this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2025
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[–] Droggelbecher@lemmy.world 60 points 1 week ago (8 children)

Curious, is anyone pronouncing them the same or does this only work in text?

[–] CatsGoMOW@lemmy.world 37 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I’ve not heard anyone pronounce them the same, but I don’t doubt they’re out there. Probably a decent overlap with the people who pronounce GIF like the peanut butter.

[–] corvi@lemmy.zip 25 points 1 week ago (5 children)

I guess I’m one of them. I’ve never used LaTeX, but I don’t know how else I’d pronounce that.

[–] piranhaconda@mander.xyz 48 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Lay-tech or Lah-tech is how I've been told it's pronounced, don't ask which one is correct, I don't know

[–] starman@programming.dev 29 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

IIRC its creator said it's Lay-tech

[–] bss03@infosec.pub 4 points 1 week ago

It's "Lay" because it's borrowed from / referencing "lay person" i.e. not a member of the (TeX) priesthood.

[–] Droggelbecher@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

The last sound being one that afaik doesn't exist in English. It's like the j in jalapeño but waaay guttural. It's the Greek letter χ.

[–] roguetrick@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

The tex there has the Greek letter chi instead of Latin x at the end and is supposed to be reminiscent of a Greek root from which we derived the word technique: techne or τέχνη. The tex there is just pronounced tech usually. The original intention I believe was for it to sound like the ch in loch or bach but that sound isn't seen in modern English(generally even in the examples I gave). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_uvular_fricative

For all the star Trek nerds: that's close to what the Klingon word gagh ends with. Gagh has a voiced uvular fricative, so just do the same without voice and just air and you'll get chi.

[–] matiamas@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Not to be too pedantic, the modern Greek chi is a voiceless velar fricative (or in some cases a voiceless palatal fricative) rather than uvular. The velar location is the same place English pronounces the letter k, uvular is a bit further back, more like the French r. It's a little confusing because the IPA uses the chi symbol for the voiceless uvular fricative even though Greek doesn't pronounce it that way. In Klingon, the voiceless velar fricative is written as H (I believe gh is a voiced velar fricative rather than uvular as well). I think the uvular consonants are q and Q. Apologies if my pedantry was unwelcome

[–] roguetrick@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

Hey I'm regularly wrong and don't mind being corrected.

[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Uvular fricative somehow reminds me of friction of the vulva.
They're nor related, are they?

[–] superb@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 week ago
[–] MTK@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago
[–] rImITywR@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

The 'X' at the end of \LaTeX is actually a uppercase chi, so it pronounced with a 'k' sound.

[–] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 9 points 1 week ago

It's actually a ch-sound, as in Bach. But Knuth also thinks the k-pronunciation is fine.

[–] Windex007@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

My PhD supervisor insisted it was "Law-tex"

[–] kayohtie@pawb.social 6 points 1 week ago

That's how you can tell if someone is into latex (kink), they don't feel comfortable calling LaTeX (tech) by the same pronunciation around people.

[–] Droggelbecher@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] Wolf@lemmy.today 1 points 1 week ago

Yoosey mothers use yiff!

[–] Wolf@lemmy.today 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

the people who pronounce GIF like the peanut butter.

I call it 'Jif' and will defend it to the death, for no other reason than I think it's hilarious to have a very strong opinion on something so irrelevant. People get soo mad about it :D

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I always like to point out that outside of the US, Jiff means drain cleaner, although maybe that's just a commentary on the quality of the peanut butter. Although frankly it doesn't make the acronym any less ridiculous.

[–] Wolf@lemmy.today 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The PB is spelled Jif, not Jiff.

The acronym isn't ridiculous, it's how the creator of the acronym pronounced it. People should be able to name their own babies.

[–] lagoon8622@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

People should be able to name their own babies.

Tell that to the SQL folks.

And yes, it's "sequel". And "gif" like "gift".

[–] Wolf@lemmy.today 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Tell that to the SQL folks.

I did, they say they agree with me.

How do you pronounce Porsche? Do you say "Porsh" or "Por-shuh"?

What about Volkswagen? Is it Volks-wah-gen or Volks-vah-gun?

How about Hyundai? "Hun-Day" or "Hai-un-dai"?

If you look up the 'correct' way to pronounce them, I bet you will get a different answer to what you thought it was. Are the former pronunciations only correct in the U.S. but when you travel to Germany or South Korea they become incorrect?

Your argument is a descriptivist one, but how do you determine which is the 'right' pronunciation if both ways of pronouncing a thing are commonly used?

And yes, it’s “sequel”. And “gif” like “gift”.

Interesting, so what do you think of the people in this thread who say that LaTeX is pronounced "Lay-tech"? Would the 'right' way to say it change if enough people started pronouncing it 'wrong'?

