• sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    60
    ·
    8 days ago

    SQL is pronounced ‘Sequel’ because it was originaly SEQUEL.

    SQL was initially developed at IBM by Donald D. Chamberlin and Raymond F. Boyce after learning about the relational model from Edgar F. Codd[12] in the early 1970s.[13] This version, initially called SEQUEL (Structured English Query Language), was designed to manipulate and retrieve data stored in IBM’s original quasirelational database management system, System R, which a group at IBM San Jose Research Laboratory had developed during the 1970s.[13]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL

    It then later evolved, and changed from being an acronym into an initialism, kind of, sort of, mostly for people who are unaware of the etymology.

    ‘Sequel’ is quite literally the tradtional way to pronounce it.

    • zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      8 days ago

      Thanks for making the comment I came to make. I imagine being older and remembering SQL as a new-ish thing really helped cement this, but when I started programming professionally for an enterprise, literally everyone pronounced it like this. I can see how and why it makes little sense to younger people.

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        8 days ago

        The wild thing is I’m only in my 30s, I’m probably a youngin’, compared to you, I just was around a good deal of old timers, real fuckin’ wizard types.

    • Phoenix3875@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      7 days ago

      Came here to make this comment. So by the same logic, DNS or Domain Name System should have been abbreviated to DoNaS and pronounced dou-NAS.