As someone who wants to barrel roll into another dimension every time the word ‘GIF’ is pronounced with a hard ‘G’, I find the pronunciations of differing tech terms fascinating! Is is meme, or me-me? Lie-nux or Linn-ux? Why do these differing pronunciations spark such heated debate amongst us? Of course, by ‘us’ I mean those of us who’s priorities have become a bit warped.
Fortunately, Mashable has teamed up with Column Five to figure out how the majority of us pronounce these tricky tech terms! 30,000 people were polled from 191 different countries on how they pronounce GIF, meme, data, Wi-Fi, Linux and cache.
Who pronounces Wi-Fi as Wee-Fee? Well, many countries in Europe including Spain and France, as well as Arkansas and probably your nan. Meanwhile, although the term ‘me-me’ may make you grimace, many who work in computer and software sectors actually pronounce it as such, as well as calling Linux Linn-ux not Lie-nux. Australia are most likely to pronounce these findings as ‘dat-uh’ whilst many students and doctors will clear their ‘cash-ay’ after taking the poll.
How do you pronounce these words? Do you think decisive pronunciations have a definitive impact on language or does it not matter? If you’d like to take the poll, you can find it here.
Images: Mashable & Column Five
Featured photo credit: Awesome via flickr.com
