A while back I was puzzled when a cousin of mine talked about "earls"
in an inappropriate context, and it took me a while to realise she was
treating "URL" as an acronym.

I ran a poll on Twitter to see if anyone else did that, and 100% said
they pronounced URL as "you are ell".

So I wonder if anyone else has ever heard the "earl" pronunciation, or
if it was just my cousin's idiolect.

Another instance was a man I met who pronounced "UFOs" as "you foes".

I'm running a poll in Twitter and Mastodon on that too, but I wonder
if anyone here has heard that pronounciation.

--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

On 2024-04-03, Steve Hayes wrote:

> A while back I was puzzled when a cousin of mine talked about "earls"
> in an inappropriate context, and it took me a while to realise she was
> treating "URL" as an acronym.
>
> I ran a poll on Twitter to see if anyone else did that, and 100% said
> they pronounced URL as "you are ell".
>
> So I wonder if anyone else has ever heard the "earl" pronunciation, or
> if it was just my cousin's idiolect.

I've only heard that used facetiously.

> Another instance was a man I met who pronounced "UFOs" as "you foes".

I haven't heard that, but I have heard "ufology" as "youfology".

> I'm running a poll in Twitter and Mastodon on that too, but I wonder
> if anyone here has heard that pronounciation.
>
>

--
It would be unfair to detect an element of logic in the siting of the
Pentagon alongside the National Cemetery, but the subject seems at
least worthy of investigation. ---C Northcote Parkinson

On 03 Apr 2024, Steve Hayes wrote

> A while back I was puzzled when a cousin of mine talked about
> "earls" in an inappropriate context, and it took me a while to
> realise she was treating "URL" as an acronym.
>
> I ran a poll on Twitter to see if anyone else did that, and 100%
> said they pronounced URL as "you are ell".
>
> So I wonder if anyone else has ever heard the "earl"
> pronunciation, or if it was just my cousin's idiolect.

The "earl" pronunciation is what I defaulted to when I first saw it,
and it was quite a while -- probably a year or more -- before I heard
it spoken and discovered that "you are ell" was the accepted
pronunciation.

I switched to "you are ell" for the very few times I have to
pronounce it in public, but my mind's ear still hears it as "earl"
when I see it.
> Another instance was a man I met who pronounced "UFOs" as "you
> foes".

I think I stumbled upon "you-foes" when people started to talk about
"ufology" and "ufologist" as field of interest[1], but again, my
mind's ear still hears "you eff oh" when I see it.

[1] I find it very difficult to talk about "ufologists" without
saying that it's pronounced "nutters".

--
Cheers, Harvey

On Wed, 03 Apr 2024 16:02:00 +0100, HVS <office@REMOVETHISwhhvs.co.uk>
wrote:

>On 03 Apr 2024, Steve Hayes wrote

>> Another instance was a man I met who pronounced "UFOs" as "you
>> foes".
>
>I think I stumbled upon "you-foes" when people started to talk about
>"ufology" and "ufologist" as field of interest[1], but again, my
>mind's ear still hears "you eff oh" when I see it.
>
>
>[1] I find it very difficult to talk about "ufologists" without
>saying that it's pronounced "nutters".

Perhaps the "you foes" pronunciation is the mark of a nutter.

--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> wrote in
news:d2hq0jlhph14f2frooe29s9tqalj916mmr@4ax.com:

> A while back I was puzzled when a cousin of mine talked about "earls"
> in an inappropriate context, and it took me a while to realise she was
> treating "URL" as an acronym.
>
> I ran a poll on Twitter to see if anyone else did that, and 100% said
> they pronounced URL as "you are ell".
>
> So I wonder if anyone else has ever heard the "earl" pronunciation, or
> if it was just my cousin's idiolect.
>
> Another instance was a man I met who pronounced "UFOs" as "you foes".
>
> I'm running a poll in Twitter and Mastodon on that too, but I wonder
> if anyone here has heard that pronounciation.

I'm a computer engineer. The few times I've said it and heard it were
"earl". Few people name the letters.

FWIW, I've been a software engineer since before email was standardized and a
little before people knew of ARPAnet as the Internet. I've never used or
trusted anything from a soial media source.

