🚀 go-pugleaf

jrjohns@eos.ncsu.edu (JOHN RICHARD JOHNS) writes:
>gberigan@cse.unl.edu (Life...) writes:

>>I pronounce it "sis-ops", but I don't pronounce modem "mah-deem"
>>(modulator-demodulator). :-)

>Very good.  That's because you can pronounce demodulator "dee-mod-you-late-or"
>or you can say "deh-mod-you-late-or."

Can you say "dee-mode-you-lay-tor"?

>Other examples?  When you say
>demonstration, do you say "deem-on-stray-shun"?  How about calling a
>delegation a "Dee-leh-gay-shun"?  The pronounciation of de- can vary between
>dee and deh.  System, on the other hand, I have never heard pronounced
>"Sigh-stem."

The "de" in demodulator is a prefix, whereas the "de" in the other words
you cited was merely the beginning syllable.

% webster de-

de- pf prefix [ME, fr. OF de-, des-, partly fr. L de- from, down, away
   (fr.] de) and partly fr. L dis-; L de akin to OIr di from, OE to- to - more
   at TO, DIS- 1a: do the opposite of {devitalize} 1b: reverse of
   {de-emphasis} 2: remove (a specified thing) from {delouse} : remove from (a
   specified thing) {dethrone} 3: reduce {devalue} 4: something derived from
   (a specified thing) {decompound} : derived from something (of a specified
   nature) {denominative} 5: get off of (a specified thing) {detrain}

I don't pronounce modulator "mode-you-lay-tor" either.  I don't
"mode-ih-fy" my code.  I don't assemble "moh-dels".  I'm not proposing
the "moh-der-ay-shun" of comp.binaries.apple2.

I do however use a "moh-dehm", not a "mah-deem".

>- John

Besides, "mah-deem" is too reminiscent of the movie Dune. :-)

-- gberigan@cse.unl.edu (Life...)

///   ____   \\\  "Sorry, did I say something wrong?  Pardon me for
| |/ /    \ \| |   breathing, which I never do anyway so I don't even 
 \\_|\____/|_//    know why I bother to say it oh God I'm so depressed.
     \_)\\/        Here's another one of those self-satisfied doors.
       `-'         Life... don't talk to me about life...."