[–] lagoon8622@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Por-shuh
Folks-vah-gun
Hun-dai (approximately)
Sequel

Mostly I was just joking around though, pronounce stuff however you want. I'm sure I mispronounce plenty of stuff. Ultimately if people understand each other, that's good enough

[–] Wolf@lemmy.today 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Mostly I was just joking around though, pronounce stuff however you want.

😉

I usually pronounce Volkswagen as "Vee-Double-You"

I say actually say Hyundai just like you around normies, but my bff and I have an In-joke where we call them "Hyun-uh-Die" because one time when she was on the phone with someone from the Insurance company, they corrected her pronunciation to that.

I actually love to mispronounce things on purpose, it might be why I chose "Jif" as my little hill to die on lol.

[–] lagoon8622@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

I actually love to mispronounce things on purpose, it might be why I chose "Jif" as my little hill to die on lol.

I sometimes do too lol. I lived in Germany for a while. So if we are working on a project together and get along well you might here me pronounce a tool like it's literally a German word (i.e. "knife" -> "kuh-NEE-fuh" lol)

[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Your argument is a descriptivist one, but how do you determine which is the ‘right’ pronunciation if both ways of pronouncing a thing are commonly used?

If the vast majority is wrong it doesn't make them right.
Hyundai is correctly pronounced how the hell ever koreans pronounce it.
One not being korean, it's acceptable to approximate.

[–] Wolf@lemmy.today 1 points 1 week ago

If the vast majority is wrong it doesn’t make them right.

Sure, but who decides which one is right and which one is wrong? In the case of .Gif the people who made it said that it should be pronounced Jif, like the peanut butter, but a lot of people have an issue with that.

Koreans pronounce Hyundai as "Hai-un-dai", but if you say that or Volkswagen the 'right' way in America people look at you like you are crazy.

One not being korean, it’s acceptable to approximate.

Ok, but it's not hard do say "Hai-un-dai", even though most Americans say "Hun-day", even in official TV commercials from Hyundai themselves.

In Japan they pronounce sandwich, like Sandoichi. Is it acceptable for them to approximate? Does it being acceptable equate to it being 'correct'?

These are all very questions.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

So is it, go dot, god oh, or gu doh

[–] Wolf@lemmy.today 0 points 1 week ago

It's 'Guh doh' I believe.

[–] bss03@infosec.pub 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

People should be able to name their own babies.

I disagree. I think persons should name themselves. But, I understand there are practicalities that require some name to be assigned by outsiders at least until the person can talk.

For things that aren't conscious or are incapable of speech, I think we collectively assign a name. I'm fine giving higher weight to the name chosen by the "creator" or "discover", but I'm not fine with giving them veto power / final cut.

[–] Wolf@lemmy.today 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Did you know Dr. Seuss name is actually pronounced more like Zoyce or Soice (rhymes with voice, not moose)? And he wanted people to pronounce it correctly?

I'm actually usually unconcerned by how people pronounce things, but I think taking a man's own name away goes a bit far.

[–] bss03@infosec.pub 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I did know that. I don't recall pronouncing it incorrectly since learning that fact, but I don't talk about those books or their author frequently.

[–] Wolf@lemmy.today 1 points 1 week ago

Oops, I worded that funky. I didn't mean to accuse you of doing that, just talking about people in general.

I just think it's an interesting fact.

[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip -1 points 1 week ago

Welcome to the internet, have a cookie.

[–] BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I know how LaTeX is pronounced but I always read it the same as latex.

[–] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

latex-project.org says "lah-tech" or "lay-tech"

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 week ago

Nah. I've said it like the English word in my head for decades. I'll keep doing it. Argle bargle.

It's like those 'kevinist' names where it sounds like 'taylor' but is spelled like 'wishbone' or something. Just. No.

(Hush, Ceilidh, I almost have a sound argument)

[–] ZoteTheMighty@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

If you pronounce project like you pronounce latex, you could call it "latex projext".

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 week ago

The X is pronounced “tweet” apparently.

[–] tburkhol@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I've only heard LaTeX pronounced like latex in media where someone uses it to show what a geek some character is. eg, I've been typsetting my homework assignments in latex since I was 9.

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

I've never encountered that kind of LaTeX in media.

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

I've always pronounced it "Lah-tekh"

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

They're pronounced so differently my wife didn't get it until I informed her that LaTeX is how "latec" is spelled

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Wait is the TeX not short for “text”? I’ve always pronounced them the same.

[–] pmk@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 1 week ago

The "X" is the greek letter, pronounced like the ch in Bach. Knuth explains this in the TeXbook, think TeXnician, not TeXpert.

[–] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

I’ve literally never heard anybody pronounce them differently, your comment confused me at first but TIL.