HVS <office@REMOVETHISwhhvs.co.uk> wrote:

[...]

> > So I wonder if anyone else has ever heard the "earl"
> > pronunciation, or if it was just my cousin's idiolect.
>
> The "earl" pronunciation is what I defaulted to when I first saw it,
> and it was quite a while -- probably a year or more -- before I heard
> it spoken and discovered that "you are ell" was the accepted
> pronunciation.

Similarly, in my mind's ear, "http://www" is pronounced "hattipoo wow".

--
^Ï^. Sn!pe, PA, FIBS - Professional Crastinator

My pet rock Gordon just is.

Steve Hayes wrote:

> A while back I was puzzled when a cousin of mine talked about "earls"
> in an inappropriate context, and it took me a while to realise she was
> treating "URL" as an acronym.

Every Dane does that - with Danish pronunciation. The same with "ufo". I
have never heard anything else in Danish. Those pronunciation do not
sound like another word.

--
Bertel, Denmark

On 4/3/2024 2:05 PM, Steve Hayes wrote:
> A while back I was puzzled when a cousin of mine talked about "earls"
> in an inappropriate context, and it took me a while to realise she was
> treating "URL" as an acronym.
>
> I ran a poll on Twitter to see if anyone else did that, and 100% said
> they pronounced URL as "you are ell".
>
> So I wonder if anyone else has ever heard the "earl" pronunciation, or
> if it was just my cousin's idiolect.
>
> Another instance was a man I met who pronounced "UFOs" as "you foes".
>
> I'm running a poll in Twitter and Mastodon on that too, but I wonder
> if anyone here has heard that pronounciation.
>
>

I know it's spelled U-R-L, but I still call them urls (or rather ewwrls)
for myself. It's faster to say.
"You foes" also doesn't sound incorrect, as in German we use that all
the time (albeit as Oo-faw because German spelling and stuff)

On Wed, 3 Apr 2024, at 16:02:00, HVS posted:
>On 03 Apr 2024, Steve Hayes wrote
>
>> A while back I was puzzled when a cousin of mine talked about
>> "earls" in an inappropriate context, and it took me a while to
>> realise she was treating "URL" as an acronym.
>>
>> I ran a poll on Twitter to see if anyone else did that, and 100%
>> said they pronounced URL as "you are ell".
>>
>> So I wonder if anyone else has ever heard the "earl"
>> pronunciation, or if it was just my cousin's idiolect.
>
>The "earl" pronunciation is what I defaulted to when I first saw it,
>and it was quite a while -- probably a year or more -- before I heard
>it spoken and discovered that "you are ell" was the accepted
>pronunciation.
>
>I switched to "you are ell" for the very few times I have to
>pronounce it in public, but my mind's ear still hears it as "earl"
>when I see it.
>
>> Another instance was a man I met who pronounced "UFOs" as "you
>> foes".
>
>I think I stumbled upon "you-foes" when people started to talk about
>"ufology" and "ufologist" as field of interest[1], but again, my
>mind's ear still hears "you eff oh" when I see it.
>
Written out like that, it makes me think "you eff off". Just a small
hint to the aliens, you understand.

--
Paul W

On 04/04/24 08:53, Paul Wolff wrote:
> On Wed, 3 Apr 2024, at 16:02:00, HVS posted:
>> On 03 Apr 2024, Steve Hayes wrote
>>
>>> A while back I was puzzled when a cousin of mine talked about
>>> "earls" in an inappropriate context, and it took me a while to
>>> realise she was treating "URL" as an acronym.
>>>
>>> I ran a poll on Twitter to see if anyone else did that, and 100%
>>> said they pronounced URL as "you are ell".
>>>
>>> So I wonder if anyone else has ever heard the "earl"
>>> pronunciation, or if it was just my cousin's idiolect.
>>
>> The "earl" pronunciation is what I defaulted to when I first saw it,
>> and it was quite a while -- probably a year or more -- before I heard
>> it spoken and discovered that "you are ell" was the accepted
>> pronunciation.
>>
>> I switched to "you are ell" for the very few times I have to
>> pronounce it in public, but my mind's ear still hears it as "earl"
>> when I see it.
>>
>>> Another instance was a man I met who pronounced "UFOs" as "you
>>> foes".
>>
>> I think I stumbled upon "you-foes" when people started to talk about
>> "ufology" and "ufologist" as field of interest[1], but again, my
>> mind's ear still hears "you eff oh" when I see it.
>>
> Written out like that, it makes me think "you eff off". Just a small
> hint to the aliens, you understand.

