This is How You Pronounce Ubuntu
By Daniel Miessler on October 23rd, 2007: Tagged as Geek | Language | Linux
I have a problem. I hate when people mispronounce things. It pains me to hear “line-ix”, “oh-es-ex”, or “you-bun-too”.
Ubuntu is becoming more of an issue these days. As it gets more popular more are getting the opportunity to mangle it. When I first saw the name I proceeded to mess it up myself, but I immediately sought out the right way to say it (weird, I know). I found a video clip of Nelson Mandela pronouncing it. It was most informative and quite clear.
oo-boon-too
Ah, but people still want to argue.
The way you say it doesn’t matter, as long as you know what they meant.
Shure. Kep one beeleeving thate. Just because someone can figure out what you mean doesn’t make it right. If that were the case then what would be the point of syntax at all? Why not just gesture wildly and grunt until the other person gets the idea?
Anyway, for those who aren’t convinced by the whole authentic African pronunciation bit, here’s a screenshot from the official site a few moments ago:
Ooo. Boon. Too.
Saying something else is not a different kind of right; it’s just wrong.:
–
[ Update: Well, thanks for the few positive comments that have been left. A couple of thoughts come to mind given the responses.
1. We're not talking about varying pronunciations of common things. These are names that have explicitly defined ways for pronouncing them as determined by an accepted authority. Linus Torvalds is a Linux authority and he says very clearly that Linux is always pronounced "Lih-nucks". That means something. Apple explicitly says that it's "OS *TEN*". And it's the same with Ubuntu. They told us how they want us to pronounce these things because it matters to them, so it should matter to us as well.
2. I'm not advocating an anal enforcement of static language (that would be stupid). Language changes; it always has and it always will. The point is simply that all pronunciations of well-defined names are not equal. Calling the capital of the U.S. \WAY-Chang-TONE\ (Washington) is not a different type of correct. And the fact that someone could figure out what you meant doesn't make it so.
3. There is a slider between promoting accuracy in communication using syntax and allowing the natural evolution of language. Either extreme is wrong. My simple point here is that when we have an explicit and authoritative example to follow in the case of a name we should embrace it and promote its proper usage.
So, ultimately, is this as important as our next elections in the U.S. or solving the energy crisis? Of course not. But it's just a website talking about language and geek stuff. Relax. :) ]
This is exactly why I can’t listen to the Linux Action Show without cringing. Maybe they do this on purpose, like a long-running unfunny joke. SUSE and Debian also consistently botched. KDE, FTW.
Comment by PGC — 10/23/2007 @ 5:06 am
Oddly, the man who does the screencasts for Ubuntu ( http://screencasts.ubuntu.com ) says it wrong, knows he says it wrong, and refuses to change. He commented about how he mispronounces the word in an actual screencast. Hmmm.
I hear Ubuntu mispronounced all the time and get it right myself, but I admit that I mispronounced each of the three others you mentioned (Linux, Debian, and Suse) when I first saw them.
Daeng Bo http://ibeentoubuntu.blogspot.com
Comment by Daeng Bo — 10/23/2007 @ 7:19 am
Why stop with brand names? How about properly pronouncing words like data (DAT-a), process(PRO -sess) or router (ROOT-er). It’s awful how tech people mangle those simple words, yet I mirror their frustrating dialect just for clarity’s sake.
Pronunciation nazis are worse than grammar nazis in that they generally get their knowledge from tv. Unfortunately television is a poor place to find proper pronunciation. Just because Nelson Mandela pronounces Ubuntu in some fashion doesn’t indicate pronouncing it differently is incorrect. I doubt you pronounce other African words like Nelson Mandela would.
If you asked someone at the San Diego zoo where to find the TSEB-ra’s they wouldn’t initially think you meant the zee-BRAS as is the popular pronunciation of the striped beasts in the U.S. You would probably have to spell it out for them to understand. And if you pronounced everything else like a normal american they’d probably just think you were a pompous ass.
It’s better to try to speak the vernacular and rely more on content than window dressing. Language is best employed to improve our ability to communicate ideas rather than status. If you need to communicate status get a Rolex, just make sure you can pronounce it like a real Helvetian and more importantly make sure everyone else does or you’re just not getting your money’s worth.
