this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2025
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Science Memes

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[โ€“] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 0 points 5 days ago (2 children)

The k-sound is used when the chi is prefixed in front of certain vowels. The ch-sound is the truly correct pronunciation here, there's no history involved for that.

Knuth, the guy who coined it, also says the ch-sound is the correct one, though he also says the k-sound is also acceptable. As long as you do not use the ks-sound at least :)

[โ€“] lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Are you saying that the historical pronunciation is irrelevant or are you denying language change?

The historical pronunciation of this letter is irrelevant because it's a modern word with a modern pronunciation.

[โ€“] froh42@lemmy.world 0 points 5 days ago

Knuth is the perfect nerd, publishing a package where people are still discussing how to pronounce its name close to 50 years after.