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-   -   How do you pronounce "Debian" correctly? (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-general-1/how-do-you-pronounce-debian-correctly-4175693123/)

jsbjsb001 04-04-2021 11:21 AM

How do you pronounce "Debian" correctly?
 
I was watching a video about the C getopt() function yesterday and the guy in it was apparently using Debian as his OS to demonstrate getopt(). But he pronounced "Debian" in a very different way to what I thought was the correct way to pronounce "Debian", he pronounced it "deb-en" instead of "dee-bin" the way I thought was the correct way of saying it (sorry if my spelling is off there, but I'm not an English professor - particularly when it comes to different spellings for pronunciations).

So I looked it up on Google and apparently the way I pronounce it isn't correct either. I also come across this youtube video that seems to pronounce it differently again (and also pronounces "Linux" as "Line-ux", which I know is incorrect).

How do you pronounce "Debian" yourself?

shruggy 04-04-2021 12:02 PM

Well, it comes from Deb (then girlfriend, later wife of Ian Murdock) + Ian. See 1.2. Pronouncing Debian in the Brief History of Debian. It's also mentioned in the Debian System by Martin F. "madduck" Krafft.

teckk 04-04-2021 12:07 PM

I thought that it was "Dee bee an", I think it's "Deb ee an"

fatmac 04-04-2021 12:16 PM

As shruggy says, it's from the names, Deb & Ian.

jsbjsb001 04-04-2021 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shruggy (Post 6237167)
Well, it comes from Deb (then girlfriend, later wife of Ian Murdock) + Ian.
...

Yes, I already knew that - the point of the thread was to ask how people pronounce "Debian", not where the name comes from.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatmac (Post 6237173)
As shruggy says, it's from the names, Deb & Ian.

No kidding, thanks for the echo :rolleyes:

fatmac 04-05-2021 04:10 AM

As said - Deb Ian

Michael Uplawski 04-05-2021 05:20 AM

Now me ...

We should define the word “correct”. The German pronounciation, i.e. the one you encounter most of the time, has a beautiful sound (to our ears, of course) and I prefer it to Deb & Ian. Now I cannot explain it more, as I cannot find an English word with an authentic 'e' sound... :(

... that said, there are a lot of people who try to pronounce “more English” that is asked for. They say Diehbien and I cannot find that awful, either.

Maybe revive the discussion when a real problem occurs and mixups become a nuissance.

hazel 04-05-2021 05:52 AM

Slightly off-topic, but a few years ago I bought a second-hand computer for a friend. The seller brought it over and installed a hard drive for me, one from a non-working machine that I had found; he wanted to keep the original hard drive for security reasons. I booted it up from SystemRescueCD to check that the drive worked, and he was amazed. "Is that Lynux?" he asked? So I said, "No, it's Linux."

fatmac 04-05-2021 08:52 AM

Or as the man himself pronounces it 'Leenics', (as near as I can write his pronunciation in English).

Lynuks is how they quite often say it over the other side of the pond, whereas we know it's Linux...... :hattip:

DavidMcCann 04-05-2021 11:21 AM

I always say "lynux" because it's based on the name Linus and that's pronounced "lynus" in English. It's the same argument as for Debian. Why should I imitate Linus's Swedish accent? And yes, it is Swedish, not Finnish.

remmilou 04-05-2021 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidMcCann (Post 6237461)
I always say "lynux" because it's based on the name Linus and that's pronounced "lynus" in English. It's the same argument as for Debian. Why should I imitate Linus's Swedish accent? And yes, it is Swedish, not Finnish.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds : "Torvalds was born in Helsinki, Finland, on 28 December 1969..." and: "is a Finnish-American software engineer who is the creator and,..."
B.t.w. Swedish is a real language and not an accent:)

About your pronounciation argument: In the Netherlands we pronounce "Joe Biden" just the American way and not the NL way (would be something like You Beeden), because of the funny American accent.

rnturn 04-05-2021 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by teckk (Post 6237170)
I thought that it was "Dee bee an", I think it's "Deb ee an"

OK. Suggestion for the new version of the Linux Standard Base: Under /etc, include a WAV file explaining the proper pronunciation of your distribution name. It worked for Mr. Torvalds and the PostgreSQL folks... :^D

DavidMcCann 04-06-2021 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by remmilou (Post 6237522)
"Torvalds was born in Helsinki, Finland, on 28 December 1969..." and: "is a Finnish-American software engineer who is the creator and,..." B.t.w. Swedish is a real language and not an accent:)
About your pronounciation argument: In the Netherlands we pronounce "Joe Biden" just the American way and not the NL way (would be something like You Beeden), because of the funny American accent.

I know that Linus was born in Finland, but his native language is Swedish — as is the case with about 10% of the population there — and obviously he originally spoke English with a Swedish accent when he arrived in the USA. Obviously you pronounce English names in English because you learnt English at school and are fluent in it. Very few people are fluent in Swedish!

ondoho 04-06-2021 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidMcCann (Post 6237799)
Linus was born in Finland, but his native language is Swedish — as is the case with about 10% of the population there — and obviously he originally spoke English with a Swedish accent when he arrived in the USA.

I'm not so sure about that - Finns speaking Swedish natively speak Swedish with quite a different accent than actual Swedes. I always had the impression that he (used to) speak English with a decidedly Finnish accent, but I'm hardly an authority there.
Also, it's more like 5%.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Uplawski (Post 6237357)
The German pronounciation

...always reminds me of Hesse's Demian...
That said, several posts now explained what the name means, which makes the pronounciation unambiguously clear.

Bonzoo 04-06-2021 03:52 PM

Ian Murdock The Debby Lynn part was from his wife....who is a pain in dass. Debian. He was a friend of mine back in the day...... He created the best package management///original disros one could ever have.
Still #1/
Be careful if its raining. You might slide off that arch


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