[texhax] What is???

Benjamin Deutsch Benjamin.Deutsch at informatik.uni-erlangen.de
Wed Nov 10 09:58:15 CET 2004


> [...]
> in the book, don says it's derived from greek chi (which looks like an
> x); chi has a variously gutteral sound in greek pronunciation, but don
> characterises it by comparison with various nordic languages, and with
> the celtic "ch" sound in loch.
>
> [...]
>
> while some people do insist on saying latex as if it were an english
> word, most make the gutteral sound at the end, though there's a
> significant minority who use a soft "ch" sound.  (michel goossens does
> that, for example.  he wouldn't, i imagine, if he came from north
> holland, but he's a belgian fleming.)

Don also compares the sound to the German "ach", if I recall correctly. 
However, though the German language has both the gutteral ("ach") and the 
'soft "ch sound' ("ich"), there are very hard linguistic rules about their 
use, depending on the preceding vowel:

A "ch" after an "i" or "e" is always soft ("ich", "Pech"), and a "ch" after an 
"a", "o" or "u" is always gutteral ("Bach", "Koch", "Tuch") The Umlauts "ä" 
"ö" and "ü" affect the "ch" like the first group, too ("Bäche", "Köche", 
"Tücher").

So despite the "TeX -> ach" ruling, all German users will always pronounce TeX 
and LaTeX with a soft "ch". I'm not as familiar with Flemish, but I can 
imagine similar rules exist, making it "unnatural" to use a gutteral "ch" 
there.

Greetings,

  Benjamin Deutsch



More information about the texhax mailing list