How do you pronounce the following computer/programming terms:

Question

wiki

boolean

Dijkstra

Knuth

daemon

yes [nevermind this one]

wav file

gif file

any more common misprouncement clarifications welcome.

Answer 1

Wiki (rhymes with hickey)

BOO-lee-in

(no idea)

DEE-mon (like the devil)

(no idea)

WAVE file

GIF (like gift) file

Answer 2

Knuth = Kuh-Nooth with the emphasis on the second syllable

Gif is a soft "G". Some time ago, I had read on a Unisys (patent holder) website that it was a hard G. All other references (including the original developer) say it is "J".

Answer 3

wiki - Vicky

boolean - boolean

Dijkstra - Dike-Straa

Knuth - Nutth

daemon - Dee-Mon

yes - Yes!!

wav file - vav

gif file - jiff

Answer 4

wiki - wick - ee

boolean - bool - ee - un

Dijkstra - Dike - struh

Knuth - Kah - nooth (according to his homepage)

daemon - day - mun

yes (as in lisping or 'yeth') - huh?

wav file - wave

gif file - jif, like the peanut butter

tiff - rhymes with gif

Answer 5

Using IPA:

wɪ.ki

buː.li.ɪn

dаɪk.stɹʌ

kʌ.nuːθ

di.mn̩ (syllabic n)

?

weɪv

gɪf

Answer 6

GIF: Officially jiff, but everyone pronounces the G as in gill.

Answer 7

wiki - wɪki:

boolean - bu:li:ɪn

Dijkstra - daɪkstrʌ

Knuth - nu:θ

daemon - deɪmən

wav - weɪv

gif - ʤɪf

tiff - tɪf

Answer 8

wiki - whick-y (without the 'h')

boolean - boo lee un

Dijkstra - dike stra (like "strum" a guitar, without the m)

Knuth - nooth

daemon - day mun

yes - huh?

wav file - wave

gif file - jif, like peanut butter.

tiff - rhymes with jif

char - like charcoal (I've heard people pronounce it like care or car)

SQL - Sequel (hey, at least I don't pronounce it squirrel).

Answer 9

wiki - wick-ee

boolean - bool (like fool) + E (long e) + an or un

Knuth - kuh-nooth

daemon - demon

wav file - wave file

gif - I think the question here is if the G makes a g sound or a j sound? I go with the g sound myself.

char - I pronounce it car. It is short for "character", which would suggest the ch be treated like a k sound, however it also might suggest that the a is long making the pronunciation like the word care. With no other vowels I don't think the a should be long, but the ch could still be treated as the k sound.

This symbols pronunciation chart on Coding Horror might be useful to someone looking for the answer to this question

Answer 10

Daemon-- 'day-mon' and 'demon' are both in common use, but the latter is technically correct if you go by an English dictionary. For fun, see how your system's built-in speech synthesizer says it. (On the Mac, it's 'demon'; TextEdit -> Edit -> Speech -> Start Speaking).

Answer 11

wick-ee

bull e an

dykestra

k-nooth

dai-mon

wave file

jif (like the peanut butter!)

Answer 12

The real question is the spelling of Boolean, or, should I say, it's abbreviation. It's shortened to "bool" even though it's named after a man named "Boole". You'd think if you wanted to honor him, the least you'd do is spell his name right.....

Another questionable pronunciation is "geocities", which is correctly pronounced "GEE-OH-cities". However, some prefer to say it "GEE-oss-ities". This led me to an idea about the problem of "gif".

"gif" is correctly (according to it's creators) pronounced "jif". Many, however, prefer to say it with a hard G.

My idea is to allow both pronunciations, one as the "correct", and one as the "trendy/ironic" version. "Geocities" can be viewed the same way. The most common example of this is the American department store "Target", where the correct pronunciation is "TAR-get", while the trendy pron. is (pseudo-French) "TAR-zhay"

Answer 13

knuth - noo-th

Answer 14

My native tongue is American English. If I know that a "word" is an acronym, I pronounce it as closely as possible to using the sounds as they appear in the words that are abbreviated. To whatever extent we can claim to be right by appealing to authority, I think English authorities largely agree that this is correct.

Thus, I say GIF (for Graphic Interchange Format) with a hard G as in girdle not giraffe.

The others are less informed:

Dyke-struh K'Newth day-muhn

The others seem to be ubiquitously agreed upon.

Answer 15

In made up names/symbols, I suppose there is no "good" pronunciation, only the one advised by the creator of the name, or the one of general consensus, although there might be schisms, like we see here for Gif. Not being native English doesn't help, some (French) colleagues persist pronouncing char as shar (that's kar for me), and I won't mention log-quatre-j (log4j!). I give here French-style pronunciation, for a change! ;-)

• wiki - oui-ki
• boolean - bouléan
• daemon - démon
• wav file - ouav
• gif file - jif
• PNG file - I pronounce péhenjé, even though I know the official pronounciation is ping

Answer 16

Knuth, From his website:

How do you pronounce your last name?

Ka-NOOTH.

http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/faq.html

Answer 17

• wiki - "we key", as in "we keyed your car while you were out"
• boolean - boo lay uhn, as in "Boooh, Lain! Step out of The Wired, and don't be such a weird show".
• Dijkstra - "Dike" and the "Stri" part from "Strike", as in "But if we go on a Dike Strike, the flat, flat Netherlands will be flooded".
• Knuth - with a hard G, then a nu, as in "Saint Iknoothius"
• daemon - al pa tji know, as in "The Devil's Advocate"
• wav - in uh fi si ent re pre sen ta shon. Sometimes abbreviated to flack, as in "Free Losless Audio Codec".
• gif - with a g like in gorge and garage.

Disclaimer: I'm love Lain (she's hot and nerdy). I'm not affiliated with Tokyo TV, The Wired, or Apples' product placement division. But I do have the same weird sense of humor.

Answer 18

Here are IPA and phonetic pronunciations with sources (for ones I could find):

• wiki: /wiːkiː/

• boolean: /ˈbuːliən/ or /buːˈliən/

• Dijkstra: /ˈdɛɪkstra/

• Knuth: /kəˈnuːθ/

• daemon: /ˈdiːmən/ or /ˈdeɪmən/

• gif: /ˈdʒɪf/ or /ˈɡɪf/

And here are opinions on ones I couldn't find a source for, or have opinions on:

• wav: Rhymes with "wave", not "have"

• cache: /kæʃ/ - Rhymes with "cash", not "ay-she" (with a long-a sound like face or Anne Heche)

Answer 19

I used to pronounce SCSI skizzy for awhile before finally I gave in.