I do
It is pronounced /ˈdætə/.
Dictionaries are descriptive, not prescriptive.
Doita?
For his name I say data but when talking about data I say data but when I say database I say data and when I watch 1986’s Willow with Warwick Davis I say data
What does Willow (1986) have to do with data? Isn’t it, like, a sword-and-sorcery fantasy movie?
Oh I bet there’s a character with a name that sounds like the word “data”.
There’s a kid who calls her father dada (dadda?..sp?) throughout the movie
You should probably watch willow. It’s not terrible. Val kilmer with a sword.
Oh same
I pronounce it the correct way: dah-tah
That is incorrect
how do you pronounce database?
Dah-tah-bah-seh
I do, but that’s because “now these points of data make a beautiful line, and we’re out of beta, we’re releasing on time.”
If anyone would know how to pronounce it, it’s a computer
Yes. I’m British.
Exactly what I was gonna say.
I alternate between the two pronunciations depending on whatever I vibe with at the time, much like with how I spell colour/color
I only say data the way it’s said in Star Trek. Same for database.
Yes, i watched TNG before (and during) i learned English
American. Day-duh.
Data: First, the two A’s/vowels:
The first of two A’s gets the “Aey” sound, the second gets the “Ah” sound.
Then, because I’m from California, the ah becomes uh.
Then, similarly, the “tuh” has a hard T at the beginning. But again because California/USA, the T becomes a D (British: butter (“buttah”, hard t’s), usa: budder(soft t’s or d’s))
Thus: day-duh.
How else are you supposed to pronounce it?
Brits pronounce it day-ta, Americans, Canadians and Australians pronounce it dah-ta. Data pronounces it Day-ta.
American here, I can’t speak for Canada, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard any Americans in the US in real conversations say it differently than it is in Star Trek.
I’ve lived in nearly every major region of the US, so if there’s a place where they still pronounce it like “dah-ta” it must be a very small regional thing. Normal working class people having actual conversions everywhere I’ve ever been say “day-ta”.
I’ve read before that Patrick Stewart is the reason for that changing, but I don’t know if that’s true. Seems like an outsized influence for one guy to have on culture, but maybe!
Interesting. From some googling it looks like America is a mix of both but leaning towards day-ta, whereas the other countries are more consistently as I said.
I have a British friend who now lives in Canada and works in tech and has changed the way he says it (from day-ta to dah-ta, or really more like dah-da) for convenience. I had thought that it was an Atlantic divide but seems like there’s more to it.
I’m a software developer in Canada. I’ve only ever heard “day ta”
There are three variants I’m aware of: /eɪ/ as in “day”, /æ/ as in “dad”, and /ɑː/ as in “spa”. I personally say it with /æ/.
Dat a
My approach: A single data point is “dah-ta” Some quantity of data is “day-ta”
For example: “I back up my game’s save dah-ta in case my hard drive’s day-ta gets corrupted”
The singular of data is datum though?
Yes you’re right, but then you get into the argument
- The data is corrupt
- The data are corrupt
I’m camp one because I treat data as a collective noun of data-items, not as a plural of datum.
Fair enough - I’d also go with ‘the data is corrupt’ so looks like I must eat my own words!
I use them interchangeably 🙈
A local radio DJ said once that if he’s feeling fancy he says “Da Ta” like “ta-da!” Cracked me up way more that it should have.