Comment by Bill B — 10/23/2007 @ 4:02 pm
Bill, I think you bring up an interesting point. Regional dialects mean that certain words will be pronounced differently, even when they are spelled the same. For instance, process (PRAH-sess) is correct in california, and wash (WARSH) is correct in the mid-west, and car (CAH) is correct in the north-east. Saying these words differently than the locals, even though they may be correctly said differently somewhere else, is part of what gives these regions their distinct identities.
Comment by Patrick — 10/23/2007 @ 4:17 pm
How about spelling things right? “I pains me” - line 1
Comment by antonio — 10/23/2007 @ 4:39 pm
me@computer me $ say “Ubuntu”
[quote] you-Bun-too [/quote]
Comment by Timothy Davis — 10/23/2007 @ 10:37 pm
It is quite hypocritical, yet ironic of you to be complaining about people’s pronunciation when you can’t even use correct grammar in your post complaining about it.
Well a bit off point here, but the pronunciation of Linux is said wrong as well in mainstream, and it’s not supposed to be Lin-ex like most people say it. It’s actually supposed to be Line-Ux, named after the creator of Linux, Linus Torvalds, and his name was pronounced Line-Us. But even I call it Lin-ex.
Another one is McAfee. People pronounce it Mac-Uh-Fee, but how the hell does McAfee translate to that? It’s supposed to be Muh-Caf-ee.
Comment by Jim — 10/23/2007 @ 11:02 pm
I understood this completely, thus invalidating the point the writer was trying to make.
Comment by Bored — 10/24/2007 @ 12:33 am
Why does everybody complain about lie-nix? It’s not wrong, and in fact the common North American “lih-nix” is just as wrong. If you want the official pronunciation it’s LEE-nux, because that’s how Linus Torvalds’ first name is pronounced (LEE-nus).
I understand problems with mispronunciations, but for chrissakes, there’s nothing wrong with lie-nix. It’s closer to the North American version of Linus’ name anyways.
(For the record, I do pronounce it lih-nux same as most but it bugs me that people claim that one is better than the other when they’re both technically wrong anyways)
Comment by ebbomega — 10/24/2007 @ 12:36 am
youboontoo
Comment by jibegod — 10/24/2007 @ 12:37 am
So, who died and made your queen of pronunciations?
Comment by taxian — 10/24/2007 @ 12:38 am
@Jim Not trying to be hypocritical, coz I pronounce things wrong all the time, however Linux is actually pronounced Lin-ux, unlike Linus’ name which is pronounced in various ways. Don’t believe me? Listen it from Linus himself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IfHm6R5le0
Comment by xubean — 10/24/2007 @ 12:40 am
I’m really impressed with your article. Now lets move on to banning the crappy IM textspeak like kthxbai etc. If I had a pile of coal lumps and you’d do me the favor of bending over, in two weeks I could compete head to head with DeBeers.
Comment by Jaytee — 10/24/2007 @ 12:43 am
Debian = DEH-bee-en
Linux = LIN-ux (Linus said it himself, look en youtube for the interview)
and i believe Suse is pronounced the same as Dr. Seuss.
i know tha ubuntu is ooboontoo but i say oobuntoo
Comment by Simon — 10/24/2007 @ 12:46 am
I give up on Digg. I don’t know how this made it to the front page…
Comment by Marcin — 10/24/2007 @ 12:46 am
i was introduced to Ubuntu by a guy i know from africa, so i started out on the right foot straight from the beginning.
Comment by photar — 10/24/2007 @ 12:47 am
This is what happens when you try to ‘architect’ language, rather than let it take its natural course. People’s intuitions regarding how to pronounce new words they’ve never seen before are necessarily based on the grapheme-phoneme rules they’ve built up about their native language (and any other languages they might happen to know). Their ability to properly pronounce words is also constrained by the phoneme set and phonological and phonotactic rules that govern their native language.
Trying to dictate new, counter-intuitive rules for new words is sometimes possible, e.g. the influx of French after the Norman conquest of England, but requires a lot of popular support.
In most cases however, general norms win out. Take the Japanese loan word ‘karaoke’ for example. In the US pretty much everyone, including me when I’m home, pronounce this /k E r iy o k eI/ (care E. okay) with the major stress coming on the first syllable. Here in Japan however, the ‘proper’ (i.e. natural) way of pronouncing this word is /k a r a o k eI/ (car ah Okay) with the major stress coming on the ‘O’ in Okay.
So which is right? Well, when I want to communicate with my family back home, and don’t want to sound like a prick, I say it the american way. When I am speaking Japanese, I pronounce it the Japanese way, for pretty much the same reasons.
