On Fri, 2 Feb 96 10:21:03 -0800, [log in to unmask] wrote:
|Jeff Kell writes:
|> For example, I have heard:
|>
|>    /etc - "ett-see" as in "ett-see mott-dee" (/etc/motd)
|>    chmod - "cha-mode" (sort of rhymes with "commode")
|
|These seem to be universal.  I say ch-mod rather than ch-mode personally.
 
Me too.
 
|>    ! - "bang"
|
|This goes way back, and is certainly not specific to unix. Haven't any of
|you people read the Jargon File?  If you have Windows, go get it from:
|http://www.denkart.com/jargon  It's good for you.
 
Hence "shh-bang" to pronounce #! which is the sequence to place before the
name of the correct shell to execute a script.
 
|> Seems they have a phonetic "code" for otherwise gibberish phrases.  I wonder
|> now many others there are?  Like "gnu".  Is this pronounced "nue/new" like
|> the animal, or is it "ga-NEW"?
|
|The G is pronounced.  Otherwise people could have trouble understanding
|exactly what you mean when you say "I used the new C compiler".
|
|> Another conversational quirk is "www".
|
|I just say 'Web" whenever possible.  When reading URLs to people you are
|usually stuck with spelling out "http://www." all the time, but since
|they expect this, you can say it in a fast mutter pretty quickly and they
|will still know what you said.
 
I heard (just last night) two new ways to handle this one.  One of them is
"sextuple-you" which I find interesting but cumbersome.  The other is
"triple-dub" which is easy to say but presumes that the listener already
knows what you are saying.  I prefer to say "web" whenever possible and
shorten "http://www." to a (run together) "dub-ya-dub-ya-dub-ya-dot".
 
|Gee.
 
Kewl!  L8r....  ;)
--
Jeff Woods <[log in to unmask]> [PGP key available]
Women and cats will do as they please. And men and dogs should relax
and get used to the idea. -- Robert A. Heinlein (1907 -1988)