this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2025
78 points (91.5% liked)

Asklemmy

47602 readers
934 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy πŸ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I do

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I do, but that's because "now these points of data make a beautiful line, and we're out of beta, we're releasing on time."

[–] [email protected] 2 points 21 hours ago

If anyone would know how to pronounce it, it's a computer

[–] [email protected] 1 points 18 hours ago

Yes, I'm from the UK and that's just how it's said here.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've taught statistics for over 20 years. I flipflop on this constantly, sometimes in the middle of a sentence. Even more disturbing: I don't have a consistent position, at least grammatically, on whether it's singular or plural.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

It's sort of like the dual pronunciation of the word 'a' in English. While that has more distinct rules, it's still mostly which one feels nicer.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

Another one for me is "route".

edit: On further thought, it only works both ways as a synonym for a highway, if I'm talking about a path more generally the root pronunciation sounds wrong.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 2 days ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I pronounce it ta da~! , jazz hands included

[–] [email protected] 43 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I pronounce it data. Guess I thought everyone did.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Me too. Out of interest do you pronounce it 'gif' as well?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

I know it's me just being a particular asshole, but I really don't like the pronunciation data... it's honestly tiresome, problematic, and outdated. It's pronounced DATA.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Exactly what I was gonna say.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 days ago

I vacillate between the two. Really depends on the words surrounding β€œdata”.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago

I only say data the way it's said in Star Trek. Same for database.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago

I alternate between the two pronunciations depending on whatever I vibe with at the time, much like with how I spell colour/color

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

American. Day-duh.

Data: First, the two A's/vowels:

The first of two A's gets the "Aey" sound, the second gets the "Ah" sound.

Then, because I'm from California, the ah becomes uh.

Then, similarly, the "tuh" has a hard T at the beginning. But again because California/USA, the T becomes a D (British: butter ("buttah", hard t's), usa: budder(soft t's or d's))

Thus: day-duh.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago

A local radio DJ said once that if he's feeling fancy he says "Da Ta" like "ta-da!" Cracked me up way more that it should have.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I pronounce it like that, but I call the character "dah-ta"

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

One is his name, the other is not

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I know it's wrong, but it's ok right? πŸ‘‰ πŸ‘ˆ

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago

If Data had feelings, he'd be very upset right now.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago (2 children)

For his name I say data but when talking about data I say data but when I say database I say data and when I watch 1986’s Willow with Warwick Davis I say data

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

What does Willow (1986) have to do with data? Isn't it, like, a sword-and-sorcery fantasy movie?

Oh I bet there's a character with a name that sounds like the word "data".

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

You should probably watch willow. It’s not terrible. Val kilmer with a sword.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

There's a kid who calls her father dada (dadda?...sp?) throughout the movie

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago
[–] cyberpunk007 4 points 2 days ago

I use them interchangeably πŸ™ˆ

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I don’t know, because I have no idea how the Star Trek character says it…

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Nope. Definitely don't say it like that!

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It is pronounced /ˈdΓ¦tΙ™/.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Dictionaries are descriptive, not prescriptive.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Yes, i watched TNG before (and during) i learned English

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

How else are you supposed to pronounce it?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Brits pronounce it day-ta, Americans, Canadians and Australians pronounce it dah-ta. Data pronounces it Day-ta.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 22 hours ago

American with an accent that is functionally General American here: it's day-duh, the t gets flapped. Dah-ta sounds very off to my ears, if anywhere in the US pronounces it that way, it's probably one of the weirder accents from the northeast.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

American here, I can't speak for Canada, but I don't think I've ever heard any Americans in the US in real conversations say it differently than it is in Star Trek.

I've lived in nearly every major region of the US, so if there's a place where they still pronounce it like "dah-ta" it must be a very small regional thing. Normal working class people having actual conversions everywhere I've ever been say "day-ta".

I've read before that Patrick Stewart is the reason for that changing, but I don't know if that's true. Seems like an outsized influence for one guy to have on culture, but maybe!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Interesting. From some googling it looks like America is a mix of both but leaning towards day-ta, whereas the other countries are more consistently as I said.

I have a British friend who now lives in Canada and works in tech and has changed the way he says it (from day-ta to dah-ta, or really more like dah-da) for convenience. I had thought that it was an Atlantic divide but seems like there's more to it.

[–] tleb 2 points 1 day ago

I'm a software developer in Canada. I've only ever heard "day ta"

load more comments
view more: next β€Ί