On Thu, Mar 10, 2005 at 08:41:10AM -0600, Chad Walstrom wrote: > On Wed, Mar 09, 2005 at 01:55:48PM -0600, Mike Miller wrote: > > LIH nuhks - a good American approximation. Linus actually pronounces > > it a bit more like LEE nooks, but he has an accent! ;-) > > And that's what's important, isn't it? Whenever I talk about Linus > Torvalds, I pronounce his name the way he would: Lee nus. Thus, I also > try to pronounce Linux as he would: lee nux, though I don't always > remember. Fine. I would have converted much more quickly to say "LEE nucks", but "Lih nooks" makes no sense. But I know its pretty hopeless at this point. > Jim Crumley wrote: > > Part of the reason that I don't buy "lih nucks" is that Linus does > > have an accent in the classic recording of him saying Linux. > > Exactly. > > > I realize that its not the accepted version and I am trying to convert > > myself to the more accepted version. The argument (which I know has > > been lost by this point) is that Linux is based on Linus which in > > English is pronounced "LIE nus", so the pronunciation should be "LIE > > nucks". Following the English pronunciation seems to be the typcial > > method for pronouncing words in English that are based on names. > > This I certainly don't buy. Just because you're speaking $LANGUAGE_A > doesn't mean you have the right to butcher the pronunciation of a proper > name that originates in $LANGUAGE_B. The fact that rampant > mispronunciation is common American English also does not equate to > "correct". It equates to disrespect, or at best naivete. I agree its polite to try to say people's proper names the way that they would say them, but in practice I don't think that is consistently applied for other names. As an example in English, we don't pronounce Michelin or Air France as the French do, though we are pretty close on Renault. > > > Einsteinium is pronounced in Engish the way that Einstein is > > pronounced in English, not the way Einstein is pronounced in German. > > Again, this doesn't make it correct. However, let's examine this > example a little closer. Your argument that when speaking American > English, one should butcher pronunciation, Einstein should be pronounced > "een steen", not "ine stine", which is in fact closer to German than > you're claiming. To give it German flair, you might pronounce it as > "ine shtine". Not a very large departure from the original language of > the proper noun, if you ask me. Well, maybe that wasn't the best example. What about gene? Do you pronounce it as the German's do? Or color, do you pronounce it as the French (or Romans) do? As foreign words come into common usage in a language, their pronunciation shifts. The idea of having "correct" and "incorrect" in this case pronunciations doesn't really fit reality. Practice trumps theory in the end. > In any case, I suggest we drop this thread. To help out, I shall > mention another German word that should officially kill it: Nazi!!! I agree that the thread should die, but I couldn't let it after you tried to abuse Godwin's Law like this ;). It doesn't count if you do it on purpose! -- Jim Crumley |Twin Cities Linux Users Group Mailing List (TCLUG) Ruthless Debian Zealot |http://www.mn-linux.org/ Never laugh at live dragons |