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From: gvcormack@watdragon.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Pronunciation of 'char'
Message-ID: <3753@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Date: Sun, 11-Oct-87 22:58:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: watdrago.3753
Posted: Sun Oct 11 22:58:14 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 13-Oct-87 01:03:18 EDT
References: <none> <4575@cae780.TEK.COM> <516@devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 19
Keywords: C language pronunciation
Xref: utgpu comp.lang.c:4588 comp.lang.misc:692

In article <516@devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>, rich@devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Richard Pettit) writes:
> 
> I vote for "care", as in the first syllable of "character", because
> that's what it is, a "care"acter.

I missed the smiley face on this.  At least in my country, the "a"
sound in "character" is like the a in "hat", which is significantly
different from the "a" in "care".  Of course, I haven't made an 
exhaustive study of all U.S. dialects, but my American dictionary 
agrees with me.

"Char" is already a perfectly good word, and I think the pronunciation
should be taken from that word.  It is extremely rare to have words
that are spelled the same that aren't homonyms (examples of such
words might be an interesting spinoff discussion).
-- 
Gordon V. Cormack     CS Dept, University of Waterloo, Canada N2L 3G1
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