this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2023
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 8 months ago (5 children)

Except it doesn't in Finnish, where Linus Torvald is from. Linus and Linux is pronounced the same except for the final consonant.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 8 months ago (3 children)

So his name is really Lin-us and not Line-us?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I believe I saw a youtube clip of him saying his name and Linux that way, yes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

"Hello, this is Linus Torvalds and I pronounce 'Linux' as 'Linux'."

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Yes.

Source: I'm Norwegian but I used to know an irate IT finn named Linus. A separate irate IT finn named Linus, that is.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I think it would be Line-us and Line-ux.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

No. The Li sound is pronounced the same as in Lift or Lint and not Line.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Interesting! Thanks for explaining. Mine was a guess at best.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Finnish definitely does not use that pronunciation

[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I'm Italian and I pronounce both "i"s in the same way. Why is English so strange?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

In this particular instance, the Great Vowel Shift is to blame. What caused that is up for debate.

In general, English is so strange because it's a mongrel language, incorporating words from a variety of other different languages.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Hey, we pronounce both the same, too. Sorry English, that's on you and you alone.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Uh huh

And how would you pronounce it compared to a German?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

The I as in "free", but shorter (not drawn out) and the u as in "urban", maybe? It's hard to find English words where they make the french U sound, but it's pronounced the same pretty much all the time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

"Hello, this is Linus Torvalds and I pronounce 'Linux' as 'Linux'."

So yeah, he pronounces 'Linus' like 'LEE-noose', and 'Linux' like 'LEE-nooks'. (Roughly, anyway. It should get the point across for most English speakers, I'm not at a computer to do a more-correct IPA transcription right now.)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

"Hello, this is Linus Torvalds and I pronounce 'Linux' as 'Linux'."

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Correction: Even though he's Finnish, his primary language is Swedish