• The Pantser@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    AI is an initialism since you don’t pronounce AI. NASA would be an acronym because you pronounce the word.

    • chrash0@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      this is one of those facts i have to struggle to keep to myself to avoid coming off as an insufferable nerd

    • nocturne@sopuli.xyz
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      3 months ago

      Wait you do not pronounce AI like a Sopranos character that just found an eye ball on the sidewalk?

    • criitz@reddthat.com
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      3 months ago

      This may be a bit prescriptivist. Most people use the word acronym for all of them.

    • Farid@startrek.website
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      3 months ago

      Is initialism a type of acronym? Or do they have an umbrella term? Surely, they are the same thing, but if initialism has easily string-able sounds it’s an acronym (ex. CPU vs. RAM). And some are even both depending on person saying it, like LED.

      • mpa92643@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Other way around.

        An acronym is a type of initialism, which is itself a type of abbreviation.

        So acronyms are initialisms where you pronounce the letters like a word (e.g., RAM), initialisms are abbreviations made by taking the initial letters of multiple words and concatenating them regardless of how it’s spoken (e.g. FBI for Federal Bureau of Investigation), and an abbreviation is any shortening of a word or phrase into something shorter (e.g., “abbrev.” for abbreviation or “US” for United States).

      • Baku@aussie.zone
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        3 months ago

        Is pronouncing LED like an acronym common? I’ve never heard it, and it would take me a while to work out what they’re on about if they’re talking about “lead”

        • Farid@startrek.website
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          3 months ago

          It doesn’t happen very often, but I’ve heard it used that way. It’s usually obvious from context, like I think I heard with “OLED vs. LED”. And as @[email protected] mentioned, it’s used a lot in languages other than English, in my experience in many slavic ones, for example.

        • brachypelmasmithi@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          Haven’t ever heard it in English either, but it’s very common in Polish. In Polish LED can even become a proper adjective, e.g. “światło ledowe” (LED light), with the initialism even losing capitalisation

    • psud@aussie.zone
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      3 months ago

      On the other hand everyone says “acronym” even when they know the word “initialism” so I’m not entirely sure you’re really completely correct

      • int_not_found@feddit.org
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        3 months ago

        Yeah you can do that. You would be wrong and people around you would wonder why you switched the subject. But you can do that.

      • cm0002@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        No. That’s how we end up with stupid sounding crap like (ugh) “Gooey” for GUI. Just say G-U-I or A-I.

          • Halosheep@lemm.ee
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            3 months ago

            I’ve always said the letters and was surprised when I heard someone say ‘gooey’ when I entered college.

            Still don’t like it.

          • Sabre363@sh.itjust.works
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            3 months ago

            The first time I heard the term gooey it was from someone I don’t like so now I can’t stand it. All I can think about is buying that dude a toothbrush, but then he’d probably go on about how toothbrushes are actually bad for your health.

          • cm0002@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            some people say G - U - I

            It should be that way always, frankly, I don’t know why gooey even got started. Something “gooey” is the last thing I’d want associated with computer stuff

            But I loathe all of the stupid attempts at shoehorning pronunciations of initialisms where it doesn’t belong

            It’s not “Sequel” its fucking S-Q-L. They’re all initialisms. I will go through my entire IT career and die on this hill.

              • cm0002@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                No because jay-peg actually makes sense and fits well, just like NASA makes sense and fits well. You can say NASA and JPEG without having to introduce additional letters to make it work. Unlike “Gooey”, “Sequel”, or “Scuzzy” which all require the addon of more letters to actually work

                You can just see JPEG and intuitively go “Oh Jay-PEG” you can’t say the same for SCSI

                  • cm0002@lemmy.world
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                    3 months ago

                    Where? you can pronounce “J” 2 ways. “Je” and “Jay”

                    “PEG” stands on its own, and it’s also a word, “peg”

                    So when you pronounce Jay-PEG you’re just sounding out the “J” and pronouncing the word “PEG”. No letters have been added to make it pronounceable

                    In contrast to “Sequel”/SQL where you need to add a vowel “e” and a consonant “u” to get “sequel”

              • cm0002@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                I just say S-C-S-I instead of “Scuzzy” or whatever it is

                Everyone says H-T-T-P, why don’t they say “Hettep”‽

                  • cm0002@lemmy.world
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                    3 months ago

                    To get Scuzzy you have to fundamentally modify SCSI and break a few grammatical rules

                    In English, “S” before a consonant typically retains its standard /s/ sound (as in “stop” or “snow”). Pronouncing “SCSI” as “Scuzzy” violates this by softening the second “S” into a /z/ sound before the consonant “Z,” which doesn’t follow the rule where “S” remains /s/ unless a voicing context (such as between two vowels) alters it.

                    English has rules governing when consonants are “soft” (like “S” becoming /z/) or “hard” (like “C” becoming /k/). In “SCSI,” these letters maintain their distinct pronunciations, but when forced into “Scuzzy,” the “C” becomes part of a hard /sk/ sound, and the second “S” is softened into /z/. These changes are not guided by typical English consonant-hardening rules, especially since “SCSI” does not include the contextual elements that normally trigger these shifts (e.g., vowel placement following “C” in certain cases).

                    You also have to add whole new vowels like “u” and “y”

        • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          No, GUI is a great acronym.

          I had a colleague pronounce CLI as an acronym, though, and that stopped a meeting short.

          • cm0002@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Then it’s been wrong since the mid-80s and also becomes probable someone just did it as a joke and then it persisted

              • cm0002@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                Nah, and I can prove it mathgramatically

                In order to make GUI pronounceable you have to add in vowels and blend consonants and fundamentally changes it’s pronociation. GUI is meant to have each letter on its own, and on their own those letters cannot make the “oo” and “ee” sounds

                On their own they make the following pronunciations:

                G: Pronounced as /dʒi/

                U: Pronounced as /ju/ (like “you”)

                I: Pronounced as /aɪ/ (like “eye”), with a long “i” sound

                In contrast, true acronyms like “NASA” form a pronounceable word naturally without requiring any modifications, making “Gooey” a grammatically improper pronunciation of “GUI.”

                • A7thStone@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  You’re right everyone pronounces taxi as tax eye. You’re actually trying to dictate pronunciation in English?

                  • cm0002@lemmy.world
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                    3 months ago

                    “Taxi” comes from the French word “taximètre” and its shortened form “taxi,” which itself comes from the Latin “taxa,” meaning charge or rate. In this case, the “i” at the end of “taxi” is pronounced as a short vowel sound (/ɪ/), like the “i” in “sit,” rather than a long “eye” sound (/aɪ/). English has phonetic rules where an “i” at the end of a word is pronounced as a short vowel when preceded by a consonant, especially when the word has a foreign language origin. This contrasts with words like “alibi” or “butterfly,” where the “i” is part of a longer syllable or a diphthong. Therefore, “Taxi” is pronounced “tak-see” following these conventions.

                    You’re actually trying to dictate pronunciation in English?

                    Wym? This is an English community and the thread is about English initialisms, acronyms and words. Why would I not reference English grammatical rules?