Path: ...!weretis.net!feeder9.news.weretis.net!2.eu.feeder.erje.net!feeder.erje.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: James Harris <james.harris.1@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Pronunciation of tuple
Date: Sun, 18 Aug 2024 17:55:32 +0100
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 95
Message-ID: <v9t924$2eiop$3@dont-email.me>
References: <v9la7n$10qjj$1@dont-email.me> <v9lhqb$11un6$1@dont-email.me>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Injection-Date: Sun, 18 Aug 2024 18:55:32 +0200 (CEST)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="3c5733281cf07bed0c232598da3232b1";
	logging-data="2575129"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX191yJEKuFIzP4xe8bTgfIB2/7PmtFe3lZk="
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird
Cancel-Lock: sha1:/bONMz2PpqdcCjAuiYT/BDqotak=
In-Reply-To: <v9lhqb$11un6$1@dont-email.me>
Content-Language: en-GB
Bytes: 3802

On 15/08/2024 19:35, Bart wrote:
> On 15/08/2024 17:26, James Harris wrote:
>> The term "tuple" appears a fair bit in programming but its 
>> pronunciation is a source of some controversy.
>>
>>
>> How do you pronounce "tuple"?
> 
> I don't think I've ever had to say it out loud!
> 
> Working in isolation for some many years, there are probably lots of 
> terms and names that I don't know the pronounciation of. Sometimes a 
> youtube lecture is the first time I hear a technical term spoken aloud.
> 
> (However, I prefer to say 'giga' as though it starts with 'j', even 
> though most say it the other way.)

You and Doc Brown. :-)

So you might have a certain number of jigs of memory? :-o

> 
>>
>> Like me, are you irritated when people pronounce it 'the wrong way'?
>>
>> How can fellow programmers be persuaded to pronounce it 'properly'?
>>
>>
>> Correct (IMO) is tu'ple with the first syllable ending in a long u.
>>
> 
> That sounds about right and how I'd guess it should be said.
> 
> But I typed it into Google Translate, told it to say it, and its 
> pronounciation was 'tupple'.

That's weird.

AIUI Wiktionary allows for both pronunciations, 'tuple' first, then 
'tupple' - if the order is meant to mean anything.

  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tuple

It's disappointing that there's so obvious a difference of opinion among 
people such as programmers as I was planning to use tuples (tu'ples) and 
to call them such. But the dichotomy of pronunciations would make 
interacting with other programmers unnecessarily irritating. I may have 
to fall back on the more generic term "group" or suchlike.

....

>> 0 - void
>> 1 - single
>> 2 - pair
>> 3 - triple
>> 4 - quadruple
>> 5 - quintuple
>> 6 - sextuple
>> 7 - septuple
>> 8 - octuple
>>
>> etc, where the higher numbers end in "tuple".
>>
>> leading to
>>
>> n - n-tuple
>>
>> I would say that the latter ones of those above, 4 to 8, are 
>> pronounced with a long u which is, therefore, why there should be a 
>> long u in tuple.
>>
>> Perhaps people who pronounce it tupple grew up reading comics about 
>> supperman. ;-)
> 
> 
> 'quintuplet' sounds correct with a short 'u' and weird with a long 'u'.

That sounds correct to me. Contrast it with the spelling 'quintupplet' 
which looks wrong: the u looks automatically short in quintuplet and so 
doesn't need the second p to shorten it.

English is often awkward but as a native English speaker I would 
naturally read

   quin.tu'ple  (long u)
   quin.tup'let (short u)

And, again as a native English speaker, tu'ple would need a doubled-up p 
to make the u short.


-- 
James Harris