Since nobody told you the history: it was originally called Sequel, but the creators got a legal letter from someone who already had the name, so they changed it to SQL. The name as it appears in the ANSI standard is (pronounced) S-Q-L.
MySQL is officially pronounced “My-S-Q-L”, but I’ve never heard anyone (including, supposedly, Bill Gates) pronounce the similar Microsoft database product as anything* other than “Sequel Server”
"Since the language was originally named SEQUEL, many people continued to pronounce the name that way after it was shortened... I GUESS the authority would be the ISO Standard, which is spelled (and PRESUMABLY pronounced) S-Q-L." (emphasis mine)
He doesn't say the standard says to pronounce it that way. He doesn't even say HE pronounces it that way. The idea it must be pronounced as spelled in the standard is just, as he says, a presumption, and not a very good or reasonable one.
For me it's weirdly dependent on the context? Like the MS product is Sequel Server and I write a Sequel Query, but if you ask me what my query is written in I say Ess Queue El
I guess for me it's Ess Queue El as a noun and Sequel as an adjective? Maybe? I haven't thought it through to the end
Usually "sequel". But I've been using it daily for 30 years and I regularly say both. Good thing about databases is they're seen as too boring for crazy culture wars over pronunciation.
This is canonically wrong. IBM called it SQL (pronounced as the letters) partly because they were parodying a competing database product called Sequel. You can pronounce it “sequel” if you want, but the System R engineers will haunt you.
Microsoft calls their product SQL Server as in "Sequel Server". both usages are correct in modern use, "ess Q ell" is probably more common but it depends on what kind of DB shop you cut your teeth in
My POV is that both are in common use, and effectively equally valid, but a) there are solid reasons to spell it out and b) I personally find “sequel” grating
listen, you can never know with acronyms. I went years calling gamefaqs 'game facts' until someone at a con told me to stop. "it's game f.a.q.s" they said.
I often see people claiming this, but it's not quite right. SQUARE then SEQUEL, leading to SQL, were all query languages. Ingres (whence the query language QUEL on which SEQUEL was a pun) and then, for example, postgreSQL (also led by Stonebraker) were, and are, DBMSs.
That said, this history is the reason my first thesis supervisor refused to allow me to pronounce SQL as 'sequel'... but she did also introduce me to the Microsoft SQL Server team, and anyone who says 'S Q L Server' is a pedant at best.
In my doctoral thesis I wrote instead about SPARQL (sparkle).
It’s actually one of those gif/jif things where lots of people pronounce it differently and think that anyone doing it the opposite of their preference is an idiot child. And they’re right, it’s Sequel
When a word starts with a consonant, and is followed by a word that starts with a vowel, then the consonant is pronounced by the letter in the alphabet following the vowel.
I had a job with IBM in the 1970s and it was definitely not pronounced Sequel. Everyone I worked with then called it by the 3 letter sequence. I know I am showing my age but there is nothing wrong with my memory.
Microsoft Manual of Style (2012) called for es-cue-el for Structured Query Language (“an SQL database”) but the Microsoft Writing Style Guide (2018) calls for sequel. The earlier guide used different pronunciations for the language and the server product.
And of course, one of the reasons it’s sequel is because it was originally SEQL or Structured English Query Language. The dropped the English at some point. (Like how the Lunar Excursion Module became the Lunar Module but was still pronounced “the lem”)
I took some SQL classes on LinkedIn Learning where the instructor declared “Sequel” was the server and “Es cue el” was the language, but I never heard anyone say “Es cue el” in real life.
That’s wrong. SQL Server is the name of Microsoft’s implementation of a server using the SQL language, but the L stands for language. When it was invented, the name was SEQueL for “structured English query language” but that ran into trademark problems so they dropped the English and renamed IT SQL
I tend to say 'Es cue ell' but that's because I learned how to do simple queries from examples years before I had any formal training on it, and that's how I pronounced it in my head. Most people I know pronounce it sequel.
I have used SQL since the 1980s and I say “Ess Que Ell.” Not that that makes me right, but just to say it is so ingrained now that I couldn’t swap it even if I wanted too.
I have a report that insists on calling it "Sir Quel". English isn't their first language though. He has some other equally funny ones that persist despite all of his colleagues using more traditional pronounciations.
I used to think it was funny to purposely mispronounce things. So I would call it SQUILL to co-workers. But one day I say it to a client and had an, "OH FUCK ME" moment. Thankfully my boss was able to save my ass and was like, "Oh he's such a joker."
It's kind of like "gif" in that people feel really passionately that their way is correct. Some say "sequel," some say "ess cue ell," I was basically trolling with that comment.
It is pronounced both "ess cue ell" and "sequel." The name was originally "SEQUEL," for both backronym and in-joke reasons, but a legal dispute with a now-defunct British aviation company forced a name change very early on in SQL's history, so it became "SQL."
It’s ok to ask the question. The infuriating part is that he’s supposed to be some sort of genius visionary.
To anyone who works in IT it’s been obvious since he took over Twitter that he’s an idiot executive using buzzwords.
His Mars fantasies got a pass I think because everyone blew them off as aspirational. Then he started talking about hyperloops and drilling tunnels 10x faster. That was a clue he lives at the intersection of Clueless Ave and Grifter Rd.
No the issue is everyone has to answer without checking to see if anyone else already has, and then they fight with each other, and your notifications are screwed for days.
Never ever ask a second question; the first is how one learns. Like backing up key data is obviously important, once you've lost a disk full of irreplaceable info. And the answer to almost ANY of these questions really is "who cares?" but never, EVER say that! 😹
Yeah I'm talking absolutely shit with my justifications there. Shot myself in the foot. Nonetheless, in my neck of the woods, "lol" rhymes with "doll".
It's English. It rolls in every direction, makes no sense, and changes with the country of origin. Had to do a copy editor gig switching between British English and American English and that, as someone operating with a style guide, still made no sense.
Comments
(FWIW from this old guy, I pronounce SQL as sequel, and MySQL as… my ess que ell 😂)
(Other references to SQL might be pronounced "sequel", but also not.)
Source: me, 17-year MySQL employee.
https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/9.2/en/what-is-mysql.html
(*Swear words excepted)
"Since the language was originally named SEQUEL, many people continued to pronounce the name that way after it was shortened... I GUESS the authority would be the ISO Standard, which is spelled (and PRESUMABLY pronounced) S-Q-L." (emphasis mine)
I guess for me it's Ess Queue El as a noun and Sequel as an adjective? Maybe? I haven't thought it through to the end
that's the correct pronunciation
I still say gamefacts tho
Imagine actually saying "game eff ay cues".
In my doctoral thesis I wrote instead about SPARQL (sparkle).
Jif is peanut butter.
I stopped purposely mispronouncing things then.
I’ve found people are often quite as mean in real life though!
Rooter is british-english as in adding an r to route.
Don't even start on buoy.
Boowee is not even close to being in the realms of correct
It doesn't really matter, but everyone thinks the way they do it is the right way and everyone else is wrong.
To anyone who works in IT it’s been obvious since he took over Twitter that he’s an idiot executive using buzzwords.
But, I feel bad about your notifications!
And I actually do say the letters. I always felt "sequel" sounded silly XD
I am so sorry for your (apparent) internet suffering