824
I 🖤 LaTeX (mander.xyz)
submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
131 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

From another comment:

The 'X' at the end of \LaTeX is actually a uppercase chi, so it pronounced with a 'k' sound.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

It's also wrong, it's supposed to be a ch-sound as in Bach.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Depending on the time. In ancient Greek it was /k^h^/ (aspirated k, basically the normal k in English) which turned to /x/ as you said but neither is wRoNG, especially when your native language doesn't have one if the sounds

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

The k-sound is used when the chi is prefixed in front of certain vowels. The ch-sound is the truly correct pronunciation here, there's no history involved for that.

Knuth, the guy who coined it, also says the ch-sound is the correct one, though he also says the k-sound is also acceptable. As long as you do not use the ks-sound at least :)

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Knuth is the perfect nerd, publishing a package where people are still discussing how to pronounce its name close to 50 years after.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Are you saying that the historical pronunciation is irrelevant or are you denying language change?

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

The historical pronunciation of this letter is irrelevant because it's a modern word with a modern pronunciation.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2025
824 points (97.7% liked)

Science Memes

16088 readers
2235 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.

Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]