tickle”
tclsh “ticklish”
tcl/tk “tickle-tick”
csh “sea shell”
.cshrc “sea shark”

Linux

“Hello, this is Linus Torvalds, and I pronounce Linux as Linux.”

Hauppauge: “HOP-HOG”

How do you pronounce Hauppauge? Hauppauge is a town in NY on Long Island. Hauppauge is pronounced HOP-HOG. The area around the headwaters of the Nissequogue (NISS-I-QUOG) River was dubbed Hauppauge by the American Indians; it means “overflowed land” in the Algonquian language. Hauppauge has a large industrial park, home of many well known companies.

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