Like other neologisms and loan words before it, ‘Ubuntu’ should be submitted to the people. If you can drum up enough support for your proper African pronunciation, great. However, I for one will stick to saying ‘you-boon-too’ as this seems much more natural and much more likely to take hold.
(Despite all I’ve said here however, I still can’t quite get over the way Japanese pronounce ‘McDonald’s’ /m a q k u d o n a r u d o/ !)
Comment by Joe — 10/24/2007 @ 12:50 am
Actually, the meaning of ubuntu is “Humanity to others”, or “I am what I am because of who we all are”…
Located on the bottom of the page here: http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu
Comment by Jason — 10/24/2007 @ 12:50 am
Americans always make up their own pronunciation of words anyway - why do you expect them to do this one correctly?
Comment by c — 10/24/2007 @ 12:55 am
Jesus Christ. Bill - those are regional dialects. Tomayto tomahto, neither (nee-ther/nigh-ther) one is more correct.
Other people - it’s Lih-nuchs. http://www.paul.sladen.org/pronunciation/torvalds-says-linux.mp3
Comment by crazybrit — 10/24/2007 @ 12:59 am
Why not just stop giving products stupid names? This post would be completely unnecessary if oo-boon-too had been called something like “Hipster OS”.
Comment by Chris Pirillo's Hair — 10/24/2007 @ 1:02 am
What about xubunutu? X in the Xhosa language is the “click” sound.
How do we do that in English?
Comment by Orrin — 10/24/2007 @ 1:06 am
This is useless drivel, all you do is pollute digg, reddit and others with your silly site.
Comment by Observer — 10/24/2007 @ 1:13 am
make the click sound followed by “-buntu”
Comment by Barrington — 10/24/2007 @ 1:16 am
Bill, I’m not sure if you think the pronounciations you gave are correct or incorrect, but officially, according to Merriam-Webster:
Data: dā-tə or dä-tə (DAY-tuh or DAH-tuh) Both pronunciations are correct.
Process: prä-ses or prō-səs (PRAH-ses or PRO-ses) Both pronunciations are correct.
Router: rau-tər (R OW-ter) ROOT-er is incorrect.
Zebra: zē-brə (ZEE-bra) TSEB-ra is incorrect.
Comment by Hektor — 10/24/2007 @ 1:22 am
Go get laid man.
Comment by anon — 10/24/2007 @ 1:34 am
This is useless drivel, all you do is pollute digg, reddit and others with your silly site. ^^ I’m agreeing with this guy. Ubuntu, YouBunToo, Tomato, To-mah-to. Who gives a shit?
Comment by lolling-lollerstien — 10/24/2007 @ 1:36 am
“Another one is McAfee. People pronounce it Mac-Uh-Fee, but how the hell does McAfee translate to that? It’s supposed to be Muh-Caf-ee.”
It “translates” to that because that is the Scottish pronunciation of McAfee. In Scottish last names, “Mac” and “Mc” are interchangeable, with both being pronounced the same. McAfee is spoken the same as MacAfee.
The people who pronounce it MAC-UH-fee are correct, sorry.
Comment by A. McAfee — 10/24/2007 @ 1:37 am
WII IS PRONOUNCED WII.
GOT IT?
Comment by asda — 10/24/2007 @ 1:40 am
Nicely put. I agree. I did an article about oh-ess-ecks on my blog not too long ago myself. We are of the same mind.
Keep up the good work.
Comment by FCGrabo — 10/24/2007 @ 1:46 am
Not sure why anyone gives a shit about what you have to say. If it really irks you that people pronounce words in a different manner than your own, well, then maybe you should stop acting like a pompous asshole.
Comment by William Shackston — 10/24/2007 @ 1:51 am
SuSE + Su-za
Comment by Taylor — 10/24/2007 @ 1:53 am
[...] Apparently, the Ubuntu linux distribution is pronounced like it is spelled up above there. I’d always said Ooh - Bun - Too. [...]
