Pedants please note...

Pilawt said:
How "G" is pronounced in an English word.

1. When "G" is followed by "E," "I," or "Y," it is pronounced as [ʤ]
gem giant gym george

2. When "G" is followed by "U," or "A," it is pronounced as [Ʌ], or [ӕ].
gum gun gap gas garden​

Now go out there and win one for the Jipper.

:p
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Thanks for that gift of knowledge. It made me giggle a little.
 
See? Distractions like this are why we never solve the vital question of the Oxford comma. And at this rate we’ll never get around to the Harvard semicolon or the Yale hyphen.
 
Half Fast said:
See? Distractions like this are why we never solve the vital question of the Oxford comma. And at this rate we’ll never get around to the Harvard semicolon or the Yale hyphen.
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I got Texas colon from the water once.

Nauga,
...right through a keyhole
 
Half Fast said:
See? Distractions like this are why we never solve the vital question of the Oxford comma. And at this rate we’ll never get around to the Harvard semicolon or the Yale hyphen.
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I use the oxford comma a fair amount. As for Harvard semicolons, I always thought Harvard folks were full blown colons, not semi ones.
 
Half Fast said:
See? Distractions like this are why we never solve the vital question of the Oxford comma. And at this rate we’ll never get around to the Harvard semicolon or the Yale hyphen.
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If it's good enough for Oxford, it's good enough for me!

Besides, there's primacy to consider.
 
I've heard it is improper and in bad taste to use parenthesis in sentences (but I just can't help myself).
 
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I never cared about the gif wars, though I will always say Jif even if it’s wrong.

The one that made me stop caring about even trying to be right is Linux.

I used to argue vehemently that the guys name is “line-us”, therefore it’s “line-ux”. Until I heard the man himself call it “Lin-ux”.

Now I’ve given up and will pronounce things however I feel like doing it. I guess eventually I’ll be my dad, and even after 10 years living 10 years from the border of Mexico and 2 years living in Paraguay, start saying “pass me a tor-till-a” with the l’s proudly enunciated.
 
Salty said:
...I used to argue vehemently that the guys name is “line-us”, therefore it’s “line-ux”. Until I heard the man himself call it “Lin-ux”....
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"Line-us" an anglicization of his name. He was born in Finland, where the letter 'i' is apparently pronounced like the 'ee' in the English word "feet," and the letter 'u" is pronounced like the 'oo' in "moot." I guess he must have decided that the English short 'i' sound as in "fit" and short "u" sound as in "cut" were close enough.

 
I see .gif and think of gift, I certainly wouldn't pronounce that jift.
 
I say jiff and jaypeg. Maybe cause they are similar file types and being homonyms makes a little sense.

Why is jaypeg the "correct" way to say .jpg but there is no equivalent for .pdf?

Every one says the letters P-D-F. Mostly no one says G-I-F or J-P-G.
 
MauleSkinner said:
It's pronounced "puhDIFF", not "PEEdiff".

Next! :D
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Did you just make that up? I've never heard anyone say it that way. I have heard people use giff vs jiff... <counting the periods in my ellipsis. ;)
 
Ravioli said:
I say jiff and jaypeg. Maybe cause they are similar file types and being homonyms makes a little sense.

Why is jaypeg the "correct" way to say .jpg but there is no equivalent for .pdf?

Every one says the letters P-D-F. Mostly no one says G-I-F or J-P-G.
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Because it’s not jpg it’s jpeg. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG
 
Palmpilot said:
"Line-us" an anglicization of his name. He was born in Finland, where the letter 'i' is apparently pronounced like the 'ee' in the English word "feet," and the letter 'u" is pronounced like the 'oo' in "moot." I guess he must have decided that the English short 'i' sound as in "fit" and short "u" sound as in "cut" were close enough.

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Linus himself settled the question by simply recording himself and distributing the file with the kernel source... since March of 1994.

https://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/SillySounds/
 
Salty said:
Yeah, the problem is he doesn’t pronounce his name right either. ;) I guess I could claim his pronunciation is due to his accent and it really is line-ux.
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Yeah, cause he doesn't know how to pronounce his own name! ;)
 
Oh boy.. pronouncing one's own name. Ravioli true story time:

My last name is Olivier. <- yah, French, not Italian.

I can't tell you how often I deal with car rental agents and hotel front desk agents and it goes something like:

Hi, you have a reservation for Olivier (Oh-Live-e-yeah) and they futz around a bit looking for OLIVIA (as in Newton-John)

Then they ask me to spell it, and I do, and they say "Oh, Oliver." And I say "Oh, let me call my Mother, I've been pronouncing my name wrong my entire life."

Usually it ends with "Enjoy your stay Mr. Oliver."
 
