From: Xavier Maillard <zedek@gnu-rox.org>
Cc: ding@gnus.org
Subject: Re: [OT] Of the meaning of GNUS
Date: Sun, 04 May 2003 17:41:21 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <plop87el3e3eji.fsf@gnu-rox.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <r87eaj41.fsf@asfast.com> (Lloyd Zusman's message of "Sun, 04 May 2003 10:20:46 -0400")
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On 4 mai 2003, Lloyd Zusman outgrape:
> kai.grossjohann@gmx.net (Kai Großjohann) writes:
>
> > Lloyd Zusman <ljz@asfast.com> writes:
> >
> > > In English, the word "gnu" (meaning "wildebeest") can be
> > > pronounced with a silent "g", so that it sounds exactly the same
> > > as "new". Therefore, using that convention, "Gnus" would be
> > > pronounced like "news". Since Gnus was originally created as a
> > > usenet newsreader, that's a very appropriate name.
> >
> > I understand that the G is not silent, says Lars.
>
> Check "gnu" in an English dictionary. I looked in several, and in
> all cases, the "g" is silent. The first pronunciation is "noo", and
> the second one is "nyoo" (as if the "gn" were reversed to "ng", and
> the "g" turned into a glide).
>
> Of course, this is in reference to the wildebeest, not the Free
> Software Foundation's acronym.
>
> And while Lars is certainly an authority on the pronunciation of
> "Gnus", I recall when it first came out (even before Umeda Masanobu
> took over its development), and back then, the pronunciation of "Gnu"
> seemed to alternate pretty much on a 50-50 basis between a silent and
> a hard "g" (those were the days when the only gnu thing out there was
> gnu emacs).
>
> I believe that the "official" pronunciation of the FSF acronym had a
> hard "g", but that didn't stop thousands of people from pronouncing
> that "g" silently back then.
>
> But the original question had to do with the reason for the trailing
> "s" in the name "Gnus". And as we've discussed, it was to make the
> word a rhyme (or a homonym, if you subscribe to the
> silent-g-Gnu-acronym theory) for the word "news".
Thanx Mr Cappelo :)
zeDek
--
http://www.gnusfr.org -- French Gnus user site
Anti-war disclaimer:
"Bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity"
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next prev parent reply other threads:[~2003-05-04 15:41 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 45+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2003-05-03 20:58 Xavier Maillard
2003-05-03 21:02 ` Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
2003-05-03 21:10 ` Karl Kleinpaste
2003-05-03 21:45 ` Jesper Harder
2003-05-04 15:51 ` Glenn Morris
2003-05-03 22:37 ` Raymond Scholz
2003-05-04 15:38 ` Xavier Maillard
2003-05-04 16:49 ` Oystein Viggen
2003-05-13 17:24 ` Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
2003-05-04 15:37 ` Xavier Maillard
2003-05-03 21:07 ` Richard Hoskins
2003-05-03 21:26 ` Lloyd Zusman
2003-05-04 13:19 ` Kai Großjohann
2003-05-04 14:20 ` Lloyd Zusman
2003-05-04 15:41 ` Xavier Maillard [this message]
2003-05-04 16:27 ` Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
2003-05-04 18:17 ` Lloyd Zusman
2003-05-04 19:48 ` Lloyd Zusman
2003-05-04 19:23 ` Randal L. Schwartz
2003-05-04 19:33 ` Randal L. Schwartz
2003-05-04 19:53 ` Lloyd Zusman
2003-05-04 20:09 ` Frank Schmitt
2003-05-04 20:34 ` Lloyd Zusman
2003-05-04 20:53 ` Lloyd Zusman
2003-05-04 21:21 ` The early gnus shars (was: [OT] Of the meaning of GNUS) Lloyd Zusman
2003-05-04 21:25 ` The early gnus shars Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
2003-05-04 22:03 ` Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
2003-05-04 22:08 ` Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
2003-05-04 23:09 ` Karl Kleinpaste
2003-05-05 2:06 ` Lloyd Zusman
2003-05-05 3:17 ` Bill White
2003-05-05 19:30 ` Xavier Maillard
2003-05-04 21:27 ` The early gnus shars (was: [OT] Of the meaning of GNUS) Lloyd Zusman
2003-05-05 19:31 ` The early gnus shars Xavier Maillard
2003-05-05 20:34 ` Frank Schmitt
2003-05-13 17:29 ` Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
2003-05-13 18:15 ` Lloyd Zusman
2003-06-16 9:58 ` Shigeki UNO
2003-05-04 20:00 ` [OT] Of the meaning of GNUS Jesper Harder
2003-05-04 18:18 ` Robert Marshall
2003-05-05 14:54 ` William M. Perry
2003-05-05 20:36 ` Jon Ericson
2003-05-04 15:40 ` Xavier Maillard
2003-05-04 15:54 ` Randal L. Schwartz
2003-05-05 19:30 ` Xavier Maillard
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