Re: How to pronounce?

[Ben Finney <ben+debian@benfinney.id.au>]

Donald Lee Butler <dlbutler@zoominternet.net> writes:

>   A small point I've been wondering about for a while.  The two pages
> don't agree.  The first reference seems logically correct; DEB - Ian.
>
> http://www.debian.org/doc/FAQ/ch-basic_defs.en.html#s-pronunciation

    “1.7 How does one pronounce Debian and what does this word mean?

    The project name is pronounced Deb'-ee-en, with a short e in Deb, and
    emphasis on the first syllable. This word is a contraction of the names
    of Debra and Ian Murdock, who founded the project. (Dictionaries seem to
    offer some ambiguity in the pronunciation of Ian (!), but Ian prefers
    ee'-en.)

That doesn't seem right at all, though; English “Ian” is not pronounced
“ee'-en”, but “ee'-ən”. Perhaps the person who wrote that didn't know
how to produce a U+0259 LATIN SMALL LETTER SCHWA character
<URL:https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Schwa>.

So I'd prefer that the above document would correctly show “Deb'-ee-ən”
and “ee'-ən”.

> http://www.debian.org/intro/about#history

    Since many people have asked, Debian is pronounced /ˈde.bi.ən/. It
    comes from the names of the creator of Debian, Ian Murdock, and his
    wife, Debra. 

That looks and sounds right to me.

There is a slight difference from “'deb.i.ən” to “'de.bi.ən”, but not
enough to make a fuss about. It would be good for both documents to
agree exactly on the transcription, but it's not essential.


So to my eye the only correction needed is to use the schwa for the
usual English-language unstressed syllable vowel.

-- 
 \      “Hey Homer! You're late for English!” “Pff! English, who needs |
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Ben Finney