kEElometers, not kilOmeters
Bob Hammarberg
syllable. Or, for the sake of consistency, say millImeters and centImeters,
too! (on second thought, please don't)
But what about thermOmeter, micrOmeter, speedOmeter, etc, you say? These
are tools, instruments, implements, not measures - that's the difference!
Think metric, speak metric!!
Bob H
Charles Geyer
Why?
Some committee decided just a few years ago that the SI way to pronounce
kilometer (to be consistent with kilosecond, kilogram, kilokelvin, etc.)
is with the stress on the first and third syllables.
Why should anyone else pay them any heed?
--
Charles Geyer
School of Statistics
University of Minnesota
cha...@umnstat.stat.umn.edu
John Coughlin
>Why?
>Some committee decided just a few years ago that the SI way to pronounce
>kilometer (to be consistent with kilosecond, kilogram, kilokelvin, etc.)
>is with the stress on the first and third syllables.
>Why should anyone else pay them any heed?
Not just _some_ committee, the ISO. The pronunciation, like the spelling
and use and combination of the symbols, is part of the standard. If one
is to follow the standard, follow _all_ of it.
There is a rule specifically stating that a prefix has exactly one pro-
nunciation, even when combined with a unit to form a compound word.
Bob Shair
>>Some committee decided just a few years ago that the SI way to pronounce
>>kilometer (to be consistent with kilosecond, kilogram, kilokelvin, etc.)
>>is with the stress on the first and third syllables.
>
>>Why should anyone else pay them any heed?
>
>Not just _some_ committee, the ISO. The pronunciation, like the spelling
>and use and combination of the symbols, is part of the standard. If one
>is to follow the standard, follow _all_ of it.
>
>There is a rule specifically stating that a prefix has exactly one pro-
>nunciation, even when combined with a unit to form a compound word.
May I point out that there are also rules of English pronunciation,
unclear as they may seem to many, and that the ISO doesn't regulate
them. If we wish the metric system to become an actual, used part
of American culture, as I do, trying to impose unnatural pronunciations
is NOT a good way to make it happen.
I suggest that kilometers be pronounced "klicks".
--
Bob Shair sh...@chgvmic1.vnet.ibm.com
Scientific Computing Specialist SHAIR@UIUCVMD (bitnet)
IBM Champaign
Bob Hammarberg
>unclear as they may seem to many, and that the ISO doesn't regulate
>them. If we wish the metric system to become an actual, used part
>of American culture, as I do, trying to impose unnatural pronunciations
>is NOT a good way to make it happen.
>I suggest that kilometers be pronounced "klicks".
>--
What's so *unnatural* about kIlometers? It sounds perfectly natural to me!
You're right, tho, about committees imposing prounciations and spellings.
But isn't the whole purpose of this group to argue about such impositions.
When you really get down to the facts of the matter, language does not exist
outside the human brain, and thus questions of right and wrong cannot be
adjudicated except with reference to that brain. (Now there's something we
could really start a discussion about!)
David F. Skoll
(Bob Shair) writes:
[...]
>I suggest that kilometers be pronounced "klicks".
I believe that the ISO standard specifies that "kilometre" be spelled
kilometRE rather than kilometER. I think the same goes for litre.
But that's a horse of a different color... er, colour. :-)
--
David F. Skoll
JOSEPH T CHEW
>and use and combination of the symbols, is part of the standard.
There was a great Gary Larson cartoon of a fishing rod being dragged
behind a submarine.
--Joe
"Just another personal opinion from the People's Republic of Berkeley"
Charles Geyer
Yes, I know the rule and even stated it.
My question still stands, though. Who elected the ISO to tell us how to
speak English?
Perhaps you mean the ISO were elected to help us with our technobabble?
There are still areas of physics where SI units are not universal. Give
the rest of us a break.
Peter Moylan
(Bob Hammarberg) writes:
> Please help stamp out the pronunciation 'kilOmeter', with stress in the 2nd
> syllable. Or, for the sake of consistency, say millImeters and centImeters,
> too! (on second thought, please don't)
No, there are two separate words here.
A kilometre (stress on first syllable) is a thousand metres.
A kilometer (stress on second syllable) is a device for measuring kills.
--
Peter Moylan ee...@wombat.newcastle.edu.au
All opinions expressed here are my own. Any similarity between my
opinions and those of another person is a sign that the other person
is exceptionally perceptive.
Bob Hammarberg
>No, there are two separate words here.
> A kilometre (stress on first syllable) is a thousand metres.
> A kilometer (stress on second syllable) is a device for measuring kills.
That's it! Then a mIcrometer is a meter that's lacking a few cEntimeters (a
yard?), a bArometer is under pressure, and a thErmometer is a hot platinum
rod in Paris....
James Hall
>them. If we wish the metric system to become an actual, used part
>of American culture, as I do, trying to impose unnatural pronunciations
>is NOT a good way to make it happen.
>
Where did the word "klick" come from anyway, and what does it mean?
It sounds like a _very_ unnatural pronunciation and word to me.
