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:
I’m the head of IT for my company and it’s S-Q-L and I’m a native speaker.
It’s not a grammatically correct pronunciation at all (which is why it seems like non-native English tends to not say “Sequel”) and even MySQL documentation specifically calls it out and says it’s S-Q-L
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.
Is pronouncing LED like an acronym common? I’ve never heard it, and it would take me a while to work out what they’re on about if they’re talking about “lead”
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
The first time I heard the term gooey it was from someone I don’t like so now I can’t stand it. All I can think about is buying that dude a toothbrush, but then he’d probably go on about how toothbrushes are actually bad for your health.
It should be that way always, frankly, I don’t know why gooey even got started. Something “gooey” is the last thing I’d want associated with computer stuff
But I loathe all of the stupid attempts at shoehorning pronunciations of initialisms where it doesn’t belong
It’s not “Sequel” its fucking S-Q-L. They’re all initialisms. I will go through my entire IT career and die on this hill.
No because jay-peg actually makes sense and fits well, just like NASA makes sense and fits well. You can say NASA and JPEG without having to introduce additional letters to make it work. Unlike “Gooey”, “Sequel”, or “Scuzzy” which all require the addon of more letters to actually work
You can just see JPEG and intuitively go “Oh Jay-PEG” you can’t say the same for SCSI
To get Scuzzy you have to fundamentally modify SCSI and break a few grammatical rules
In English, “S” before a consonant typically retains its standard /s/ sound (as in “stop” or “snow”). Pronouncing “SCSI” as “Scuzzy” violates this by softening the second “S” into a /z/ sound before the consonant “Z,” which doesn’t follow the rule where “S” remains /s/ unless a voicing context (such as between two vowels) alters it.
English has rules governing when consonants are “soft” (like “S” becoming /z/) or “hard” (like “C” becoming /k/). In “SCSI,” these letters maintain their distinct pronunciations, but when forced into “Scuzzy,” the “C” becomes part of a hard /sk/ sound, and the second “S” is softened into /z/. These changes are not guided by typical English consonant-hardening rules, especially since “SCSI” does not include the contextual elements that normally trigger these shifts (e.g., vowel placement following “C” in certain cases).
You also have to add whole new vowels like “u” and “y”
In order to make GUI pronounceable you have to add in vowels and blend consonants and fundamentally changes it’s pronociation. GUI is meant to have each letter on its own, and on their own those letters cannot make the “oo” and “ee” sounds
On their own they make the following pronunciations:
G: Pronounced as /dʒi/
U: Pronounced as /ju/ (like “you”)
I: Pronounced as /aɪ/ (like “eye”), with a long “i” sound
In contrast, true acronyms like “NASA” form a pronounceable word naturally without requiring any modifications, making “Gooey” a grammatically improper pronunciation of “GUI.”
“Taxi” comes from the French word “taximètre” and its shortened form “taxi,” which itself comes from the Latin “taxa,” meaning charge or rate. In this case, the “i” at the end of “taxi” is pronounced as a short vowel sound (/ɪ/), like the “i” in “sit,” rather than a long “eye” sound (/aɪ/). English has phonetic rules where an “i” at the end of a word is pronounced as a short vowel when preceded by a consonant, especially when the word has a foreign language origin. This contrasts with words like “alibi” or “butterfly,” where the “i” is part of a longer syllable or a diphthong. Therefore, “Taxi” is pronounced “tak-see” following these conventions.
You’re actually trying to dictate pronunciation in English?
Wym? This is an English community and the thread is about English initialisms, acronyms and words. Why would I not reference English grammatical rules?
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
slammed!
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
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.
Jif is an oven cleaner here. Because I hate everyone, I started pronouncing it Gif. Makes a lot of people very very angry
I like the cut of your jib.
Nah, creator says soft-g. Just like gigawatts.
I called this S.Q.L. until our IT guy corrected me
I’m the head of IT for my company and it’s S-Q-L and I’m a native speaker.
It’s not a grammatically correct pronunciation at all (which is why it seems like non-native English tends to not say “Sequel”) and even MySQL documentation specifically calls it out and says it’s S-Q-L
Generally English first language speakers say sequel while everyone else spells it out.
If it’s pronounced sequel why isn’t it CQL?
Because it’s not, it’s just something from computing history that is no longer relevant
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).
Is US an abbreviation of an initialism (USA)?
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…
Is pronouncing LED like an acronym common? I’ve never heard it, and it would take me a while to work out what they’re on about if they’re talking about “lead”
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
|ay| checkmate atheists.
This may be a bit prescriptivist. Most people use the word acronym for all of them.
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)
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?
No. That’s how we end up with stupid sounding crap like (ugh) “Gooey” for GUI. Just say G-U-I or A-I.
till (today I learned) some people say G - U - I and not gooey
The first time I heard the term gooey it was from someone I don’t like so now I can’t stand it. All I can think about is buying that dude a toothbrush, but then he’d probably go on about how toothbrushes are actually bad for your health.
I’ve always said the letters and was surprised when I heard someone say ‘gooey’ when I entered college.
Still don’t like it.
no one likes being wrong
At my last job I helped design VUIs, voice user interface. We called them “vooeys”.
