• bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Well thats the thing, generally if I see an acronym and have to ask myself how it would be pronounced as a word, by my rule I just spell it out.

    For a great example of this (unrelated to FOSS), look at LGBTQIA+. Even though it’s a mouthful to say each letter individually, no one wrestles it into “Leguhbuht’kwia plus”, it just doesn’t make sense and saying it that way would probably ellicit a dead stare from whoever heard it. Unless it’s painfully simple to morph into a word or single syllable, I don’t bother.

    I’m not trying to say this is the right way, mind you. It’s just the way that makes the most sense to me.

    • Melmi@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      7 months ago

      Except GNU is a great example of an acronym that is pronounceable. It’s even in the dictionary. The GNU mascot is a gnu, in fact.

      LGBTQIA+ is essentially unpronounceable, thus we treat it as an initialism. Not that that’s a requirement, there are examples like VIP where even though we could pronounce it we pronounce each letter individually.

      • aulin@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        there are examples like VIP where even though we could pronounce it we pronounce each letter individually.

        This always seemed a bit weird to me. In Sweden we do pronounce that as a word. Vipp.