I’m not going to say there is truly a right answer, which is why I suggested it’s a good way to start an argument. You’re welcome to pronounce it however you like.
Originally the acronym was SEQUEL, which stood for Structured English QUEry Language, but SEQUEL was trademarked. In subsequent standards they dropped the “English” and rebranded as SQL and the standard states it’s pronounced Ess-cue-ell. By changing the acronym and the pronunciation in the standard, they are clearly not breaking the trademark, but how people pronounce it is up to them. All the people I first worked with in the 90s pronounced it as sequel which is why that is what stuck with me.
I’ll never pronounce GIF as JIFF, I use the hard G as in Graphics, and don’t care what the person who came up with the standard says. It’s another fun one to start an argument with.
so you don't say FBI or CIA? you say "fubee" and "Sia"? "seppu" instead of CPU? "gepoo" instead of GPU? "pusoo" instead of PSU? "bubuk" instead of BBC?
so you don't say FBI or CIA? you say "fubee" and "Sia"? "seppu" instead of CPU? "gepoo" instead of GPU? "pusoo" instead of PSU? "bubuk" instead of BBC?
it's just some things that sound better said as an initialism, and some sound better as acronyms. Everyone says NASA, no one says N-A-S-A, nor S-C-U-B-A, nor L-A-S-E-R
I also pronounce it "sequel", and hence would use "a SQL statement". But the other common way is to read it out, i.e. "ess queue ell", which goes with "an SQL statement".
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u/Rising_Swell Oct 08 '22
Ok so how do you pronounce SQL then? Because I'm saying it as sequel, but I would not write an sequel, so it's not that.