Palmpilot said:
Yeah, cause he doesn't know how to pronounce his own name! ;)
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Not around here he don't!!

Had a friend my freshman year in college. Everyone called him Jim, including me. After several months I heard him introduce himself as James. So I asked what the deal was with that? And why does he usually go by Jim? He said he always introduced himself as James, and many people would shake his hand and say "glad to meet you, Jim!"
 
Linux Sux . . .

So my last name is of French derivation. Walked into a hotel in Canada and the clerk recognized it as probably French, and so greeted me so in that language. I answered, in French, that I didn't speak French (I just barely do, a bit, but the "French" in Canada is pretty hard for me to follow.); so she went into PO'ed mode, presuming I was effing with her, dissing her Québecois heritage, etc. Pretty funny exchange until I convinced her I was an Italian American with a French last name, and poor French skills. We almost parted friends, except I thanked her in Spanish as I was leaving. . .
 
Sundancer said:
So my last name is of French derivation. Walked into a hotel in Canada and the clerk recognized it as probably French, and so greeted me so in that language. I answered, in French, that I didn't speak French (I just barely do, a bit, but the "French" in Canada is pretty hard for me to follow.); so she went into PO'ed mode, presuming I was effing with her, dissing her Québecois heritage, etc. Pretty funny exchange until I convinced her I was an Italian American with a French last name, and poor French skills. We almost parted friends, except I thanked her in Spanish as I was leaving. . .
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I recall staying at a hotel in Montreaux. Front desk was efficient but curt. Until I asked her to call my regular hotel in Geneva and reserve one night for me before my departure. She did - grudgingly at first, but the entire attitude changed as she talked to the keeper of the hotel in Geneva. She kindly told me that my (regular) room in Geneva was available that night, and the front desk in Montreaux was warm and bent over backwards the rest of my stay. I speak enough German (or I did at the time) to do basic stuff, but my French will get my face slapped. Once I was identified as a regular guest at another small hotel, everything became easy.
 
wsuffa said:
I speak enough German (or I did at the time) to do basic stuff, but my French will get my face slapped.
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I was third in line at the counter of a little coffee shop in Rome, just a block from the Pantheon. It was still a half hour or so before opening time of the Pantheon, so I had time for un caffè e cornetto.

As the locals in line ahead of me placed their orders in Italian, I rehearsed in my mind what I would say to the clerk when it was my turn. While traveling I like to try to speak in the local language as much as possible. It's often said that locals appreciate the effort, even if the performance is not perfect. I'd taken an Italian language class at the local community college back home before the trip, and had spent hours in Italian coursebooks and podcasts, and felt like I was at least in the "upper beginner" or "lower intermediate" level. In smaller towns earlier in the trip I'd had some pleasant conversations in Italian with shopkeepers and taxi drivers, so by now I had a measure of confidence.

It's my turn. Showtime. I'm ready. It'll be great. But the before the word "Vorrei" is even out of my mouth, the guy behind the counter cocks his head, sighs and says in fluent Brooklynese, "Look, dude, I really don't have time for this. Whaddya want?"
 
I spent a couple months a few years ago in Cartagena. Did the Rosetta Stone thing before going but got no where fluent, not even close. What I did have down was ‘hablo un poco de espanol’ and got that out right away. If I started out with just saying something in Spanish then they would start rattling off in Spanish back at me and while I could say a few things I could understand almost nothing. I also had ‘por favor, hablas mas lento’ down pat which means speak slower please. That usually didn’t help a lot so we would both use the common language, start waving our arms around and making pictures with our hands. You know, Italian
 
For our anniversary five years ago, my wife and I traveled to small towns in Germany and Italy. The cheapest return flight was on Aer Lingus through Dublin, so we extended our vacation with a two-day layover there.

I speak German fairly well, so we got by ok in Germany. Thanks to our pre-trip Italian studies, we were able to communicate with non-English-speakers in Italy. Then we got to Dublin, and we couldn't understand anybody. o_O I had a long conversation with the owner of the hotel where we stayed. We were both speaking English ... through an interpreter. Really.

In the courtyard outside the Basilica di Santa Chiara in Assisi, an old gypsy woman was panhandling for cash from tourists. When I brushed her off for the third time, she stalked away, loudly muttering, "Cattivo francese" (loosely, "Damn Frenchman!"). Now I'll cop to the "cattivo" part, but if she calls me "francese" again, I'll be sore. :confused:
 
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i worked an engineering project in Haiti a couple of years ago where they speak their own sort of French creole. I had an interpreter but unfortunately he couldn’t speak geek. Perfectly adequate for “Where is the toilet?” or “What’s for dinner?” but hopeless for VARs or amperage or power factor or .....
 
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