Char or Car? < Eddie Awad’s Blog

Char or Car?

This post has no real value except to satisfy a curiosity I have had since I started developing Oracle applications. Through out my career as an Oracle developer, almost every time I meet or listen to someone I hear different pronunciation for a few common acronyms and datatypes. For example:

SQL: I pronounce it “see-quel”, others just spell it “S-Q-L”
CHAR (also VARCHAR): I pronounce it “char” as in charcoal, others pronounce it “car”
CLOB: I pronounce it “see-lob”, others pronounce it “klob”
BLOB: I pronounce it “bee-lob”, others pronounce it “blob”
WSDL: I pronounce it… well, I just spell it: “W-S-D-L”, others pronounce it “wizdel”
BPEL: I pronounce it “bee-pl”, others pronounce it…well, I have not heard anyone pronouncing it differently yet. In fact, the rhyme goes: “BPEL is good for the people”.

The question is: is there a “right” way to pronounce technical terms? Does it matter? For me, I just use whatever is easier on my tongue.

Here is a quick poll I just created on dPolls.com, a cool (uses AJAX) and free online poll service:

Tagged lob, pronunciation, sql | Post a Comment

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Tim 2 years ago 1 point
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Can't say I've heard people say see-lob or bee-lob before. Just clobs and blobs. We obvious travel in different circles :)

SQL: I hear this alot when speaking to people from the USA . Most european people I deal with say S-Q-L. Not sure if that indicates a trend, or my limited exposure.

Linux: I call it Lie-nux because I prefer the sound. I know it's wrong but I think Lyn-ux sounds cheap and kinda-wrong. Just my preference.

I guess you just have to pick the one you like and keep an eye open for people who look confused :)

Cheers

Tim...

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Karl 2 years ago 1 point
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Hi,
that's funny!
as Tim said in european space -> german speaking area we have following phrasing rules :

<ul>
<li>SQL -> 'S - Q - L'</li>
<li>CLOB -> 'SEELOB'</li>
<li>BLOB -> 'BEELOB'</li>
<li>CHAR -> not 'CEEHAR' but 'CHAR' :-)</li>
</ul>
Regards
Karl

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http://www.ocasoracle.bloghi.com

APC 2 years ago 1 point
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Hmm, I tend to use "sequel" but "pee-ell-ess-kew-ell". At least I omit the slash.

As for BPEL, a lot of people say "bepple". I asked an Oracle employee, and he said the preferred pronunciation rhymed with nipple (but that may just have been him).

The Yanks seem to prefer pronouncing the abbreviations following the root word ("VAR-CAR") whereas Brtits tend to go for the word it makes ("VAR-CHAR"). Makes me wonder whether the Americans have "lybe" and "byne" directories in their Unix systems.

Speaking of which, how many people have a "slash etcetera" directory rather than a "slash ee tee see"?

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Mike Rankin 2 years ago 1 point
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I've heard "sequel" used most often in my travels with the exceiption of SQL*net. For some reason, everybody I run into that uses that pronounces it "squeal net", which always reminds me of livestock for some reason.

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William Robertson 2 years ago 1 point
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"Squeal Net", "Var Car" and "Bee-Lob" - that is just weird, I have never heard those before. I wouldn't know what you were talking about. I suppose "Car" makes sense since that's how we pronounce "character", but it just never occurred to me before.

I tend to say S-Q-L but Pee-ell-sequel. I knew someone once who tried to get everybody to call it "Squirrel", though sadly it didn't catch on.

Lie-nux used to sound better to me (we say "you-nix" not "unnix" after all), but I've switched to Linnux now.

I read that "vi" (the text editor) is supposedly pronounced "vee eye", which again is weird because I've never heard anybody call it that and I've been using it 15 years.

Similarly, ".wav" files are supposed to be pronounced ".wave", though to my knowledge nobody ever has.

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Graham Oakes 2 years ago 1 point
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Will,

I remember the same guy (Chris) calling it squirrel and have on occasion used it when I'm feeling particuarly playful. But on the whole sequel and pee-ell-sequel seems to rule the roost.

Now Lie-nux or linnux is a debatable one. Whichever one I use seems to get a giggle from the people I'm talking to - just can't seem to get it right.

Don't think I'll ever get around to calling 'char' by the more logical 'car' but I won't lose any sleep over it.

Graham

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Lisa Dobson 2 years ago 1 point
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For me it's:

SQL = Sequel
CHAR = char as in charcoal
BLOB = blob
CLOB = klob

The first line of your post suggested that you thought there would be no real value to this discussion, however, the entertainment value it has presented has been wonderful!

My colleagues are wondering what on earth I am up to as I snigger at the comments relating to squirrels, nipples and livestock, and then giggle, pull funny faces and make strange sounds whilst trying to work out some of the alternative pronunciations.