Pingback by www . brian culler . com » Its Ooh - Boon - Too - photography, startups, and software development, oh my — 10/24/2007 @ 2:03 am
Perhaps you should direct your righteous indignation towards the precious clods who refuse to respect any sane rules of pronunciation — or spacing — when branding their crap. There’s a ridiculous little text editor on Unix named vi (though, by 1976 standards, Bill Joy created a masterpiece… and yes, I was using it within a year of its creation, pass me a Depend… oh, dear, don’t call them “Depends” or you’ll make the OCD Police need one…). Dy’a think we could have called it “vie” (or, for historical nitpickers, “vih”, since “vi” is the shortest abbreviation for the visual form of ex? And is it “eks” or “ee-exks”?) Nah, “vie” would be too easy! It needs to be “vee-eye”!
Oh, and my personal favorite: lighttpd. Yeah, only an idiot wouldn’t know that’s pronounced “lighty”. Sheesh!
Milton would have conjured another circle of Hell for Idiot-self-declared-Savants who can’t intelligently correlate the visual and audio names for their bastard tech-children, don’t provide a proununciation guide (”You only know how to say it if you showed up at the first user meeting… tee, hee”), THEN get all torqued about common sense stabs at saying the name.
We can, at least, thank Mr. Miessler (please, Dear Gay Dumbledore, tell me that’s prounounced “Meesler”) for trying to set us straight. For you, Mr. M, three millenia in Purgatorio, but away from anyone who will is still looking for the “u” in Qwest (that’s pronounced “Q-west”, right?).
Comment by How Do You Pronounce OMGWTFBBQ — 10/24/2007 @ 2:06 am
@joe “This is what happens when you try to ‘architect’ language, rather than let it take its natural course. People’s intuitions …”
You might’ve convinced me you had some idea what you were talking about until you ‘verbed’ a noun.
Irony intended..
Comment by Else — 10/24/2007 @ 2:15 am
It bugs me that most people pronounce MySQL incorrectly. At least you can tell who hasn’t glanced over the manual.
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/what-is-mysql.html
Comment by Robert G — 10/24/2007 @ 2:18 am
Yeah I take issue with Bill also, router is pronounced rout-er as in, that thing that routes packets for you. A rooter is somthing you use on your toilet, maybe, after lots of cheese.
Comment by Jim — 10/24/2007 @ 2:23 am
Amen to that man! So sick of hearing people mess that up. (Though I admit I used to say “line”ex instead of linux. Anyway, the other one that drives me batty: McAfee pronounced as MACafee, like Big Mac…ugh
Comment by Ryan — 10/24/2007 @ 2:26 am
How do you pronounce pedant?
I think you’re needed in Quincy, MA. where they pronounce Quincy Kwin-zee instead of Kwin-cy. Those people need your help.
Comment by i am who I am — 10/24/2007 @ 3:00 am
It pains me when people bitch about others pronunciation, but cannot write properly themselves. Seriously, your 3rd sentence is wrong. Don’t criticize others unless you are perfect. STFU!
Comment by seriously — 10/24/2007 @ 3:12 am
@seriously
“others pronunciation” ?
:)
Comment by Daniel Miessler — 10/24/2007 @ 3:13 am
“I pains me…” ?
Comment by seriously — 10/24/2007 @ 3:15 am
@seriously
Um, how sure are you that “it pains me” is incorrect? I’m asking you because I don’t know. I thought it WAS correct, but perhaps it’s not.
Do you know for sure?
Comment by Daniel Miessler — 10/24/2007 @ 3:19 am
Ever hear of regional dialects people? Where I come from, the name “Linus” is pronounced “LEYE-NUS” not “LEE-NUS”. So it’s “LEYE-NUX”. You don’t like it? Well that’s just tough titty isn’t it.
And apparently, assuming this page is correct, I have been pronouncing Ubuntu the way it’s supposed to be. But I’m tempted to start saying it wrong just to annoy the pronunciation nazis.
Comment by Spadowski — 10/24/2007 @ 3:28 am
my tutors pronounce it You-Bun-too and oo-boon-doo Haha
Comment by sDf — 10/24/2007 @ 3:34 am
It’s called having an accent, you arse. ;)
Comment by Tony — 10/24/2007 @ 3:50 am
Cómo se pronuncia Ubuntu…
La famosísima distribución de Linux llamada Ubuntu se acaba de actualizar a su más reciente versión la 7.10, pero con todo este ruido que causa la reciente actualización se escucha hablar a muchas personas de ella y algunas veces es mal pronunciad…
Trackback by Carlos Leopoldo — 10/24/2007 @ 3:51 am
Cómo se pronuncia Ubuntu…
La famosísima distribución de Linux llamada Ubuntu se acaba de actualizar a su más reciente versión la 7.10, pero con todo este ruido que causa la reciente actualización se escucha hablar a muchas personas de ella y algunas veces es mal pronunciad…
Trackback by Carlos Leopoldo — 10/24/2007 @ 3:51 am
That’s funny, because syntax is not pronunciation. So in your rant, you used the wrong word. Ironic.
