The official way to pronounce “MySQL” is “My Ess Que Ell” (not “my sequel”), but we do not mind if you pronounce it as “my sequel” or in some other localized way.
Lastly, for those curious, PostgreSQL says on their site:
Is initialism a type of acronym? Or do they have an umbrella term? Surely, they are the same thing, but if initialism has easily string-able sounds it’s an acronym (ex. CPU vs. RAM). And some are even both depending on person saying it, like LED.
An acronym is a type of initialism, which is itself a type of abbreviation.
So acronyms are initialisms where you pronounce the letters like a word (e.g., RAM), initialisms are abbreviations made by taking the initial letters of multiple words and concatenating them regardless of how it’s spoken (e.g. FBI for Federal Bureau of Investigation), and an abbreviation is any shortening of a word or phrase into something shorter (e.g., “abbrev.” for abbreviation or “US” for United States).
I did some research, and apparently, “United States” without “of America” could be a kind of ellipsis. But more likely, it’s just an alternative country name.
So I think that makes US an initialism (because you pronounce it as [yu-es]) for an alt (bonus info: this is a final clipping, or apocope, of “alternative”) name.
It doesn’t happen very often, but I’ve heard it used that way. It’s usually obvious from context, like I think I heard with “OLED vs. LED”. And as @brachypelmasmithi@lemm.ee mentioned, it’s used a lot in languages other than English, in my experience in many slavic ones, for example.
Haven’t ever heard it in English either, but it’s very common in Polish. In Polish LED can even become a proper adjective, e.g. “światło ledowe” (LED light), with the initialism even losing capitalisation
AI is an initialism since you don’t pronounce AI. NASA would be an acronym because you pronounce the word.
this is one of those facts i have to struggle to keep to myself to avoid coming off as an insufferable nerd
Boom, roasted
sniped
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Now this is the kind of pedantry I’m here for
Wait you do not pronounce AI like a Sopranos character that just found an eye ball on the sidewalk?
Don’t tell me what to do.
Whatever you do, don’t follow this advice.
I always forget this, thanks
This may be a bit prescriptivist. Most people use the word acronym for all of them.
AI is pronounced “ay-eye”
Are ya ready kids!
Do SQL next!
Correct:
Incorrect:
The one that people really screw up? PostgreSQL.
Squirrel.
Where?!
:: confused ADHD noises ::
Outside, but you’ll have to touch grass to reach it.
Outside? Hard pass.
It’s interesting that Wikipedia says it’s pronounced " S-Q-L" but was historically pronounced “sequel.”
Also interesting, MySQL says on their site:
Lastly, for those curious, PostgreSQL says on their site:
Post Graduate Squirrel
My people often pronounce nginx as “n-ginsk” not “engine x”.
sad pikachu
We call things “bits”, “bytes”, and my favorite: “nybbles”. IT is rife with wordplay. How could they not think it was a cool way to spell “enigne”?!
What about squill?
Yeah, let’s not. :p
Squeal?
You’re one of those? Its sequel and GIF has a hard g.
Soft G folk are just objectively wrong. Not only is Jif a peanut butter, it’s a damn file extension: https://fileinfo.com/extension/jif
I don’t care how inconsequential it is, I will die on this hill.
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Nah, creator says soft-g. Just like gigawatts.
I like the cut of your jib.
I called this S.Q.L. until our IT guy corrected me
Generally English first language speakers say sequel while everyone else spells it out.
If it’s pronounced sequel why isn’t it CQL?
It can be pronounced though as I or eye or something.
Yeah you can do that. You would be wrong and people around you would wonder why you switched the subject. But you can do that.
But how many people would I need to convince to pronounce it for it to turn into an acronym?
Is initialism a type of acronym? Or do they have an umbrella term? Surely, they are the same thing, but if initialism has easily string-able sounds it’s an acronym (ex. CPU vs. RAM). And some are even both depending on person saying it, like LED.
Other way around.
An acronym is a type of initialism, which is itself a type of abbreviation.
So acronyms are initialisms where you pronounce the letters like a word (e.g., RAM), initialisms are abbreviations made by taking the initial letters of multiple words and concatenating them regardless of how it’s spoken (e.g. FBI for Federal Bureau of Investigation), and an abbreviation is any shortening of a word or phrase into something shorter (e.g., “abbrev.” for abbreviation or “US” for United States).
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I did some research, and apparently, “United States” without “of America” could be a kind of ellipsis. But more likely, it’s just an alternative country name. So I think that makes US an initialism (because you pronounce it as [yu-es]) for an alt (bonus info: this is a final clipping, or apocope, of “alternative”) name.
Linguistics is such a dirt hut…
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It doesn’t happen very often, but I’ve heard it used that way. It’s usually obvious from context, like I think I heard with “OLED vs. LED”. And as @brachypelmasmithi@lemm.ee mentioned, it’s used a lot in languages other than English, in my experience in many slavic ones, for example.
Haven’t ever heard it in English either, but it’s very common in Polish. In Polish LED can even become a proper adjective, e.g. “światło ledowe” (LED light), with the initialism even losing capitalisation
On the other hand everyone says “acronym” even when they know the word “initialism” so I’m not entirely sure you’re really completely correct
TIL (ty)