5 ms·

So pretty much between Saturn and Uranus.... Even as an adult that still always makes me chuckle. I can't help it.

edgyquant 5y ago
It’s pronounced your-uh-ness by pretty much everyone (or your-ah-noose if your going by the greek god and not the Latin copy/paste.)
- SonnyTark 5y ago
  in Arabic (and a bunch of other languages I'm sure) it's pronounced: Oranos, I don't understand why the U in Uranus is not pronounced like the U in Ultra.
  - grishka 5y ago
    In Russian it's simply "Ooran".
  - project2501a 5y ago
    Cuz in Greek (my mother language), we pronounce "Ουρανός" as "Ouranos".
    - Koshkin 5y ago
      > ”Our Good to know, I guess...
  - jazzyjackson 5y ago
    A shot in the dark but I think there’s a lot of “ult”s in English but not many “ura”s Uranium and Urine
- op00to 5y ago
  Nope. I say your-anus.
  - edgyquant 5y ago
    You might but that is an incorrect pronunciation and the only time I’ve heard that (other than from people who aren’t into astronomy) was in elementary school and even then the teacher told us it was a common, but wrong, pronunciation.
    - earthboundkid 5y ago
      A thread of people discussing pronunciations without saying where they are from or using IPA is a pointless waste of time. You may as well be talking about what time it is by posting “well, it’s dark here!”
      - retsibsi 5y ago
        Location/accent is important, but sometimes we can get by without IPA. There will be some ambiguity, but often we're sufficiently familiar with each other's accents to interpret phonetic spellings as intended. (Though I do think the ə symbol is indispensable, because representing the schwa sound with 'uh' is just confusing.) edit: sorry, just realised I probably misread you (as saying we should say where we're from and use IPA), in which case this comment is redundant.
      - edgyquant 5y ago
        It doesn’t really matter where you’re from. If you pronounce Uranus as your-anus you are pronouncing it wrong.
        252452d 5y ago
        Not how language works dude.
        deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
        op00to 5y ago
        Your-anus! Ahh! Take that!
- TameAntelope 5y ago
  I prefer to call it the Georgium Sidus!
- grawprog 5y ago
  Leave it to HN to explain grammar, some history and a bit of etymology in response to a childish joke comment. And, that's why this place is great.
  - hn_throwaway_99 5y ago
    Hope I can contribute, because this is actually very interesting. According to this [1], the most common American pronunciation was closer to "Your anus" (accent on the A in anus) until 1986, when a space probe was flying by and news casters thought weeks of that would get too "giggly", so they deliberately started pronouncing it "Urine us" (accent on the first syllable). [1] https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/content/story/anus-urine-us-rebranding-uranus https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/content/story/anus-urine-us-...
    - grawprog 5y ago
      Thank you. That was amusing to read and I never actually realized there was so much about the pronunciation, I've heard a few different ones. but I always took it for regional dialect differences not something done intentionally. I may have sounded sarcastic, but I was genuinely serious, I really do enjoy the interesting factoids spawned by sometimes the most innocuous comments on HN. HN really does have a lot of people knowledgeable about a huge range of things.
- throwawaaarrgh 5y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQTKGXmITZg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQTKGXmITZg This just sounds like "urine us". Potato, potato?
  - sp332 5y ago
    https://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy/2003/02/18 https://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy/2003/02/18
- retsibsi 5y ago
  I think "pretty much everyone" is an exaggeration. Google's pronunciations (British and US) are both the 'anus' version -- though the British one has a secondary stress on the first syllable, rather than the schwa of the US version. Growing up in Australia, the British 'you-ray-nəs' (i.e. not quite 'your anus', but only because of the first vowel sound) is the pronunciation I was familiar with. Lately I've heard 'you-rə-nəs' fairly often, but not exclusively.
- jhgb 5y ago
  > or your-ah-noose if your going by the greek god I doubt that Οὐρανός is pronounced anywhere close to "your-ah-noose", unless you're pronouncing "your-ah-noose" in a very strange way.