Comment by Zach — 10/24/2007 @ 4:00 am
I’ll continue to pronounce You-Bunt-Ooo, Debian.
Comment by Alan — 10/24/2007 @ 4:42 am
If you read people writing about Ubuntu, you can sometimes figure out how they pronounce it. If they say Yoo-bunn-too, then they would write “a ubuntu installation” but if pronounced “Oo-boon-too” then they write “an ubuntu installation.” I have seen, however, a lot more of the latter .
Comment by comwiz7 — 10/24/2007 @ 5:00 am
Who the fuck cares.
Comment by Yeeeeee — 10/24/2007 @ 5:11 am
Firstly: you’re talking about phonology, not syntax.
Secondly: the argument that “the other person knew what I meant” is a better one than you might think. Language is necessarily arbitrary. At its base, it is a conventionalized system for communication. Thus, if a particular pronunciation or usage has become common convention, it is acceptable or “grammatical” as part of a language (here using the linguist’s definition of grammatical as “used by native speakers”). If a native speaker of a language would never say a particular utterance, then you can consider it ungrammatical or “wrong”. So, you can probably claim “uh-bun-tuh” as outright wrong, but the fact that ewe-bun-too has permeated English as it has means that it is a valid, grammatical pronunciation of the word from a linguistic perspective. Now, I’m as much of a language purist as you are, and I don’t like Anglicized versions of things, but them’s the facts. Sorry.
Comment by GirlNoir — 10/24/2007 @ 5:16 am
Linux is, as Linus himself pronounces it, linix (no special emphasis, typical English shortened vowel uh->ih). And, of course, Linus is Finnish, so his name is better pronounced the way the Finns do, not the American way: leenus instead of line-ihs. Since you want to be stuck up on pronunciation, you should pronounce it like someone another person stuck up on pronunciation, rms: “guh noo slash linn`UCKS”.
While people may look at you funnily if you spell out acronyms instead of pronouncing them in the regional/social manner, they will understand you; the reason they look at you funny probably has more to do with your appearance; the fact that you do not pronounce it in the “accepted” way indicates you are not a member of the local group. In this case, the pronunciation is a shibboleth. So, in a group of Mac fanboys, I’d get looked at strange if I pronounced “Mac OS X” how it is spelled, instead of how the Almighty Himself, Steve Jobs, pronounces it. In that case, I would be more correct than the Mac fans because “ten” is not a proper pronunciation of “X” in English. No, we are not Romans and we do not use Roman numerals. Even the most random pseudo-legal things (think copyright notices) use Arabic numerals instead.
As for Ubuntu, there probably is a bit of variation of the pronunciation by region. However, most such regional variations do not add a consonant before a vowel (vice versa is more common). “Ubuntu” is a transliteration and it does not explicitly include the “y” consonant, so it is not likely that it is pronounced that way. On the other hand, it could be an incorrect transliteration like “shibboleth” or “sabbath”: there is no “th” sound in the origin language of those words. But that is not the case with Ubuntu, as the “correct” pronunciation is known.
What it amounts to is that the way you say it does not matter so long as it is consistent with your local (or the original) pronunciation nuances. I say leenus because that is how Linus pronounces it. If I said line-ihs, I would be no less correct because that is regionally consistent where I am.
I believe English is the only language that adds “y” to names of letter that never makes that noise: U and W. When some people see U at the beginning of a word, they think yoo-. For some reason, that’s not also the case for W.
Comment by Linix — 10/24/2007 @ 5:20 am
I’d pronounce it Gentoo. Oh wait, wrong distro.
Comment by anon — 10/24/2007 @ 5:24 am
i pronounce it ooo-youranidiotthatwastesyourtimecaringabouthowpeoplepronouncethings-too
Comment by k3v — 10/24/2007 @ 5:28 am
Its not ubuntu users fault they cant read… … … thats why they use ubuntu right?
Comment by blah — 10/24/2007 @ 6:29 am
Jeeper, it took you this long to find this? And even having the guts to write about it like it’s something completely new? Your mum must be proud of you.
