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it's a CVCVC word that most people can pronounce and the primary author likes for whatever reason. it's completely fine.
by jcahill 4y ago
it's a CVCVC word that most people can pronounce and the primary author likes for whatever reason. it's completely fine.
- skc 4y agoGeez guys, all I'm saying is the name is unfortunate in the same way coq https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coq https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coq is bound to be awkward when pronounced in other parts of the world. I'm not implying there is anything nefarious about it.
- tomc1985 4y agoI'm sorry but what is wrong with the word 'kefir'
- jcahill 4y agoI didn't downvote you. There are only so many phonologically near-optimal patterns to recycle into things that sound kinda-sorta like words, so you're bound to run into these things. You just pick your poison and hope that you don't end up being shipwrecked by a gale-force meme like "fedora" as a pejorative with time. fwiw, the concern you're thinking of tends to be sidestepped either by a pseudo-initialism or a vowel shift in actual practice. In this case, the first options / paths of least resistance in an arabic-speaking community would seemingly be: - to raise the first vowel to more of an [ɪə]¹ or - to pronounce the /kəf/ - /kɑf/ then "IR" as single letters. ¹ which afaik would turn it into a long vowel that might act like a geminate? dunno
- gavinray 4y agoI don't get why, can someone explain it to me? I'm from the US, Kefir is healthy fermented yogurt-like drink that is in every grocery store pronounced "kee-fur". Does it mean something else in another language?
- retrac 4y ago"Kafir" is an Arabic word meaning unbeliever or infidel, and is used in the Islamic word as a pejorative for non-Muslims. It's also been adopted elsewhere, such as a nasty slur in South Africa for blacks.
- leadingthenet 4y ago> I'm from the US, Kefir is healthy fermented yogurt-like drink that is in every grocery store pronounced "kee-fur". Pretty unfortunate. Take a look here at a pronunciation in English more closely resembling the original Caucasian / Slavic: https://www.lexico.com/definition/kefir https://www.lexico.com/definition/kefir (/kəˈfɪə/ in IPA). There's audio in the link, which should hopefully clear up confusion. This is also the common way I've heard it pronounced in the UK, where the product appears on most major grocery store shelves.
- toast0 4y agoI mean, I've got my feelings about formal methods, so the implications about people going to technical conferences to talk about Coq are spot on. As a relatively unenlighted person on the topic of nasty slurs, I apprechiate the tipoff that using the name of a cultured milk drink sounds uncultured. Although, I tend to name things with overworked puns, so there's that.
- rvense 4y agoWhat's unfortunate about it?
- nindalf 4y agoIt sounds similar to kaffir which is a derogatory term used in the Middle East for people who don’t practice a certain religion. It is also used in South Africa in a manner similar to the n-word in America.
- hulitu 4y agoIn many european languages it definitely does not sounds similar. A is a and e is e.
- jhgb 4y agoWhy is it derogatory? And what is the non-derogatory alternative to that word in Arabic?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- nindalf 4y agoI choose not to answer you because you're either a troll or ignorant. Hopefully it's just the latter, in which case feel free to use google to educate yourself.
- jhgb 4y agoNot many people in the US or the EU speak Arabic. If I'm ignorant of it and you're a speaker of Arabic, then why don't you just enlighten me? Since when is removing one's ignorance not the point of asking questions?
- jonathanlydall 4y agoIn South Africa it’s equivalent to using N word.
- jhgb 4y agoThis must be culturally specific since where I live there's absolutely nothing even just unfortunate about the word "kefír".