It’s pronounced your-uh-ness by pretty much everyone (or your-ah-noose if your going by the greek god and not the Latin copy/paste.)

SonnyTark 5y ago
in Arabic (and a bunch of other languages I'm sure) it's pronounced: Oranos, I don't understand why the U in Uranus is not pronounced like the U in Ultra.
- grishka 5y ago
  In Russian it's simply "Ooran".
- project2501a 5y ago
  Cuz in Greek (my mother language), we pronounce "Ουρανός" as "Ouranos".
  - Koshkin 5y ago
    > ”Our Good to know, I guess...
- jazzyjackson 5y ago
  A shot in the dark but I think there’s a lot of “ult”s in English but not many “ura”s Uranium and Urine
op00to 5y ago
Nope. I say your-anus.
- edgyquant 5y ago
  You might but that is an incorrect pronunciation and the only time I’ve heard that (other than from people who aren’t into astronomy) was in elementary school and even then the teacher told us it was a common, but wrong, pronunciation.
  - earthboundkid 5y ago
    A thread of people discussing pronunciations without saying where they are from or using IPA is a pointless waste of time. You may as well be talking about what time it is by posting “well, it’s dark here!”
    - retsibsi 5y ago
      Location/accent is important, but sometimes we can get by without IPA. There will be some ambiguity, but often we're sufficiently familiar with each other's accents to interpret phonetic spellings as intended. (Though I do think the ə symbol is indispensable, because representing the schwa sound with 'uh' is just confusing.) edit: sorry, just realised I probably misread you (as saying we should say where we're from and use IPA), in which case this comment is redundant.
    - edgyquant 5y ago
      It doesn’t really matter where you’re from. If you pronounce Uranus as your-anus you are pronouncing it wrong.
      - 252452d 5y ago
        Not how language works dude.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
      - op00to 5y ago
        Your-anus! Ahh! Take that!
TameAntelope 5y ago
I prefer to call it the Georgium Sidus!
grawprog 5y ago
Leave it to HN to explain grammar, some history and a bit of etymology in response to a childish joke comment. And, that's why this place is great.
- hn_throwaway_99 5y ago
  Hope I can contribute, because this is actually very interesting. According to this [1], the most common American pronunciation was closer to "Your anus" (accent on the A in anus) until 1986, when a space probe was flying by and news casters thought weeks of that would get too "giggly", so they deliberately started pronouncing it "Urine us" (accent on the first syllable). [1] https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/content/story/anus-urine-us-rebranding-uranus https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/content/story/anus-urine-us-...
  - grawprog 5y ago
    Thank you. That was amusing to read and I never actually realized there was so much about the pronunciation, I've heard a few different ones. but I always took it for regional dialect differences not something done intentionally. I may have sounded sarcastic, but I was genuinely serious, I really do enjoy the interesting factoids spawned by sometimes the most innocuous comments on HN. HN really does have a lot of people knowledgeable about a huge range of things.
throwawaaarrgh 5y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQTKGXmITZg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQTKGXmITZg This just sounds like "urine us". Potato, potato?
- sp332 5y ago
  https://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy/2003/02/18 https://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy/2003/02/18
retsibsi 5y ago
I think "pretty much everyone" is an exaggeration. Google's pronunciations (British and US) are both the 'anus' version -- though the British one has a secondary stress on the first syllable, rather than the schwa of the US version. Growing up in Australia, the British 'you-ray-nəs' (i.e. not quite 'your anus', but only because of the first vowel sound) is the pronunciation I was familiar with. Lately I've heard 'you-rə-nəs' fairly often, but not exclusively.
jhgb 5y ago
> or your-ah-noose if your going by the greek god I doubt that Οὐρανός is pronounced anywhere close to "your-ah-noose", unless you're pronouncing "your-ah-noose" in a very strange way.