The rest of the world doesn’t really care. Bury this subject on Digg, it doesn’t deserve the attention it gets.
Comment by blahblah — 10/24/2007 @ 7:50 am
YouBuntu
Comment by K. Ralho — 10/24/2007 @ 8:58 am
By the way - polish pronounciation is: Ooo-Boon-Too. No more no less. I’ve never heard N. Mandela speeches.
Comment by PeterCub — 10/24/2007 @ 9:04 am
I am, because you are!
Comment by Sinudeity — 10/24/2007 @ 9:46 am
i wasted my time reading this nerdy piece of sh££ get a girlfriend and bonk it rather than waste peoples time.
Comment by feds a gogo — 10/24/2007 @ 10:11 am
OK Linux, Ubuntu etc. fair enough (totally pedantic but still fair enough) as they are pronounceable words, but OSX? It’s a bunch of letters for fecks sake. It’s OH-ES-EX and if you believe otherwise then you’ve fallen for Apple’s marketing hyperbole.
Comment by Adam — 10/24/2007 @ 10:43 am
by the way im married with four kids Heeeeeeeeeeeeeelp.
Comment by feds a gogo — 10/24/2007 @ 10:46 am
“Shure. Kep one beeleeving thate. Just because someone can figure out what you mean doesn’t make it right. If that were the case then what would be the point of syntax at all? Why not just gesture wildly and grunt until the other person gets the idea?”
It is almost a certainty that you pronounce ‘router’ in the etymologically incorrect and completely illogical American fashion of recent invention, as something closer to ‘raow-dah’.
Router, properly pronounced as ‘rooter’, is at least an inveterate English word. It has existed in the language for hundreds of years. Its pronunciation was, until only a few decades ago, incontrovertible. It is therefore far less a solecism to mispronounce the African word ‘Ubuntu’ than router, or the many other words that those in IT, who tend to be less literate, mangle daily. It is not difficult to think of more examples: caysh for cache comes to mind.
The point is that I scarcely think that your command of the English language is such that you can impeach others with failing to adequately grasp the finer points of an African language. Dick.
Comment by momo — 10/24/2007 @ 11:23 am
Since LINUX was started as a UNIX/MINIX clone it just makes sense to pronounce Lih-Nucks.
Comment by Clint — 10/24/2007 @ 12:07 pm
i’m glad someone else is conscientious enough to get things right. and i can’t believe some of the comments of people trying to justify being lazy. sheez, uneducated.
Comment by mock — 10/24/2007 @ 12:25 pm
Wow, you are one Type A personality. I would hate hanging out with you, always worrying if you’re going to correct my pronounciation. Good luck with your anal retentive life.
Comment by wow dude — 10/24/2007 @ 12:26 pm
Mouse over “ubuntu” to hear: http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=ubuntu&submit=Submit
Comment by YustMe — 10/24/2007 @ 12:33 pm
I’m a Norwegian. The Norwegian pronunciation of Linux is equal to the way Linus Torvalds pronounces it. However, once I talked to a English-speaking pronunciation-nazi. Since we were speaking English, I adapted and said “Lee-nix” instead of what I would normally say. His reaction was to correct me and tell me to say it in the Linus-Torvalds-way, only with worse pronunciation. This surprised me. When I go through the trouble of speaking the language of somebody else, and “englishify” my words, like in this case, I expect my efforts to be appreciated, not corrected.
You can’t have both people adapt to your language and correct them in a belittling way. Choose one.
Comment by Alexander — 10/24/2007 @ 12:41 pm
I am all for honouring a language by doing our best to pronounce a word as it is meant to be pronounced. So I will respect the South African languange and pronounce it oo-boon-too.
However, it is worth pointing out that sev-uhn ten or sev-uhn dot ten is incorrect as numbers after a decimial place are to be referred to as individual numbers… so while I don’t doubt that the folks at Ubuntu know how it should be pronounced, can we really accept the definition at face value when the version should actually be written as sev-uhn one zero or sev-uhn dot one zero?
Comment by Gurneyhack — 10/24/2007 @ 12:49 pm
thank you pronunciation police for that PSA
The thing is that most people just don’t give a damn because they will never use OO-BOON-TOO. I’m a geek, but my caring about such pronunciations is contextual.
example: If I’m talking to a dude in line at Wal-Mart whose profession is a truck driver about Linux variants. And he says “oo-BUN-too” I am just not going to care. However, if I am interviewing a person who might be my next Ubuntu Administrator and he is pronouncing everything wrong, then I’ll be worried.
