On Wed, Mar 02, 2005 at 07:31:31PM -0800, Freddy Freeloader wrote: > John Hasler wrote: > >Michael Z Daryabeygi wrote: > > > >>Why is it that so many americans have looked at it and said, "Deebian"? > > > > > >Because they are obeying the default rules for pronunciation of english > >words. > > > > And what "default" rule is that? There is no silent "e" on the end of > the word. There is no double "e" in Debian. There is also no other vowel > directly following the "e" so I see no way that anyone should pronounce > it with a long "e". I've just listed the 3 spellings that indicate a > long "e" and none of them apply to "Debian". There are analogous words with a long e: Ephebian, Armenian, Slovenian. Indeed, "Debian" looks like it refers to an inhabitant of, or something originating from, Debia (with a long e) (and I have known "Deebian Gnu Linux" to be taken for some Tolkienesque language). These more familiar, similar words make it natural to assume that a long e is correct. -- Pigeon Be kind to pigeons Get my GPG key here: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x21C61F7F
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