Is there some hidden pronounciation rule I'm not aware of? And why do we say F.B.I and not FBI or U.S.B and not USB ?

I know it seems a really silly question seeing the actual situation with the ICE eveywhere on the news... But this really bothers me on why people yell ICE when it's actually the I.C.E :/.

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[–] 10 points 9 months ago (9 children)

Acronyms vs Initialisms

No one is going to try pronounce Fbi, it’s awkward.

There are terms that bridge the Acronym/Initialism divide. SQL-Sequel, URL-Earl and GUI-Gooey are some that come up fairly regularly in my line of work.

The bottom line is; Language is used to communicate concepts. We are lazy and do it as efficiently as we can get away with. The rules have changed a LOT to get us where we are today. It would be blind hubris to think the change will stop just because we don’t like it.

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  • [–] [S] 6 points 9 months ago (6 children)

    Funny enough... I do say S.Q.L or U.R.L 😅

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago

    SQL, back in 2015, officially transitioned from being pronounced Sequel to being pronounced EssQueueEll.

    I still call it Sequel.

    Then again, I say U R L, but also pronounce URI as Yuri. I also say L O L instead of Loll and I R L instead of Earl.

    And then there’s mixed acronyms like Jaypeg and Empeg.

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