OK, I know this is a piddly thing, but it drives me nutz. I also know I'm definitely in the minority with my issue. In fact, I'm the only person I know who has a problem with this. Being the only person obsessed with this doesn't make it any easier for me to ignore it.
So what is it? It is the word "data," or more accurately, it is how people pronounce it. Whatever happened to phonetics? Do the rules of phonetics go out the window because it is a techie term? Two vowels separated by a single consonant makes the first vowel "long." Therefore, the word is pronounced "day-tuh," not "dah-tuh." I understand the rules of English phonetics don't apply to words in other languages. For instance, in Spanish "Baca" is pronounced "Bah-cah." If it were English, it would be "Bay-cah." But "data" isn't a foreign language (techies can't make it a language of its own, one word all by itself!!!) regardless of how the majority of our society pronounces it, "dah-tuh."
da⋅ta
(dā'tə, dāt'ə, dä'tə)
Pronunciation [dey-tuh, dat-uh, dah-tuh]
–noun
1. a pl. of datum.
2. (used with a plural verb) individual facts, statistics, or items of information: These data represent the results of our analyses. Data are entered by terminal for immediate processing by the computer.
3. (used with a singular verb) a body of facts; information: Additional data is available from the president of the firm.
Notice that the first, preferred pronunciation is "dey-tah." Long "A," then short "A."
It seems that people would/should have caught on during the years that Star Trek: Next Generation ran on TV, and the android who bore the name "Data," was quite clear about the pronunciation .... Dey-tuh! Hello??? Did no one get it???
Alright, I'll quit ranting. Sorry 'bout that. But would you all please be kind enough to remember that it is dey-tuh?
All that because I heard the word mispronounced on the morning news. What a way to start the week, eh? LOL!
I'm going to get out of bed and see if I can find anything else to gripe about. ;D
I know what you mean about pronounciation. I have not heard data being pronounced wrong but when the president of the United States and Sarah Palin pronounces nuclear wrong I cringe and want to go through the TV and smack them senseless!!! They of all people should know or at least their handlers should tell the how to pronounce words correctly.
ReplyDeleteDaisy, really? You hear people pronouncing it right?? Geez, Maybe I should move to NJ!! Everywhere I've been, I've always heard people using the nasal pronunciation of it.
ReplyDeleteAs for Bush and Palin .... yeah, if you're in charge or want to be in charge of "nukleer" weapons, you should at least pronounce it right.
Lynilu- I've never really thought about that one. If incorrect pronouncation drives you crazy, you don't want to meet Cowboy. But then again, he can't hear well so for all I know he's just saying what he hears.
ReplyDeleteMJ, hmmmm. Well, I think I'm not mean about it, but certain words just drive me crazy.
ReplyDeleteI get it!! And I was thinking of the android when I started reading this. lol.
ReplyDeleteEnglish is one of the most difficult foreign languages to learn because it's so inconsistent. Silly us.
Jen, you're right, English is very difficult. And I can forgive errors here and there, even though they bug me. However, things like this are just nuts, because if you grew up in the US, there are some very basic rules of pronunciation like this one that you have to be a bit of a dunderhead to not "get." And this one is so wide spread!
ReplyDelete