Comment by Austizzle
2 days ago
Man, this title tripped me up for a minute because I pronounce it with the letters like Ess-Queue-Ell
So the "A" in "A ess-queue-ell" engine felt like it should have been an "An" until I realized it was meant to be pronounced like "sequel"
When I read SQL for Dummies almost thirty years ago, it made a point of distinguishing "sequel" as a historical predecessor to standard "SQL." As I recall, the author even asserted that SQL is not an acronym/initialism for structured query language. I felt funny saying sequel for the next decade or so, because I wasn't an old timer experienced with this pre-SQL technology.
Now I usually say sequel because everyone else does. That and it rolls off the tongue better than S-Q-L.
Many (most?) non-native English speakers do pronounce it as ess-queue-ell, especially in their own languages, so yes, the use of "a" instead of "an" does look off from that perspective.
I prefer "ess queue ell" these days, but the first DBA I ever worked with pronounced it "squirrel".
Not necessarily, I see native speakers completely ignore this a lot.
Have you ever considered pronouncing it as squirrel by the way?