Some people pronounce SQL as "sequel", and some as "squeal"

Programming@beehaw.org – 17 points – 1 years ago

...But I've only ever heard SSL pronounced as its three letters. Why not like "Cecil"? Or "Sizzle"?

🤔

I have never heard of someone call SQL squeal lmao, sequel or S Q L is all I have heard

I like to use the non-acronym name, so that I can say: "Structured Query Language. Or, with the JSON field type, more like UNSTRUCTURED query language!" And then I laugh like a maniac for 5 minutes while the other people in the line at Wendy's give me weird looks.

To be consistent, you should call them JavaScript Object Notation field types

How about Es-Queue-Ell?

This introduces a non-trivial increase in syllabatic inefficiencies

Well done

I'm glad this is top comment, I thought I was weird for a moment there

At this point I can’t remember if the first time I heard of SQL was in reading and I just read it as an acronym or if it was audio/visual and that’s how the person said it… Sadly, it’s a mystery I’ll never know the answer to.

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I personally pronounce it S.Q.L

I have always pronounced it spelled out. Es Qu El

Log4j is another fun one.

Log For Jay or Log Forge?

Low gaj

Germany here: In my company we pronounce every letter, so: "Eß Kjuh Äl".

I just pronounce it exactly like reading the letters individually, because I'm actually a human being.

Eye tee oh oh ell eye kay ee tee oh pee are oh en oh you en see ee ee at see aitch ell eye tee tee ee are bee ee see ay you see ee eye tee oh oh ay em ay aitch you em ay en

I'm actually a human being.

Git outta here skinbag!

I kind go 80/20 Sequel/EsQueueEl (squeal wtf?) when talking in english and "Ese Cu Ele" 100% when talking in Spanish

I second "sizzle" or "sissle." My partner pronounces API as "appy" and it's the best thing ever.

That's adorable.

We could have been updating our sizzle certificates all this time!

I mean, people call JSON jason, so i suppose sequel for SQL is alright (although, i still use Es-cue-elle). Sizzle absolutely needs to become a thing.

In French, we just pronounce it as three letters, so I was very confused at first when my English-speaking colleagues were referring to sequels of apparently nothing.

It’s always Star Wars

I'm definitely in the 'sequel' camp, but the favourite I've heard is 'squirrel'. I couldn't get behind that. I have done some stuff in spaces where 'squeal' was used, along with pig iconography being present in internal tools. 🐷

for a while I used to use a client called SQuirreL on mac

SurrealDB has Surreal QL. I abbreviate it SuQL and pronounce it "suckle," haha

The execution environment should be called "teat"

I've also heard Squirrel

I had a uni lecturer pronounce MySQL as "my squirrel"

Where does the R come from? 🤔

I also have heard Squirrel, the first time I ever heard of SQL. It was in a webinar info session for just a very superficial top-level type of understanding, really intended for nothing more than to acquaint first-tier support staff with technical terms and concepts. "SQL stands for Structured Query Language. For short, we can call it 'sequel' or 'squirrel'." (Cue stupid clip-art graphic of a buck-toothed smiling squirrel on a tree branch, holding an acorn, because what's a webinar without insipid mnemonics?) That sort of thing.

I grokked the use of 'sequel', because the letter sequence S-Q-L is exactly that word, sans vowels, and even if schwas are substituted for the vowels, the pronunciation doesn't change much.

But for 'squirrel' I had to imagine that they were taking the R from 'queRy' and injecting it to make SQL into SQrL for the sake of a cute memory device that would resonate with people who weren't expected to have any interest or investment deeper than a front-line customer service drone.

People pronounce Sql as squeal? O.o

"people"

Ever since I saw this XKCD I've called it Squill

People who use tabs after punctuation 🥲

Everything has a relevant XKCD. There's probably even an XKCD about there always being a relevant XKCD.

!devshowerthoughts (community idea?)

Some are more established than others. The one with the highest levels of agreement I've ever encountered, is SCSI, which pretty much everyone in-the-know pronounce "scuzzy".

I'm struggling to realise it's anything but scuzzy.

Since I learned it by myself and never said it out loud for 10 years, I've always pronounced SQL as "school" and I'm not going to stop.

Both pronounciations are wrong. Skvæl is the correct way to pronounce the acronym.

definitely using “sizzle” at the earliest available opportunity

I had a project manager back in 2008 who pronounced SQL "skwall." I heard "My Skwall" and "Skwall Server" so many times. We all said "S Q L." No one ever corrected him.

Skwill just to be different.

If I am going to believe random articles I found on the internet (and, of course, I am), the reason is because SQL was originally called SEQUEL until the creators ran into a trademark issue.. They changed it to SQL, but us old timers just kept calling it the old thing. Something about old dogs and new tricks.

https://medium.com/tableplus/how-to-pronounce-sql-properly-s-q-l-or-sequel-7203a5185676

To my inner mind its "seek well", but I just say the letters.

I've always pronounced it "sequel", but ever since I attended a talk by the authors of PHP and MySQL Web Programming, and they pronounced it Ess-Cue-Ell I've been second guessing myself.

What I remember attending a PHP event in ~2009 was one of the old veterans there saying:

Only Microsoft folks say "Sequel Server", we say "My S Q L"

I always pronounced it as ess-cue-ell but gave up on it when everyone in professional environments said "sequel".