From: Tom Anderson on
On Sat, 13 Mar 2010, Lew wrote:

> Lew wrote:
>>> There is no standard. Just like some pronounce the type "char" as in the
>>> verb "to char" and others as the first syllable in "character". (I'm in
>>> the latter camp.)
>
> Tom Anderson wrote:
>> Hang on, including the r or not?
>
> Varies with speaker's dialect.

But in your case specifically?

Without the r, it's something like 'ka', like a cat without a t, which is
perfectly pronouncable. But with the r, it's something like 'karr', and
your tongue ends up halfway back in your mouth, poised to do something
else, but with nothing else to do. It feels really weird. Are there any
words in english ending in a short vowel followed by an r, where the r is
really pronounced? Mostly it vanishes as in 'Alexander', 'zither', etc,
right?

Depending, i suppose, on dialect. I think that r would be vocalised in
west country British english.

tom

--
For the first few years I ate lunch with he mathematicians. I soon found
that they were more interested in fun and games than in serious work,
so I shifted to eating with the physics table. There I stayed for a
number of years until the Nobel Prize, promotions, and offers from
other companies, removed most of the interesting people. So I shifted
to the corresponding chemistry table where I had a friend. At first I
asked what were the important problems in chemistry, then what important
problems they were working on, or problems that might lead to important
results. One day I asked, "if what they were working on was not important,
and was not likely to lead to important things, they why were they working
on them?" After that I had to eat with the engineers! -- R. W. Hamming
From: BGB / cr88192 on

"Tom Anderson" <twic(a)urchin.earth.li> wrote in message
news:alpine.DEB.1.10.1003141112350.23522(a)urchin.earth.li...
> On Sat, 13 Mar 2010, Lew wrote:
>
>> Lew wrote:
>>>> There is no standard. Just like some pronounce the type "char" as in
>>>> the verb "to char" and others as the first syllable in "character".
>>>> (I'm in the latter camp.)
>>
>> Tom Anderson wrote:
>>> Hang on, including the r or not?
>>
>> Varies with speaker's dialect.
>
> But in your case specifically?
>
> Without the r, it's something like 'ka', like a cat without a t, which is
> perfectly pronouncable. But with the r, it's something like 'karr', and
> your tongue ends up halfway back in your mouth, poised to do something
> else, but with nothing else to do. It feels really weird. Are there any
> words in english ending in a short vowel followed by an r, where the r is
> really pronounced? Mostly it vanishes as in 'Alexander', 'zither', etc,
> right?
>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhotic_and_non-rhotic_accents


there are many words which end in r, and yes, the r is pronounced.

"Alexander" would be /{lEkz{nd@`r/ (alek zan durr).


but, yes, it is the case even if it is difficult to pronounce for some
non-native speakers.
but, hell, native English speakers have troubles with other languages as
well, such as using 'ng' in much of anywhere other than at the end of a
word, ...

ie:
"ngyu" (/Nju/) => "nyu" (/nju/);
"tsu" => "su";
....

"tsukasa" -> /sukAsA/


> Depending, i suppose, on dialect. I think that r would be vocalised in
> west country British english.
>

yep.



From: Roedy Green on
On 13 Mar 2010 13:19:58 GMT, ram(a)zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram)
wrote, quoted or indirectly quoted someone who said :

> What is the neutral American English pronunciation used by
> programmers, when they say �Math.sin�?

Math dot sine

Math in North America is the usual abbreviation for mathematics.

Since I interact only via the Internet, nobody knows or cares how I
pronounce this.
--
Roedy Green Canadian Mind Products
http://mindprod.com

Responsible Development is the style of development I aspire to now. It can be summarized by answering the question, �How would I develop if it were my money?� I�m amazed how many theoretical arguments evaporate when faced with this question.
~ Kent Beck (born: 1961 age: 49) , evangelist for extreme programming.
From: Roedy Green on
On Sat, 13 Mar 2010 08:58:26 -0700, "BGB / cr88192"
<cr88192(a)hotmail.com> wrote, quoted or indirectly quoted someone who
said :

>"mk" => "EmkeI"

that one for private in-head pronunciation is "mook".
--
Roedy Green Canadian Mind Products
http://mindprod.com

Responsible Development is the style of development I aspire to now. It can be summarized by answering the question, �How would I develop if it were my money?� I�m amazed how many theoretical arguments evaporate when faced with this question.
~ Kent Beck (born: 1961 age: 49) , evangelist for extreme programming.
From: Roedy Green on
On Sat, 13 Mar 2010 08:58:26 -0700, "BGB / cr88192"
<cr88192(a)hotmail.com> wrote, quoted or indirectly quoted someone who
said :

>"ls" => "ElEs"
>"rd" => "Ardi"
>"mk" => "EmkeI"

FORTH is the only langugage I can recall that specified the
pronunciation of everything. Back then programmers collaborated over
the telephone much more frequently.

I still mentally distinguish ' = tick and " = quote, a FORTH
convention.

From Xerox, back when they built mainframes I picked up ! = bang.

--
Roedy Green Canadian Mind Products
http://mindprod.com

Responsible Development is the style of development I aspire to now. It can be summarized by answering the question, �How would I develop if it were my money?� I�m amazed how many theoretical arguments evaporate when faced with this question.
~ Kent Beck (born: 1961 age: 49) , evangelist for extreme programming.