These days I reserve UFO for unidentifiable frying objects.

--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW

On 04/04/24 02:39, David LaRue wrote:

> FWIW, I've been a software engineer since before email was
> standardized and a little before people knew of ARPAnet as the
> Internet. I've never used or trusted anything from a soial media
> source.

There are plenty of people who believe that social media are the entire
content of the Internet.

Yesterday I was trying to tell my wife the difference between the
Internet and the world-wide web. I must have done a bad job, because she
still can't see the difference.

There are also people who try to use their phone as a computer. Well,
technically it is one, but who can take seriously a device with such a
tiny screen and a two-thumb keyboard?

--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW

On 03-Apr-24 23:30, Peter Moylan wrote:
> On 04/04/24 02:39, David LaRue wrote:
>
>> FWIW, I've been a software engineer since before email was
>> standardized and a little before people knew of ARPAnet as the
>> Internet.  I've never used or trusted anything from a soial media
>> source.
>
> There are plenty of people who believe that social media are the entire
> content of the Internet.
>
> Yesterday I was trying to tell my wife the difference between the
> Internet and the world-wide web. I must have done a bad job, because she
> still can't see the difference.
>
> There are also people who try to use their phone as a computer. Well,
> technically it is one, but who can take seriously a device with such a
> tiny screen and a two-thumb keyboard?
>
You and I must be wrong.

In order to contact the local Surgery I can now no longer use their
website.
I now have to use 'the App' - available only in iOS & Android flavours
so I can't use this PC, with its proper keyboard & 25 inch display, I
must squint at the tiny display on my phone & attempt that pretence of a
keyboard it offers.

At least I have a 'smart' phone. My wife clings on to her dumb phone,
and cannot see why she should be forced to change to suit a strange fashion.

--
Sam Plusnet

Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> wrote:
[...]
> > There are also people who try to use their phone as a computer. Well,
> > technically it is one, but who can take seriously a device with such a
> > tiny screen and a two-thumb keyboard?
> >
> You and I must be wrong.
>
> In order to contact the local Surgery I can now no longer use their
> website.
> I now have to use 'the App' - available only in iOS & Android flavours
> so I can't use this PC, with its proper keyboard & 25 inch display, I
> must squint at the tiny display on my phone & attempt that pretence of a
> keyboard it offers.
>
> At least I have a 'smart' phone. My wife clings on to her dumb phone,
> and cannot see why she should be forced to change to suit a strange fashion.

[UK specific]
I can contact my doctor's surgery via the NHS website, which works
on my desktop. The NHS smartphone app. is quite slick to use but
I do agree about the horrid 'phone "keyboard".

--
^Ï^. Sn!pe, PA, FIBS - Professional Crastinator

My pet rock Gordon just is.

On 2024-04-03 06:05, Steve Hayes wrote:
> A while back I was puzzled when a cousin of mine talked about "earls"
> in an inappropriate context, and it took me a while to realise she was
> treating "URL" as an acronym.
>
> I ran a poll on Twitter to see if anyone else did that, and 100% said
> they pronounced URL as "you are ell".
>
> So I wonder if anyone else has ever heard the "earl" pronunciation, or
> if it was just my cousin's idiolect.

I've heard it but not often.

> Another instance was a man I met who pronounced "UFOs" as "you foes".
>
> I'm running a poll in Twitter and Mastodon on that too, but I wonder
> if anyone here has heard that pronounciation.

Same.

--
"Is the epididymis like the urethra?"
"No. There's a vas deferens between them."

