xml-dev - Re: A or An

[Rick JELLIFFE <ricko@geotempo.com>]

John Cowan wrote:

>  Although I have heard that Z, the specification formalism,
> is pronounced "zed" even in the U.S.

I remember being taught "zed" because the inventors were Brits.  

I knew a Vietnamese who learned English from a speech synthesizer
dictionary. She pronounced "SGML" as "hhe chi e'e" with different tones.
This is not to be confused with "he chi e'e" which is "HTML" .

Who was it that calls XML "Egg Smell"?  If anyone needs an X name, and
does not want to look for a Chinese, Mexican, Greek or !Xhosa word, I
suggest old episodes of Batman featuring "Egghead" might be the most
reliable source.

(The confusion of a and an is perhaps because often one sees "an hotel"
written, especially in older UK material. But the people who wrote that
would probably be pronouncing it "otel" as a French word: "an 'otel" or
"a hotel". Even now, many people who still write "an hotel" will have
almost a silent "h" when speaking, so the speech rule holds still. The
"n" is a euphonic so that things like "a aardvark" or "a anathema" will
be easier to say.)


Rick Jelliffe

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