• corvi@lemmy.zip
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    3 days ago

    I guess I’m one of them. I’ve never used LaTeX, but I don’t know how else I’d pronounce that.

    • piranhaconda@mander.xyz
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      3 days ago

      Lay-tech or Lah-tech is how I’ve been told it’s pronounced, don’t ask which one is correct, I don’t know

        • bss03@infosec.pub
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          2 days ago

          It’s “Lay” because it’s borrowed from / referencing “lay person” i.e. not a member of the (TeX) priesthood.

      • Droggelbecher@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        The last sound being one that afaik doesn’t exist in English. It’s like the j in jalapeño but waaay guttural. It’s the Greek letter χ.

    • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      The tex there has the Greek letter chi instead of Latin x at the end and is supposed to be reminiscent of a Greek root from which we derived the word technique: techne or τέχνη. The tex there is just pronounced tech usually. The original intention I believe was for it to sound like the ch in loch or bach but that sound isn’t seen in modern English(generally even in the examples I gave). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_uvular_fricative

      For all the star Trek nerds: that’s close to what the Klingon word gagh ends with. Gagh has a voiced uvular fricative, so just do the same without voice and just air and you’ll get chi.

      • matiamas@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Not to be too pedantic, the modern Greek chi is a voiceless velar fricative (or in some cases a voiceless palatal fricative) rather than uvular. The velar location is the same place English pronounces the letter k, uvular is a bit further back, more like the French r. It’s a little confusing because the IPA uses the chi symbol for the voiceless uvular fricative even though Greek doesn’t pronounce it that way. In Klingon, the voiceless velar fricative is written as H (I believe gh is a voiced velar fricative rather than uvular as well). I think the uvular consonants are q and Q. Apologies if my pedantry was unwelcome

      • 0x0@lemmy.zip
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        3 days ago

        Uvular fricative somehow reminds me of friction of the vulva.
        They’re nor related, are they?

    • rImITywR@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      The ‘X’ at the end of \LaTeX is actually a uppercase chi, so it pronounced with a ‘k’ sound.

      • Kay Ohtie@pawb.social
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        3 days ago

        That’s how you can tell if someone is into latex (kink), they don’t feel comfortable calling LaTeX (tech) by the same pronunciation around people.