On 2024-04-03 06:05, Steve Hayes wrote:
> A while back I was puzzled when a cousin of mine talked about "earls"
> in an inappropriate context, and it took me a while to realise she was
> treating "URL" as an acronym.
>
> I ran a poll on Twitter to see if anyone else did that, and 100% said
> they pronounced URL as "you are ell".
>
> So I wonder if anyone else has ever heard the "earl" pronunciation, or
> if it was just my cousin's idiolect.
>
> Another instance was a man I met who pronounced "UFOs" as "you foes".
>
> I'm running a poll in Twitter and Mastodon on that too, but I wonder
> if anyone here has heard that pronounciation.

For the linuxers out there, do you pronounce the file 'cshrc' as
'cashrock' or 'seashark'?

--
Dogs actually won the space race.

On 2024-04-03 09:42, Sn!pe wrote:
> HVS <office@REMOVETHISwhhvs.co.uk> wrote:
>
> [...]
>
>>> So I wonder if anyone else has ever heard the "earl"
>>> pronunciation, or if it was just my cousin's idiolect.
>>
>> The "earl" pronunciation is what I defaulted to when I first saw it,
>> and it was quite a while -- probably a year or more -- before I heard
>> it spoken and discovered that "you are ell" was the accepted
>> pronunciation.
>
> Similarly, in my mind's ear, "http://www" is pronounced "hattipoo wow".

I seldom see it, as I have 'https only' set.

I guess that's more like 'hatapiss bang"

--
Unix is user friendly. It's just very particular who its friends are.

On 04/04/24 10:57, Sam Plusnet wrote:
> On 03-Apr-24 23:30, Peter Moylan wrote:
>> On 04/04/24 02:39, David LaRue wrote:
>>
>>> FWIW, I've been a software engineer since before email was
>>> standardized and a little before people knew of ARPAnet as the
>>> Internet. I've never used or trusted anything from a soial
>>> media source.
>>
>> There are plenty of people who believe that social media are the
>> entire content of the Internet.
>>
>> Yesterday I was trying to tell my wife the difference between the
>> Internet and the world-wide web. I must have done a bad job,
>> because she still can't see the difference.
>>
>> There are also people who try to use their phone as a computer.
>> Well, technically it is one, but who can take seriously a device
>> with such a tiny screen and a two-thumb keyboard?
>>
> You and I must be wrong.
>
> In order to contact the local Surgery I can now no longer use their
> website. I now have to use 'the App' - available only in iOS &
> Android flavours so I can't use this PC, with its proper keyboard &
> 25 inch display, I must squint at the tiny display on my phone &
> attempt that pretence of a keyboard it offers.
>
> At least I have a 'smart' phone. My wife clings on to her dumb
> phone, and cannot see why she should be forced to change to suit a
> strange fashion.

I am very much in sympathy with your wife.

My own wife has succumbed to the pressure to put her driver's licence on
her phone. Now, any time she has to produce identification, ten minutes
are wasted while she's trying to work out where it is on her phone.

--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW

lar3ryca <larry@invalid.ca> wrote:

> On 2024-04-03 06:05, Steve Hayes wrote:
> > A while back I was puzzled when a cousin of mine talked about "earls"
> > in an inappropriate context, and it took me a while to realise she was
> > treating "URL" as an acronym.
> >
> > I ran a poll on Twitter to see if anyone else did that, and 100% said
> > they pronounced URL as "you are ell".
> >
> > So I wonder if anyone else has ever heard the "earl" pronunciation, or
> > if it was just my cousin's idiolect.
> >
> > Another instance was a man I met who pronounced "UFOs" as "you foes".
> >
> > I'm running a poll in Twitter and Mastodon on that too, but I wonder
> > if anyone here has heard that pronounciation.
>
> For the linuxers out there, do you pronounce the file 'cshrc' as
> 'cashrock' or 'seashark'?

Then, of course, there's fsck...

--
^Ï^. Sn!pe, PA, FIBS - Professional Crastinator

My pet rock Gordon just is.

