Wednesday, July 13, 2011

listen and pronounce

Dear Indian IT professional[sic],
I regret to inform you that the word iteration is not pronounced as eye-te-ray-shun. The correct pronunciation is it-a-ray-shun (I could use the International Phonetic Alphabet here, but I fear that it would only confuse you). I understand that English is a very strange language: the idea is pronounced eye-di/dee-ya(a), but the word instead is pronounced ins-ted. When one wants to understand how to pronounce a given word, one could, I believe rely on a dictionary or thesaurus or just listen to other people (who, hopefully, are not stricken by this affliction as you are) talk. Saying I Traitor (see how it spells!) when you mean Iterator can only offer your listeners some reason to chuckle (or perhaps they have already been driven to apathy after hearing the likes of you talking on and on as if you had some misplaced sense of self). Until dictionaries that are regarded as standard references defer to the multitude of your ilk and accept eye-te-ray-shun as an alternative form of pronouncing iteration, please consider being gentle on the ears of your listeners while also making you a better speaker.

Thank you for your patience and time.

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