Re: How do you say "gnus"?

Re: How do you say "gnus"?

[Phil Stripling]

David Sumbler <david@aeolia.co.uk> writes:

> Now for the trivial question: how do you say "Gnus"?  Is it pronounced
> like "News", or do the cognoscienti pronounce it in some other way?

Do you know what a schwa is? If not, see 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwa

Since I can't type the upside down e that is the symbol for schwa, let me
use uh. 'uh' cannot be accented, so gnus is pronounced 
guh 'noose
with the accent on noose.

>SNIP<
> For that matter, how do people usually say "Emacs"?  I say "Ee-macs",
> but perhaps it should be "Em-axe".

'ee macs
 
> On the very rare occasions when I have managed to get to a local Linux
> user group (my work schedule doesn't usually allow it) I've realized
> that most people seem to say "Line-ux" for what I think of as
> "Linn-ux".  I suppose none of it matters much, especially if I never
> get to talk to anyone about these things!

It's a coined word, as are gnus (in this instance) and emacs, so
pronunciation is not governed by standard rules (gif, for example is
supposed to be pronounced using the hard g found in golf, but American
English proposes that it should be jiff. C'est la vie.) In American
English, Linus is pronounced so that the first syllable rhymes with
eye. There are people who pronounce linux that way, too. Others try to ape
Linus Torvalds's pronunciation and say something like linn ooooooks. Others
go for lee nooks. Still others Americanize it as 'lin ucks.

My suggestion is that when you fall in with a group that uses linux, just
say it as they do.

For the official pronunciation, hear 
http://www.paul.sladen.org/pronunciation/torvalds-says-linux.wav

No matter how you say any of the words, have fun. Okay?
-- 
Phil Stripling           | email to the replyto address is presumed
The Civilized Explorer   | spam and read later. email from this URL
http://www.cieux.com/    | http://www.civex.com/     is read daily.

Re: How do you say "gnus"?

[David Hanak]

On Fri, 31 Dec 2004, David Sumbler wrote:

> I've just started using Gnus - it's great, although I've only
> scratched the surface yet.

Welcome!  I hope you'll soon find it as indispensable as we do.

> Now for the trivial question: how do you say "Gnus"?  Is it pronounced
> like "News", or do the cognoscienti pronounce it in some other way?

It is pronounced like news indeed, the G is silent.

> For that matter, how do people usually say "Emacs"?  I say "Ee-macs",
> but perhaps it should be "Em-axe".

AFAIK, ee-max is the appropriate pronounciation.  Just for the record,
us Hungarian users often read it phonetically (Hungarian is a phonetical
language) and pronounce it something like eh-much.

> I've realized that most people seem to say "Line-ux" for what I think
> of as "Linn-ux".  I suppose none of it matters much, especially if I
> never get to talk to anyone about these things!

Again, linn-ooks is the "official", original pronounciation, but English
speakers often say it as line-ux, which is also accepted.  (Perhaps
linn-ooks has a slightly snobbish tinge to it, as in the case of "vase"
- vuh-ze vs. vay-ze.)

Happy new year to all of you out there!

-- 
David Hanak - Research Engineer
Institute for Software Integrated Systems  |  http://www.isis.vanderbilt.edu
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