On 2024-04-04, Sn!pe wrote:

> lar3ryca <larry@invalid.ca> wrote:
>
>> On 2024-04-03 06:05, Steve Hayes wrote:
>> > A while back I was puzzled when a cousin of mine talked about "earls"
>> > in an inappropriate context, and it took me a while to realise she was
>> > treating "URL" as an acronym.
>> >
>> > I ran a poll on Twitter to see if anyone else did that, and 100% said
>> > they pronounced URL as "you are ell".
>> >
>> > So I wonder if anyone else has ever heard the "earl" pronunciation, or
>> > if it was just my cousin's idiolect.
>> >
>> > Another instance was a man I met who pronounced "UFOs" as "you foes".
>> >
>> > I'm running a poll in Twitter and Mastodon on that too, but I wonder
>> > if anyone here has heard that pronounciation.
>>
>> For the linuxers out there, do you pronounce the file 'cshrc' as
>> 'cashrock' or 'seashark'?

I'd probably go for 'sea-shark' or 'sea-shirk', although I normally
use bash (cue flames).

> Then, of course, there's fsck...

For me that rhymes with "musk".

--
So you say I got a funny face
I ain't got no worries
And I don't know why
And I don't know why

On 04/04/24 12:25, lar3ryca wrote:
> On 2024-04-03 06:05, Steve Hayes wrote:
>> A while back I was puzzled when a cousin of mine talked about "earls"
>> in an inappropriate context, and it took me a while to realise she was
>> treating "URL" as an acronym.
>>
>> I ran a poll on Twitter to see if anyone else did that, and 100% said
>> they pronounced URL as "you are ell".
>>
>> So I wonder if anyone else has ever heard the "earl" pronunciation, or
>> if it was just my cousin's idiolect.
>>
>> Another instance was a man I met who pronounced "UFOs" as "you foes".
>>
>> I'm running a poll in Twitter and Mastodon on that too, but I wonder
>> if anyone here has heard that pronounciation.
>
> For the linuxers out there, do you pronounce the file 'cshrc' as
> 'cashrock' or 'seashark'?

She sells C shells by the seashore.

--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW

On Wed, 3 Apr 2024 19:30:44 +0200, Bertel Lund Hansen wrote:

> Every Dane does that - with Danish pronunciation. The same with "ufo". I
> have never heard anything else in Danish. Those pronunciation do not
> sound like another word.

So, "ufåå" or something? Same in Swedish. Nobody says u-eff-o.

But we do say u-err-ell and not "urrl" as one word.

--
Cri-Cri

On Thu, 4 Apr 2024 09:24:05 +1100, Peter Moylan wrote:

> UFO for unidentifiable frying objects.

....or un-effable offenses.

--
Cri-Cri

On Wed, 3 Apr 2024 19:25:45 -0600, lar3ryca wrote:

> For the linuxers out there, do you pronounce the file 'cshrc' as
> 'cashrock' or 'seashark'?

I'm on Manjaro, I don't have it so I haven't reflected on the name.
But .bashrc rhymes with hardy har see.

--
Cri-Cri

On Thu, 4 Apr 2024 22:33:28 +1100, Peter Moylan wrote:

> She sells C shells by the seashore.

Ismo said: "she shells shee shells by the shee shore" Which he thought was
stupid, since they are right there, for free, on the "shee shore."

--
Cri-Cri

On 04-Apr-24 1:34, Sn!pe wrote:
> Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> wrote:
> [...]
>>> There are also people who try to use their phone as a computer. Well,
>>> technically it is one, but who can take seriously a device with such a
>>> tiny screen and a two-thumb keyboard?
>>>
>> You and I must be wrong.
>>
>> In order to contact the local Surgery I can now no longer use their
>> website.
>> I now have to use 'the App' - available only in iOS & Android flavours
>> so I can't use this PC, with its proper keyboard & 25 inch display, I
>> must squint at the tiny display on my phone & attempt that pretence of a
>> keyboard it offers.
>>
>> At least I have a 'smart' phone. My wife clings on to her dumb phone,
>> and cannot see why she should be forced to change to suit a strange fashion.
>
> [UK specific]
> I can contact my doctor's surgery via the NHS website, which works
> on my desktop. The NHS smartphone app. is quite slick to use but
> I do agree about the horrid 'phone "keyboard".
>
The NHS app might sometimes be 'slick', but _NOT_ when it gets into the
hands of my dearly beloved.
She has the sort of talent that causes software to do things that the
designers would swear could never happen.

--
Sam Plusnet