this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2025
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I pronounce it data. Guess I thought everyone did.
Same
I know it's me just being a particular asshole, but I really don't like the pronunciation data... it's honestly tiresome, problematic, and outdated. It's pronounced DATA.
Me too. Out of interest do you pronounce it 'gif' as well?
I vacillate between the two. Really depends on the words surrounding βdataβ.
Yes. I'm British.
Exactly what I was gonna say.
I only say data the way it's said in Star Trek. Same for database.
I alternate between the two pronunciations depending on whatever I vibe with at the time, much like with how I spell colour/color
I do, but that's because "now these points of data make a beautiful line, and we're out of beta, we're releasing on time."
If anyone would know how to pronounce it, it's a computer
A local radio DJ said once that if he's feeling fancy he says "Da Ta" like "ta-da!" Cracked me up way more that it should have.
I pronounce it like that, but I call the character "dah-ta"
One is his name, the other is not
I know it's wrong, but it's ok right? π π
If Data had feelings, he'd be very upset right now.
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American. Day-duh.
Data: First, the two A's/vowels:
The first of two A's gets the "Aey" sound, the second gets the "Ah" sound.
Then, because I'm from California, the ah becomes uh.
Then, similarly, the "tuh" has a hard T at the beginning. But again because California/USA, the T becomes a D (British: butter ("buttah", hard t's), usa: budder(soft t's or d's))
Thus: day-duh.
For his name I say data but when talking about data I say data but when I say database I say data and when I watch 1986βs Willow with Warwick Davis I say data
Oh same
What does Willow (1986) have to do with data? Isn't it, like, a sword-and-sorcery fantasy movie?
Oh I bet there's a character with a name that sounds like the word "data".
You should probably watch willow. Itβs not terrible. Val kilmer with a sword.
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I donβt know, because I have no idea how the Star Trek character says itβ¦
I've taught statistics for over 20 years. I flipflop on this constantly, sometimes in the middle of a sentence. Even more disturbing: I don't have a consistent position, at least grammatically, on whether it's singular or plural.
It's sort of like the dual pronunciation of the word 'a' in English. While that has more distinct rules, it's still mostly which one feels nicer.
Another one for me is "route".
edit: On further thought, it only works both ways as a synonym for a highway, if I'm talking about a path more generally the root pronunciation sounds wrong.
It is pronounced /ΛdΓ¦tΙ/.
Dictionaries are descriptive, not prescriptive.
I use them interchangeably π
Yes, i watched TNG before (and during) i learned English
How else are you supposed to pronounce it?
There are three variants Iβm aware of: /eΙͺ/ as in βdayβ, /Γ¦/ as in βdadβ, and /ΙΛ/ as in βspaβ. I personally say it with /Γ¦/.
Dat a
Brits pronounce it day-ta, Americans, Canadians and Australians pronounce it dah-ta. Data pronounces it Day-ta.
American here, I can't speak for Canada, but I don't think I've ever heard any Americans in the US in real conversations say it differently than it is in Star Trek.
I've lived in nearly every major region of the US, so if there's a place where they still pronounce it like "dah-ta" it must be a very small regional thing. Normal working class people having actual conversions everywhere I've ever been say "day-ta".
I've read before that Patrick Stewart is the reason for that changing, but I don't know if that's true. Seems like an outsized influence for one guy to have on culture, but maybe!
Interesting. From some googling it looks like America is a mix of both but leaning towards day-ta, whereas the other countries are more consistently as I said.
I have a British friend who now lives in Canada and works in tech and has changed the way he says it (from day-ta to dah-ta, or really more like dah-da) for convenience. I had thought that it was an Atlantic divide but seems like there's more to it.
I'm a software developer in Canada. I've only ever heard "day ta"
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One is my name, the other is not.
Doita?
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