Classic!

Sorry if this wasn't meant to be funny, but it's been a really tough day today.

Lisa.

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http://newbiedba.blogspot.com

APC 2 years ago 1 point
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I knew someone once who tried to get everybody to call it "Squirrel", though sadly it didn't catch on.

I once worked along a contractor who always pronounced PL/SQL as "plastic squirrel".

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Tom_Fox 2 years ago 1 point
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For varchar2, I pronounce it as:

var car 2

However, when saying the word "character", the char portion is pronounced "care", so I hear this too:

var care 2

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Robert Vollman 2 years ago 1 point
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I'm with William on almost every point.

I spell it out S-Q-L. You know, it used to be ESQL (English Structured Query Language), , and it was still called "ES"-Q-L, although some people called it "esquill"

But, like William, I say "P-L-Sequel"

I pronounce it Linnux because otherwise the Linux nerds thrash me with their pocket protectors and other nerdly items.

The one point where I disagree is on vi. I have never met anyone who doesn't pronounce it "vee-eye" (ie: spell it out). Until now, that is. I didn't even realise there was a debate on this.

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http://thinkoracle.blogspot.com

Wilfred 2 years ago 1 point
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At Oracle OpenWorld I heard BPEL mostly being pronounced as "bippel", not like "bee-pl". Oracle people said they didn't want to get known as the "bee-pl people".

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http://www.oratransplant.nl

none of the above 2 years ago 1 point
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SQL squeal
PL/SQL peel squeal
CHAR care
BLOB blob (used as a word before the acronym was invented)
CLOB see lob
Linus lee noose (approximates the way Linus pronounces it)
Linux lee nukes

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Kristian 2 years ago 1 point
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From wikipedia:

"ANSI has declared that the official pronunciation for SQL is /É›s kjuË É›l/, although many English-speaking database professionals still pronounce it as sequel."

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William Robertson 2 years ago 1 point
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> The one point where I disagree is on vi. I have never met anyone who doesn't pronounce it "vee-eye" (ie: spell it out). Until now, that is. I didn't even realise there was a debate on this.

Really? Wow. Do you say "dot wave"? Or for that matter, "ay doubleyou kay" and "gee ar ee pee"?

I am genuinely amazed that anyone can look at the word "BLOB" and not just pronounce it "Blob". I mean, why wouldn't you?

btw, I give up. What are WSDL and BPEL?

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http://Oracle-WTF.blogspot.com

Eddie Awad 2 years ago 1 point
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William,

For me, "BLOB" is not a "word", it is an acronym for "Binary Large OBject".

So the question is, is an acronym a word which may be a noun, a verb, an adverb, an adjective...?

I have noticed that whenever, someone tries to pronounce an acronym, that's when the fun begins :)

WSDL = Web Services Description Language

BPEL = Business Process Execution Language

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Jennifer Larkin 2 years ago 1 point
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Care and Vare-care for me because it is short for Character and Variable Character. And my boyfriend says Vie for Vi. BLOB, CLOB, SQL, and WSDL are just fun to pronounce as a word. :)

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APC 2 years ago 1 point
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is an acronym a word which may be a noun, a verb, an adverb, an adjectiveâ€¦?

An acronym is a abbreviation that may be pronounced as a word. So SQL pronounced as "sequel" is an acronym whereas SQL pronounced as "ess kew ell" is merely an abbreviation. What this means is that TLA is not itself an acronym.

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William Robertson 2 years ago 1 point
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Don't change the subject. This is about people pronouncing "VARCHAR" to sound like "Care Bear" ;-)

Does anyone have a funky way of pronouncing "HTMLDB"? Nothing would surprise me now.

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http://Oracle-WTF.blogspot.com

Adam M. Donahue 2 years ago 1 point
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I have never heard anyone pronounce 'vi' as anything but 'vee eye', and this after many, many years in the industry and interaction with all levels of UNIX and database engineers.

How do you pronounce it? "vie"?

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William Robertson 2 years ago 1 point
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Hmm, a quick poll around the office confirmed that everyone called it "viye" (like "eye"), except one suggestion I won't repeat here (I guess he's not a fan), although one or two said they had heard of the "vee-eye" version. We're in London - I wonder if "vee-eye" is more common in the US?

Eddie, any chance of some more polls? I see Seequel is ahead of S-Q-L. I suspect Blob and Clob will beat Bee-lob and See-lob by a mile. If Americans say "vee-eye", then our British "viye" may lose, which would be a shame as I'm sure Shakespeare used "viye".

Great thread btw :)

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FranÃ§ois Degrelle 2 years ago 1 point
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And : SCSI
How do you pronounce this word ?

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Herodt 2 years ago 1 point
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Char or Car?

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