I have a question about the pronunciation of the SQL word. In my native language (French) we used to say it like spell each letters.
I've been listening to the stackoverflow podcast today. And I noticed the usage of the word sequel to describe SQL.
My question is what is the common or correct pronunciation of SQL in english. Is it a matter of taste?
According to Wikipedia, going letter by letter is the "official" pronunciation (though I hear it pronounced "sequel" more often).
I think it doesn't matter as long as the other person understands that you're talking about SQL.
Someone once told me that the M$ variety is 'sequel' all other are Ess-Queue-El. I don't know if thats a common perception or not, just throwin' it out there.
As Jason Sparks points out, you learn it as S-Q-L, and that's the pronunciation in most countries, but then most English speaking people pronounce it "Sequel".
I don't remember the last time I heard someone pronounce it S-Q-L. Call it 'sequel'
These things are always irritating - as a breed, programmers like there to be one right answer and we like to do things right. Yes, ANSI defines the pronunciation as ESS Q ELL. Also, by way of related example, the creator of the Graphics Interchange Format reportedly requires it to be pronounced JIF in defiance of English grammar and common sense.
In my opinion the JIF pronunciation is provably wrong; creators of acronyms and abbreviations don't have any right to tell you how to speak. And so I will continue to feel comfortable saying either ESS Q ELL or Sequel as I feel like it. Pronouncing someone's name wrong, on the other hand, is impolite if you know better.
So to me it's always Linux with the sound of "in", rather than the sound of "whine", because the former is how Linus pronounces his name.
Bonjour !
I worked in a Japanese and an Irish company. ESSE CUE EL for both. Never heard of "sequel". Does MySQL should be pronounced "My Sequel"?
PostgreSQL is also a pretty hard one.
sequel isn't ms, sequel is ms, oracle, db2... basically any real database. pronouncing by letter just spells out your ignorance.
Ignorance? Ridiculous. Reserve your opprobrium for people who demonstrate stupidity or offensive behaviour, please. Do you have a reference for your very strange assertion?
I started with S-Q-L but perhaps as a matter of convenience it seems a significant number of professional programmers refer to it as Sequel.
I also noticed this same principle applied in podcast 18 (URL pronounced as "earl").
Well, similar to laws and regulations in other areas; what you read is not always what is reality. There is proper and correct English aaaaaand there's how everyone actually speaks. For those "stackers" (I'm guess that's slang for stack overflow members) who attend conferences, listen to podcasts, or watch recorded presentations, many highly respected members of the programming community pronounce it "sequel".
In my humble opinion, pronouncing it as "sequel" will make you sound the most correct, pronouncing it "seek-el" will make you seem like a novice, and pronouncing it "ess-que-el" will make you seem, well, arrogant.
This all reminds me of the scene in "Six Degrees of Separation" where Will Smith is attempting to learn how to correctly pronounce 'bottle of beer'.
"Say 'Bottle of beer'."
A long time ago IBM had a database with "QUEL" (QUEry Language). It was followed up with "SEQUEL" (a joke, since it was a sequel to the first language).
The pronunciation followed through to "SQL", which is officially "ess-que-ell". So both are considered correct by most people.
The first time I heard it pronounced "sequel" was in reference to Microsoft SQL Server, so I always figured that was invented by Microsoft's marketting department.
Personally, when referring to the language I pronounce it "ess cue ell".
The only time I use the "sequel" pronunciation is in reference to "Sequel Server", though lately I'm tending towards "Squeal Server", which is just as valid.
The way I see it, abbreviations are all about brevity in both writing and speaking. Saying each letter S-Q-L requires saying three syllables. Saying the word sequel is only two syllables. Sequel wins for me every time.
As pointed out there is no right or wrong. I personally use S-Q-L since then I won't have to think twice about which spoken language I am using: "Sequel" is both pronounciation wise foreign ni swedish, and carries no meaning, while S-Q-L is easy to pronounce in both swedish and english.
My point is: if you don't yet have a preferred way of saying it, then I'd suggest using S-Q-L and not sequel, as there will be no confusion whatsoever on what you are talking about.
I personally heard it pronounced "sequel" about a year ago, and had to ask what the person meant. And I had worked with databases quite a lot before that.
I flip between SQL and Sequel depending on the context. SQL for things like T-SQL, and Sequel when I am talking about the MS-SQL server.
MySQL and postgreSQL give me problems, but I just tend to avoid talking about them.
But I also pronounce it "Squirrel" in lighter moments (where it won't be misunderstood). Which sounds quite reasonable when you talk about Squirrel Servers :D
There is one good reason to come up with an agreement on this:
"An SQL server..."
"A SQL server..."
Both are valid depending on how you pronounce SQL. When reading about SQL one can generally tell how the author pronounces it through this usage. Jeff Atwood, for instance, always uses the second form in his blog posts as he prefers the "sequel" pronunciation.
Given that the ANSI organization has settled on ESS CUE ELL then in most technical literature the first form is used.
On forums such as StackOverflow, though, you'll find both forms, and in some cases it sparks an edit war between grammar, er, "enthusiasts."
Given that most written literature on the subject prefers the first form and agrees with ANSI, then when an edit war breaks out over something such as this, the conclusion should reflect the published standard.
Is it just an American thing to try to "say" acronyms? SCUBA, SQL, RBI, GIF (I've heard gif and jif), SITCOM,...
I work for Sybase, and I'm on the SQL Anywhere development team. We pronounce our product name as "sequel anywhere". I've occasionally heard "ess cue ell anywhere", but mainly from customers, rarely from employees.
From Wikipedia:
SQL: pronounced ess-cue-el or see-kwul
Sequel was an early name for SQL but it was changed because of a trademark issue. I think Sequel being used again for SQL became popular after Microsoft started calling their SQL Server product "Sequel Server". If you say "Sequel" instead of "S-Q-L" I will probably assume that you use SQL Server.
The original SQL standard declared that the official pronunciation for SQL is "es queue el". Many English-speaking database professionals still use the nonstandard pronunciation /ˈsiːkwəl/ (like the word "sequel").
"An SQL server..."
"A SQL server..."
I have to disagree with Adam. Pronunciation, like language, is fluid -- it evolves based on common usage.
Try googling "an SQL" vs. "a SQL":
Therefore, by overwhelming popular vote, "SQL" is pronounced "sequel."