I just mispronounce them in my head. Then I mispronounce them in person. Then I don't care when people get their knickers in a twist. Because to me, I'm the one pronouncing them correctly and they should just deal with it. At least the "sql is pronounced sequel" people have died out.

Odd, nearly everyone I know pronounces it "sequel" (including "my sequel" and "sequel server". The only people I interact with who spell it out are people who don't really know what it is, so it's kind of a warning flag when someone says it that way.

Is this wishful thinking on your part or a regional (Boston) thing?

Spelling SQL as an acronym is very common here in Brazil (and I guess other non-english speaking countries). Saying sequel would be very weird because the closest sounding word for that means "trauma"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequela

Are they predominantly Microsoft people?

> At least the "sql is pronounced sequel" people have died out.

No we haven't. :)

(But I don't correct others)

I still say "sequel" out loud because it's less of a mouthful than spelling out Ess Cue El.

Here in France, I've never heard anyone say "sequel". Or "engine-x" for nginx (which we usually pronunce as "n-ginx").

SPDY is a bit of a problem because saying "speedy" sounds silly, and the name of "Y" is really awkward in an acronym in French (it's two syllables, "i grec"). Not that it's really a problem since nobody uses it.

I wish people would stop using Y in acronyms or pseudo-acronyms. And W too. I don't even know how English-speaking people say "www".

> which we usually pronunce as "n-ginx"

Is that like "en jinks"?

Not far from "double you dubl dub you" :)

For what it's worth, "dub dub dub" as a pronounciation makes my skin crawl.

I've always called it SQL since old school days, and still do.

I would call it Speedy as well, not EsPeeDeeWhy, that's another given.

The people who think SCSI should be pronounced SEXY will never die out. NEVER.

I have never heard a tech person pronounce it "sexy" and I have never heard a marketing person /not/ pronounce it "sexy".

Tech people who've had to suffer with terminator resistors call it "scuzzy" for a reason.

On behalf of people that are more interested in the communication than in the pronunciation, thank you. You could pronounce SPDY as "super dimension fortress" and SQL and "purple monkey dishwasher" and I wouldn't care as long as I knew what you were talking about.

My next project is getting named "Purple Monkey Dishwasher"

Make that PuMD. ;-)

The process (for SPDY and nginx) is called disemvowelment[1], and I always thought it mostly had to do with securing short domain names. Scvngr comes to mind as an example of this. S-C-A-V-E-N-G-E-R.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disemvoweling

It is mostly about securing short domain names. If I'm honest, I started getting sidetracked with my rant at that point.

Though, to be fair, even the domain name argument is increasingly becoming moot as more and more TLD's are become available (eg .io). And personally I'd rather not have product names dictated by what URL looks prettier in someone's tweet (if they're that bothered, then why not have speedy.io and a Twitter friendly one that redirects)

> It is mostly about securing short domain names.

Slightly off topic observation: do we really care about domain names anymore? I mean, is it so important for a web start-up called "yourbooks" to own "yourbooks.com"?

It seems to me that decisions as important as selecting a product name are often being made on the availability of domain names. I think this doesn't make sense - most people will use Google if they're looking you up on the web, and apps are the dominate delivery channel, so who cares?

Focus on your business idea, not some arbitrary domain name issue... the world does not need another urbkly.com or another $100k ransom for a domain name.

Interesting point, and eventually things may move that way. It may become as transparent to the users as changing channels on the radio. But for now we're still at the stage where there isn't enough device cross-talk to afford us the luxury to do away with meaningful / memorable domain names (much like how many new radios still need to be tuned in to our preferred stations). We print website addresses and place a great significant on the address bar - so it makes sense that a domain name should fit the product.

While QR codes, mobile apps and search engines are mitigating the need for domain names - I don't think we're quite there yet.

    > ... increasingly becoming moot as more and 
    > more TLD's are become available (eg .io)

"Becoming available"?

Most TLDs don't have any second-level requirements, and AFAIK .io has never had any.

I'm wasn't talking about second level domains (though you're right that -where available- second level domains do widen the scope for TLD usage). But what I meant was that ICANN periodically releases new gTLDs for public use and even offers a program for companies to sponsor new gTLDs.

With regards to .io, technically that's a country code (ccTLD) that's been re-purposed as a gTLD by many organisations in recent years.

I'm not sure it's so much about short domain names as it is available domain names. Think of securing scvngr.com vs scavenger.com. Plus, is a short domain really that valuable if so many people have trouble spelling it?

I first heard this called "vowel decimation" which IMO sounds better :) but I've only seen it called this in one product: Zoom Player[1]. It is used to shorten the length of media file tags (song titles etc) to fit available UI space while keeping them readable. It is very effective and I haven't seen any other media player use this.

[1] http://www.inmatrix.com/zplayer/options_interfacedisplay.sht...

This is a valid point and earned my upvote, but soon being guilty of this naming trick myself, I have to name one advantage that speaks against the minority of dyslexics: the limited pool of available names.

SPDY and nginx are short and memorable and carry a notion its authors wanted them to associate with (either speed or "being an engine".)

As an anecdotal data point, I must say I'm not a native English speaker but understood both names the first time.

From an accessibility standpoint though, I wish we could do better.

I am a native English speaker and had no idea that nginx was supposed to be a cutesy spelling of "engine-x" until now. I've always imagined it pronounced like the speaker had a mouthful of pebbles, something like 'n-g'n-ecks.

Until about three weeks ago I had no idea one of the engineers on our team was even talking about the web server/engine component when he was talking about "Engine X" and as far as I could tell we were using something called "N Jinx".

A lot of cross-purpose conversations were had. I assumed he had written some component of his own called engine X.

Likewise. I've always just spelled it out when I read it in my head.

Now I need to figure out imgur, since it's apparently more clever than "image-ur". im-gur? image-ur... imager? Is it supposed to be "imager"? I'm clueless.

I always though nginx was some variant of Vogon. It /never/ occured to me to pronounce it "Engine X". I've heard other people mention Engine X and never made the connection.

What does nginx stand for? Engine X?

That is correct if memory serves.

Every time I read SPDY, my head reads it as 'Spidey' as in short for Spiderman and related to the Web.

I always think "spidey" as in "Spiderman." It's not so much that I am dyslexic as apathetic.

Well bloody hell.

I just looked up Imgur on Wikipedia because of your comment, and found out that it's supposed to be pronounced "imager"!

Not only did I not know this all this while, I've also been referring to it as "im-goor" in all my conversations. Partly because I really really couldn't care less, and partly because said conversations have flowed just well even with my so-called mispronunciation, I'm just going to continue calling it "im-goor".

So far, I haven't heard anyone pronounce it as "spuddy," which is how I thought it would be pronounced.

Words without vowels are a disaster.