When in doubt, just say the letters individually. I think that is the most likely way to be understood, even if the listener thinks of the acronym in a different way. If the conversation entails repeated use of the acronym, a mutually intelligible pronunciation will quickly emerge .
gee yoo aye dee
Same here. LASER, RADAR, and SCUBA all get a pass because they were acronyms before it was cool to be one. I can't stand the forced pronunciation of things like SATA, GUI, and GIF.
Not a winner
Admittedly, I do not work in an industry centered around laziness, so maybe my response of taking a few extra seconds to sound out each letter is misguided through lack of use or lack of laziness.
I admit to not having any desire to say "Sequel" when referring to SQL... I'll say "es cue el"
That's one that is just awkward to actually say it should be spoken as if a word.
That, however, is not something you'll find me arguing when we speak of SATA, GUI, and GIF.
I can see the argument against GUI, and if I had not been introduced to "gooey" at such an early age, I probably would have revolted as well. It's not a laziness factor, imho, rather a situation where it just makes sense.
Honestly, that stupid cop show turned me off of "gooey" and any derivatives of it. The boon/bane of language is that it is not static, and merely serves as a tool to convey ideas. This can send us down to humanity's intrinsic tribal nature and preferring to associate with people that use the same language as we do, to be corrective/idle neutral towards it, or to associate people who use language different from us to be bad.
I concede that a lot of acronyms are begging for butchered pronunciations because of convenient placement of vowels, and they are correct depending on who you are talking to.
I am a big fan of y'all, and while it is not really a true contraction, it is commonly used in large parts of the English-speaking USA.
I'll say "y'all" till the day I die, I reckon.
Not really common in Ohio at all, but the further South you go from here, the more it is heard. I've had people ask where I was from because of it... I laugh and have been known to say, "born and raised right here."
It was originally called SEQUEL, so it's not entirely wrong, when referring to SQL in general.I admit to not having any desire to say "Sequel" when referring to SQL... I'll say "es cue el"
That's one that is just awkward to actually say it should be spoken as if a word.
I've never understood why people assume that initialisms are *always* meant to be pronounced.
I remember people in my A+ certification classes trying to pronounce IDE and PCI.
Why not CPU? HDD?