It should be that way always, frankly, I don’t know why gooey even got started. Something “gooey” is the last thing I’d want associated with computer stuff
But I loathe all of the stupid attempts at shoehorning pronunciations of initialisms where it doesn’t belong
It’s not “Sequel” its fucking S-Q-L. They’re all initialisms. I will go through my entire IT career and die on this hill.
Do you say J-P-E-G instead of jay-peg?
No because jay-peg actually makes sense and fits well, just like NASA makes sense and fits well. You can say NASA and JPEG without having to introduce additional letters to make it work. Unlike “Gooey”, “Sequel”, or “Scuzzy” which all require the addon of more letters to actually work
You can just see JPEG and intuitively go “Oh Jay-PEG” you can’t say the same for SCSI
You have to “add” letters for JPEG to be pronounceable.
Where? you can pronounce “J” 2 ways. “Je” and “Jay”
“PEG” stands on its own, and it’s also a word, “peg”
So when you pronounce Jay-PEG you’re just sounding out the “J” and pronouncing the word “PEG”. No letters have been added to make it pronounceable
In contrast to “Sequel”/SQL where you need to add a vowel “e” and a consonant “u” to get “sequel”
I suppose you called them small computer system interface drives instead of SCSI drives too.
I just say S-C-S-I instead of “Scuzzy” or whatever it is
Everyone says H-T-T-P, why don’t they say “Hettep”‽
Nah, it’s scuzzy.
And when I’m trolling, I say “huh-tu-tu-puh” for HTTP.
To get Scuzzy you have to fundamentally modify SCSI and break a few grammatical rules
In English, “S” before a consonant typically retains its standard /s/ sound (as in “stop” or “snow”). Pronouncing “SCSI” as “Scuzzy” violates this by softening the second “S” into a /z/ sound before the consonant “Z,” which doesn’t follow the rule where “S” remains /s/ unless a voicing context (such as between two vowels) alters it.
English has rules governing when consonants are “soft” (like “S” becoming /z/) or “hard” (like “C” becoming /k/). In “SCSI,” these letters maintain their distinct pronunciations, but when forced into “Scuzzy,” the “C” becomes part of a hard /sk/ sound, and the second “S” is softened into /z/. These changes are not guided by typical English consonant-hardening rules, especially since “SCSI” does not include the contextual elements that normally trigger these shifts (e.g., vowel placement following “C” in certain cases).
You also have to add whole new vowels like “u” and “y”
Don’t even start with PCMCIA
It’s not “sequel,” it’s “squirrel.”
No, GUI is a great acronym.
I had a colleague pronounce CLI as an acronym, though, and that stopped a meeting short.
Huh, short i?
He said it like “klee”
He’ll probably never live it down
Ah, I thought it was like “clit,” but missing the “t.” That could get you sent to HR…
I’m no snitch
It’s been called a gooey since at least the mid 80s. All you kids get off my lawn.
Then it’s been wrong since the mid-80s and also becomes probable someone just did it as a joke and then it persisted
Nope, G-U-I is objectively wrong. Get off A7thStone’s lawn, we’re having a nice chat.
Or counterpoint, you’re wrong and you should feel bad.
Nah, and I can prove it
mathgramaticallyIn order to make GUI pronounceable you have to add in vowels and blend consonants and fundamentally changes it’s pronociation. GUI is meant to have each letter on its own, and on their own those letters cannot make the “oo” and “ee” sounds
On their own they make the following pronunciations:
G: Pronounced as /dʒi/
U: Pronounced as /ju/ (like “you”)
I: Pronounced as /aɪ/ (like “eye”), with a long “i” sound
In contrast, true acronyms like “NASA” form a pronounceable word naturally without requiring any modifications, making “Gooey” a grammatically improper pronunciation of “GUI.”
You’re right everyone pronounces taxi as tax eye. You’re actually trying to dictate pronunciation in English?
“Taxi” comes from the French word “taximètre” and its shortened form “taxi,” which itself comes from the Latin “taxa,” meaning charge or rate. In this case, the “i” at the end of “taxi” is pronounced as a short vowel sound (/ɪ/), like the “i” in “sit,” rather than a long “eye” sound (/aɪ/). English has phonetic rules where an “i” at the end of a word is pronounced as a short vowel when preceded by a consonant, especially when the word has a foreign language origin. This contrasts with words like “alibi” or “butterfly,” where the “i” is part of a longer syllable or a diphthong. Therefore, “Taxi” is pronounced “tak-see” following these conventions.
Wym? This is an English community and the thread is about English initialisms, acronyms and words. Why would I not reference English grammatical rules?
TIL you can pronounce it “Gooey” - aww, people are wierd but creative!
Funny having the opposite realization. Wonder how many times each of us have heard others pronounce GUI. You in the US?
Hard for me to estimate now that I think about it
I’ve probably said GUI tens of thousands of times. Have you ever heard some pronounce SQL as squeal?
LOL
Thankfully absolutely not
‘I’ before ‘E’ except after ‘W’
It’s easy to remember because it rhymes
WYSIWYG = why see wig
Wizzy-wig.
I always said Wizz-e-wig