Re: Pronunciation of tuple

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.)

 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'.

Wrong (IMO) is tup'le with the u being short.
 As evidence of where a short and long u are similarly used in English:
 super - su'per - long u
supper - supp'er - short u
 Also, supple - short u due to the double p.
 The other reason is where I believe tuple comes from. Consider groups of increasing numbers of items:
 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'.