The I as in “free”, but shorter (not drawn out) and the u as in “urban”, maybe? It’s hard to find English words where they make the french U sound, but it’s pronounced the same pretty much all the time.
So yeah, he pronounces ‘Linus’ like ‘LEE-noose’, and ‘Linux’ like ‘LEE-nooks’. (Roughly, anyway. It should get the point across for most English speakers, I’m not at a computer to do a more-correct IPA transcription right now.)
Except it doesn’t in Finnish, where Linus Torvald is from. Linus and Linux is pronounced the same except for the final consonant.
So his name is really Lin-us and not Line-us?
I believe I saw a youtube clip of him saying his name and Linux that way, yes.
“Hello, this is Linus Torvalds and I pronounce ‘Linux’ as ‘Linux’.”
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
“Hello, this is Linus Torvalds and I pronounce ‘Linux’ as ‘Linux’.”
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Yes.
Source: I’m Norwegian but I used to know an irate IT finn named Linus. A separate irate IT finn named Linus, that is.
I think it would be Line-us and Line-ux.
No. The Li sound is pronounced the same as in Lift or Lint and not Line.
Interesting! Thanks for explaining. Mine was a guess at best.
Finnish definitely does not use that pronunciation
I’m Italian and I pronounce both "i"s in the same way. Why is English so strange?
Blame the French.
Hey, we pronounce both the same, too. Sorry English, that’s on you and you alone.
Uh huh
And how would you pronounce it compared to a German?
The I as in “free”, but shorter (not drawn out) and the u as in “urban”, maybe? It’s hard to find English words where they make the french U sound, but it’s pronounced the same pretty much all the time.
In this particular instance, the Great Vowel Shift is to blame. What caused that is up for debate.
In general, English is so strange because it’s a mongrel language, incorporating words from a variety of other different languages.
Definitive proof: https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/SillySounds/english.wav
Correction: Even though he’s Finnish, his primary language is Swedish
“Hello, this is Linus Torvalds and I pronounce ‘Linux’ as ‘Linux’.”
So yeah, he pronounces ‘Linus’ like ‘LEE-noose’, and ‘Linux’ like ‘LEE-nooks’. (Roughly, anyway. It should get the point across for most English speakers, I’m not at a computer to do a more-correct IPA transcription right now.)
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
“Hello, this is Linus Torvalds and I pronounce ‘Linux’ as ‘Linux’.”
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.