"I am the sea of permutation, I live beyond interpretation." - Brian Eno
------------
R.J. Hall rjh...@cie.uoregon.edu
"People of Earth, your attention please!" - Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz
"Doctor Who?" - Sam Beckett "Gobble." - Crow T. Robot
"Mr. LaForge, my reputation as a litigator, not to mention my immortal soul,
are in serious jeopardy." - Captain Jean-Luc Picard
"If you're wondering how he eats and breathes and other science facts..."-MST3K
DISCLAIMER: "It means what it is." - Prisoner
"Klingon proverb, eh? Thanks, I'll remember that!" - Khan to Worf, Back to the
Future Part III: The Next Generation
Jon Saxton
then so be it just so long as they actually USE kilometres instead of just
mispronouncing them.
Of course I expect them to pronounce cm as cenTIMeter and kg as k'LOGr'm
and ml as m'LIL't' too, just to be consistent ... :-)
--
===========================================
MSDOS on a '386 is a waste of good silicon.
Jon Saxton - j...@panix.com
Bob Hammarberg
>Where did the word "klick" come from anyway, and what does it mean?
>It sounds like a _very_ unnatural pronunciation and word to me.
It is, I believe, a US Armed Forces term that got into the mainstream during
the Vietnam war.
Wild guess: you see the kilometers "click" by on the odometer????? The
spelling with a 'k' from 'kilo'.
im not smart
yall are both wrong. instead of using kilometers, you should be using the superior form of measurement, tables. also, keelometers just sounds dumb. pronounce it like this (ki-lo-me-ter)
Athel Cornish-Bowden
--
athel
Peter T. Daniels
February 14, 1992.
He noted something that didn't come up the other day:
"No, there are two separate words here.
"A kilometre (stress on first syllable) is a thousand metres.
"A kilometer (stress on second syllable) is a device for measuring kills."
Chrysi Cat
The "o", to me, would be about as _un_stressed as English syllables can
come.
But then I would either prounounce the "kil" as "keel" or the "o" as
"ah" in the SI derived unit anyway (but never both at once).
--
Chrysi Cat
1/2 anthrocat, nearly 1/2 anthrofox, all magical
Transgoddess, quick to anger.
Call me Chrysi or call me Kat, I'll respond to either!
Peter Moylan
>> It's also about the opposite of the way I would stress
>> "Kill-o-meter". The "o", to me, would be about as _un_stressed as
>> English syllables can come.
follow the pattern established by thermometer, barometer, hygrometer,
etc. If you removed the hyphens the stress would change.
> If we now restrict ourselves to American English, we can say that it
> is remarkable how the stress pattern of the prefix "kilo-" differs
> between the two words "kilogram" and "kilometer".
You can of course view this as a difference between BrE and AmE, but I
interpret it differently. It's a difference between those who are used
to SI units and those who aren't.
--
Peter Moylan Newcastle, NSW
Mark Brader
>> is remarkable how the stress pattern of the prefix "kilo-" differs
>> between the two words "kilogram" and "kilometer".
> interpret it differently. It's a difference between those who are used
> to SI units and those who aren't.
like "thermometer" is an *improvement*, and those who don't.
--
Mark Brader "You have a truly warped mind.
Toronto I admire that in a person."
m...@vex.net -- Bill Davidsen
Peter Moylan
> Stefan Ram:
>>> If we now restrict ourselves to American English, we can say that
>>> it is remarkable how the stress pattern of the prefix "kilo-"
>>> differs between the two words "kilogram" and "kilometer".
>
> Peter Moylan:
>> You can of course view this as a difference between BrE and AmE,
>> but I interpret it differently. It's a difference between those who
>> are used to SI units and those who aren't.
>
> Or it's a different between those who think that accenting
> "kilometer" like "thermometer" is an *improvement*, and those who
> don't.
"millimeter" should rhyme with it.
Peter T. Daniels
that happens not to be needed here), how do you know what you're talking
about when you're using "kilo"?
Peter T. Daniels
the way the "kilo-" variation does?
Peter Moylan
usage in other countries, though, we would normally assume "kilogram".
(Which doesn't have second-syllable stress.)
Mark Brader
> > Or it's a differen[ce] between those who think that accenting
> > don't.
> "millimeter" should rhyme with it.
The reason it's an improvement is that this sort of thing *isn't*
done with other metric units.
--
Mark Brader | "Go have a life -- but I'm telling you right now,
Toronto | you will be bored sick. Life is overrated."
m...@vex.net | --Will Gardner (Robert & Michelle King)
Snidely
I remember watching the moon landings, and once the LRV was introduced,
the instantaneous speed of the rover was described in "klicks" rather
than saying either "ki lom eters per hour" or "key low meters per
hour" or even "k'low meters per hour".
(Despite the thread title, Usanians rarely use kee with lom)
/dps
--
Killing a mouse was hardly a Nobel Prize-worthy exercise, and Lawrence
went apopleptic when he learned a lousy rodent had peed away all his
precious heavy water.
_The Disappearing Spoon_, Sam Kean
Percival P. Cassidy
> (Despite the thread title, Usanians rarely use kee with lom)
Perce