Comment by rob — 10/24/2007 @ 1:01 pm
You have no idea how to really pronounce the Zulu word Ubuntu, so get off your high horse.
No amount of phonetic spelling will help you avoid sounding like and uptight dork.
You ain’t my momma or my teacher. So I will pronounce it any way I like.
Comment by Cron — 10/24/2007 @ 2:06 pm
Who cares you fuckin losers
Comment by Not_a_loser — 10/24/2007 @ 2:23 pm
Wow, another nerd who complains when things aren’t how s/he wants them to be. Grow up.
I bet you’re the type of person who would have stood up while Einstein was presenting his special theory of relativity and said, “You spelled relativistic traits wrong!”
Or perhaps you would have just ignored everything he said because of his thick German accent… surely he would have mispronounced a word or two… which would have made his entire conjecture rubbish, right?
Since your pedantry is more important than people actually downloading and using “youbuntoo”, or using “oh es ex” or “line-ix,” how about you just “fock awff” and “gidda layfe.” And how about you re-install Windows, because at least everyone can pronounce that the way you want them to.
Comment by the x — 10/24/2007 @ 2:25 pm
[...] geek phase right now with respect to pronunciations of technology-related names. Recently it was Ubuntu, and now OS X. With Leopard about to drop I thought it would be a good time to consider how to [...]
Pingback by dmiessler.com | The Correct Way to Pronounce “OS X” [With Evidence] — 10/24/2007 @ 2:48 pm
Grab a life cheeze head.
Comment by your mom — 10/24/2007 @ 3:04 pm
Here’s one for you. Where I live they pronounce H as “haitch” rather than “aitch”. By the same logic X would be pronounced “zex”. WTF? Such a fundamental mispronunciation is very irritating. Be glad you don’t have to listen to that.
Comment by Sam — 10/24/2007 @ 3:37 pm
Actually, I was referring to the proper English pronunciations, not American English. Fuck yeah I say rout-er in the states, but in a country that speaks English, I’d say rooter.
American English evolved to be intentionally different than English to define the US as different than Britain or France. And it’s actually a cool story. I especially like the way Americans hacked the French place names like changing Grossier to Gooseberries or Raddisson to Radishes. It’s a lot of fun.
Colorful language leads to wonderful experimentation and discovery.
As my Auntie always said, “if you can’t spell a word at least three ways, you’re not trying.”
Comment by Bill B — 10/24/2007 @ 3:59 pm
Here is a thought, come up with bettern names not this goofy crap. If the majority of people cannot pronouce it correctly with out a phoenetic explanation you probably have yourself a stupid-ass name.
Comment by Todd — 10/24/2007 @ 4:21 pm
Absolutely terrible. Do you even think before you write; is this some sort of stream-of-stupidity?
Comment by Sam — 10/24/2007 @ 4:21 pm
I like how the Digg crowd just rolled right in and brought the level down to theirs. Ha.
Comment by PGC — 10/24/2007 @ 4:23 pm
Well, it’s hard for the uber-educated US citizens, but the rest of the world just doesn’t need FAQs on pronunciation :) And those of them that have access to these intertubeZ and can write (a bit), they are just emphasizing on this :)
Comment by PAStheLoD — 10/24/2007 @ 9:25 pm
That’s like all the geeks who insist that people say “MON-GA” not “MAYN-GA” or “ON-EEMAY” instead of “ANN-EEMAY.” Haha!
Of course, I’m playing devil’s advocate because I’m a stickler for pronunciations also.
Comment by Leo — 10/24/2007 @ 9:39 pm
omg, have you nothing better to do?
Comment by anon — 10/25/2007 @ 12:34 am
[...] Excellent article on how to pronounce Ubuntu. I couldn’t have said it better myself. I started a post on this and other things a while back, but never finished it. Maybe I will soon. [...]
Pingback by Peter’s Soapbox » This is How You Pronounce Ubuntu — 10/25/2007 @ 5:23 pm
Three cheers for proper pronunciation.
Comment by Peter — 10/25/2007 @ 5:35 pm
It’s Oh Es Ex.
When it’s referenced in media or print, specifically when a version number, it is always typed “OS X 10.4″. Even on Apple’s website, 10.5 is referred to as “OS X 10.5 Leopard”.
Here’s a reference.
