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Comment by rovr138

5 years ago

No.

>Linus Torvalds had wanted to call his invention Freax, a portmanteau of "free", "freak", and "x" (as an allusion to Unix). During the start of his work on the system, he stored the files under the name "Freax" for about half of a year. Torvalds had already considered the name "Linux", but initially dismissed it as too egotistical.[13]

>In order to facilitate development, the files were uploaded to the FTP server (ftp.funet.fi) of FUNET in September 1991. Ari Lemmke at Helsinki University of Technology (HUT), who was one of the volunteer administrators for the FTP server at the time, did not think that "Freax" was a good name. So, he named the project "Linux" on the server without consulting Torvalds.[13] Later, however, Torvalds consented to "Linux".

>To demonstrate how the word "Linux" should be pronounced ([ˈliːnɵks]), Torvalds included an audio guide (audio speaker iconlisten (help·info)) with the kernel source code.[16]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Linux#Naming

When crossing languages shouldn’t pronunciation change?

  • Pronunciation changes even when crossing accents, let alone languages. The prescriptivists will say there is a correct pronunciation, and any deviation from it is wrong. But the descriptivists will ask why it matters if we all understand that we’re referring to the same thing. It’s an age-old debate.

    • I find it amusing that Linus himself pronounces both with the same vowel sounds, indicating that obviously the kernel is named for its creator.

      While my American cohorts refuse to use the same vowels, choosing “Lie” for the first syllable of the man’s name, and “Lih” for the first syllable of the kernel. Then berate me for following the pattern but using US English pronunciation rules.

      But you guys know what I’m talking about, so just shut up and let’s get on with this deployment, mmk?

  • For names I would say no.

    • There are many cases where it does.

      For example if you say "Australia" in an Australian accent, Japanese people probably wouldn't understand. So you'd have to use the "correct" Japanese pronunciation: "oh-su-to-ra-ri-a".

      Another example is "Hyundai", which seems to have at least five different pronunciations. Apparently Koreans say "HYUN-day"[1], while the British say "high-UUN-digh", Americans say "HUN-day"[2] or something like "Han-die" in Spanish-speaking parts. Australians say "he-UN-day"[3]. Note to prescriptivists that this is how Hyundai's various subsidiaries say it in ads.

      [1]: https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-25813198

      [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI3-fJlmnoM&t=50s

      [3]: https://youtu.be/RyupLuOVny0?t=15

    • That does not work in general. Some sounds just do not exist in some languages. Also, for example a name can sound quite different pronounced with an Irish and a Yorkshire accent, and there are similar distinctions in most languages. Which one becomes the canonical prononciation then?

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