Re: LaTeX (was Re: Intergermansk)

On 28 Jan 2005, at 7.00 am, Mark J. Reed wrote:

> PK = Pascal Kramm
>
> PK> Over here, I always hear it pronounced /lateks/.
>
> "here" = Germany, yes?  Outside of poor ignorant fools who pronounce
> "LaTeX" as if it were the word "latex" (i.e. /'lej.tEks/ vel sim)
> until
> properly edjumacated, the usual Americanized pronunciations of
> TeX and LaTeX are /tEk/ and /la'tEk/.  Some folks do pronounce the
> /x/, but
> most substitute a /k/.
You really stress the second syllable? (I'm not sure if I can do that
without the first vowel reducing to /@/, then it sounds frenchish:
leteque.*) I've always said /"la:tek/.

* This may not reflect how French would say that word, only how I
perceive it, hence the -ish.

>> TeX is correctly written {T}{subscript-E}{X} (lower case {e} is the
>> preferred substitution in ASCII), and pronounced /tex/. AFAICT, LaTeX
>> should be written and pronounced accordingly.
>
> Yes, though note that the 'a' is not subscripted like the 'e' when
> LaTeX
> is properly typeset.
No, it's superscripted instead, sitting in the L's space (one
letter---must be the shortest library there is!**).

** Terry Pratchett/Discworld reference.

--
Tristan.

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