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/macosx-10-4.ars
It’s not “Oh Es Ten Ten Point Four”. That’s redundant and stupid. It’s “Oh Es X Ten Point Four”. The X was used as an indicator that Apple had jumped on the Unix bandwagon.
Comment by Palooka — 10/25/2007 @ 11:07 pm
And while we’re on the subject, there are two…count ‘em…two “r’s” in February and the first one isn’t silent!!
Comment by rjones — 10/26/2007 @ 5:56 pm
As a norwegian I say u-bun-tu, pronouncing the “u” like in english “flu”. Here, we also say lih-nuks with the stress on the “i”, but a short “i” and not quite as Linus Torvalds say it, with a long “i”. About the pronounciation for Linux, I’ve seen another interview with Torvalds where he’s saying “linn-iks”. That’s also how I hear other english/americans say it.
But I very much agree with the article author that we all should try to say names in the original language, at least people’s names. It has something to do with respect for the person and we show that we care. Then you get respect back.
Names on things aren’t equally important to say in their original pronounciation. In fact, I’d never heard Linux as “linn-iks” before I heard Linus Torvalds say it in that interview, but now I know how to say it in America. It’s important if I want to be understood. Simple as pai. :)
Comment by Bjørn from Norway — 10/28/2007 @ 5:13 am
This is all about the attitude of translating/naturalizing/translittering (does the latter exist???) words in our own languages.
I am Italian, and I live and work in the Netherlands - and at the very beginning finding the way the same acronyms and words were pronounced was really funny.
It all began with a “SCOOSIE” (it meant SCSI) - in Italian people tend to say “SCUSIE”. On a “SRVER” pronounced as the word “Surfer” would have been. Then it was the time for “EEAFA” (ee-afa), meaning Java. And now, the new operating system from Microsoft is often called “FISTA” (in german, dutch and many other anglosaxon languages, V is pronounced as F). Anyway - it’s Fista time, now: it seems a porn movie title :)
To keep it short: yes, it’s quite true - the English language is not so rich of sound, and the words have a pronunciation. But I would start worrying about that when vocal control becomes mandatory…
Comment by Gabriel — 11/1/2007 @ 7:29 am
As for OSX: Roman digits are used for ordinals (1st, 2nd, 3rd…), not cardinals (1, 2, 3..). So, very sorry, even Apple is wrong - it should be called Mac OS Tenth!
Comment by Gabriel — 11/1/2007 @ 7:37 am
As a South African, I’m glad the world didn’t Americanise or Anglicize the word Ubuntu! :) It means togetherness
Comment by aksn1p3r — 11/3/2007 @ 11:54 am
[...] read more | digg story [...]
Pingback by Top Linux News » This is How you Pronounce “Ubuntu” — 11/5/2007 @ 4:04 pm
[...] read more | digg story [...]
Pingback by This is How you Pronounce "Ubuntu" « Hot WWW News — 11/8/2007 @ 3:34 pm
[...] with it. Pronounce it correctly or don’t say it at [...]
Pingback by Linux? Bah, humbug! >> . : : STFU PLS (Marc Zephyrin's Blog) : : . — 11/12/2007 @ 5:12 pm
[...] LINKS: gmail gets imap - article colbert runs for prez - site how to properly pronounce ubuntu - article oink.cd shut down, admin arrested, later released - article turn your computer into passcracking [...]
Pingback by EPISODE 11 | changes in the show — 12/27/2007 @ 3:43 am
Don’t know if this was mentioned but what’s the big deal on how you say it? My brother and I say it one way, but our friends say it different, but all that matters is that we USE it. Isn’t that what Ubuntu is here for in the first place?
My brother and I are “you-bun-tu” guys.
We have friends that go every which way on the pronunciation.
Just my $.02 on the subject.
Comment by Andrew — 1/19/2008 @ 5:51 am
Someone just pointed this post out to me. I’m the guy mentioned in comment #2. I pronounce Ubuntu “oo-bun-tu” and I flat out don’t care if you don’t like it.
Grammar, spelling and pronunciation zealots are just as bad as operating system zealots, they don’t further the cause, they just get peoples backs up.
Comment by Alan Pope — 4/13/2008 @ 7:28 pm
I think there’s a slight flaw in the arguement: the way “oo-boon-too” is pronounced in American is still different to how it’s pronounced in English (or isiXhosa even).
Comment by bbm — 6/5/2008 @ 8:00 am