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Context: enum as an abbreviation/short for enumeration.

This question is about pronunciation of the letter E in enum, not about the num part.

I've heard people say both "æ-num" (like in "assign") and /ˈinʌm/ (like the letter E) as it says on wiktionary.

Which one is correct? Are both correct?

Note: Google Translate has this pronunciation description for "enumerate": "əˈ" and "əˌ" for "enumeration".

tchrist
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jave.web
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    “I have heard people say..” non native speakers? – Gio May 16 '23 at 09:50
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    What does "correct" mean? The most common? The one that fits best with the rules of English spelling and pronunciation (not sure how well you'll do with that)? What online dictionaries say? The one Reddit or Quora likes? Wiktionary has /ˈinʌm/, but I'd be surprised if that's the only pronunciation used. A short /ɛ/ is reasonable but /æ/ less so (if you pronounce it "annum", you're probably a non-native speaker who doesn't distinguish /ɛ/ and /æ/). – Stuart F May 16 '23 at 10:10
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    I'm American and in IT for over 40 years, and I don't think I've ever heard the initial vowel pronounced other than /i/. I find placing the stress on /nʌm/ more common than not, but not universal. – Jeff Zeitlin May 16 '23 at 10:30
  • @Gio yes, non-native speakers mainly @Stuart F I do distinguish that, but couldn't find the right symbol quickly, so I've put somewhat similar one just to demonstrate the feud; you're right, don't know why I didn't check https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/enumeration and https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/enumerate?q=enumerate which both only describe ɪ @Jeff Zeitlin thanks for that view. – jave.web May 16 '23 at 11:01
  • @jave.web - I would take non native speakers pronunciation as an example. – Gio May 16 '23 at 12:19
  • In "European English" the term *E-number* is in common use for food additives authorized by the European Union (that's a 'long e', as used to identify the letter itself). So far as I'm concerned, the only difference between the pronunciation of computer *enums* and EU-recognized *E-numbers* is the extra syllable in the latter. – FumbleFingers May 16 '23 at 13:47
  • @FumbleFingers Your answer should have gone in the answer box, not the comment. That goes for most of the rest of you, too. – tchrist May 16 '23 at 13:58
  • There is a phenomenon of speakers with less education saying e as in eek ( (/i:/) rather than e as in eh /ɛ/. Also, even one who normally wouldn't do that might if trying to exaggerate emphasis on the word: "I'm talking about eenumeration not eemancipation." And for enum, you have to change the pronunciation to sound like that latter. – Lambie May 16 '23 at 15:19
  • @tchrist: It would have been pretty pointless for me to post the contents of my comment as an Answer to compete with yours! Besides which, I doubt I've ever actually spoken the word "enum" out loud to another techie (quite possibly never heard anyone say it specifically *to me*, as opposed to hearing it in a Youtube clip). But the time WIMP operating systems started to gain traction in the 80s, I nearly always worked alone from home. It was some years before I discovered that GUI rhymes with "gooey", not "guy". – FumbleFingers May 16 '23 at 17:56
  • I can't figure out what you mean by '"æ-num" (like in "assign")' because I'm not aware of any sound which could plausibly be written as "æ" and which could also plausibly used when saying the word "assign." Can you link to a recording of someone saying the word "assign" with the pronunciation that you have in mind? – Tanner Swett May 16 '23 at 20:55
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    I think you may be using the wrong character when you write ' "æ-num" (like in "assign") '. The symbol 'æ' is the IPA symbol for the vowel sound in "flat", which is quite different from the a in "assign". That vowel in "assign" is a schwa, which you do mention later in your question. I hesitate to edit the question myself to fix the possible error because I may not have your intended meaning correct, but I think people would understand your question better if you could clarify. – Mark Foskey May 16 '23 at 21:42
  • @MarkFoskey feel free to correct it I knew æ was wrong, but it did send the message through :-) – jave.web May 17 '23 at 10:41
  • It's almost impossible to get a definitive answer about pronunciation of technical terms that are used far more in writing than in speech. There is almost certainly wide variation, and no-one is right or wrong. – Michael Kay May 17 '23 at 15:47
  • Enum is not just a technical term used mainly in writing. For software developers, it is a term used to talk about code constructs (and enums are quite common in some code). I talk about enums, at any rate - quite often, I'd say. Because we don't have enough of them in our code and I'm always making new ones and telling people what I did. – topsail May 19 '23 at 14:00

2 Answers2

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Using /ə/ or /æ/ for enum (or for enumerate, enumerated, enumeration) is incorrect

Wiktionary’s cited /ˈinʌm/ is indeed what native English speaking programmers broadly say phonemically, although in a narrower phonetic transcription [ˈɪjˌnɐm] might serve for most speakers. You would not count those as two separate pronunciations, though.

The first vowel in enum is the so-called FLEECE vowel, the second the so-called STRUT vowel. This makes the first syllable of enum just like the first syllable of e‑mail, and it makes the second syllable of enum pretty much just like the first syllable of number.

That second syllable is almost wholly unreduced, which is why I’ve marked it with secondary stress in the bracketed phonetic transcription. It never compresses to a brief and fully neutralized schwa or to a syllabic consonant [m̩] as it might in something like:

  • Who me? I’ve never even seen ’m!

There is no [æ] in assign, so I’m not sure where you’re getting that from. I suspect you’re mishearing the commA vowel /ə/ ther — or, in other words, possibly the FATHER vowel /ɑ/ or the STRUT vowel /ʌ/ or /ɐ/. There is a beg–bag merger but that’s with /ɛ/ and does not occur word-initially.

English words beginning with a written ‹e› of the pattern VCVC, so alternating vowel-consonant-vowel-consonant, can have various pronunciations of their initial vowel, but I don’t believe /æ/ is ever one of them.

Possibilities for pronouncing the start of words written with an initial ‹e› include the following, listed here in decreasing order of frequency:

  • The DRESS vowel (/ɛ/), as in ebony, echo, economic, edible, edit, egg, elegy, elf, elephant, ell, elm, em, en, end, eminent, emerald, enervate, enigma, epiphyte, excel, exit.
  • The KIT vowel (/ɪ/), as in eject, elapsed, elect, elude, English, enormous.
  • The FLEECE vowel (/i/ or /ɪj/), as in ecozone, edict, emu, even, evil. This is the name of the letter itself.
  • The FACE vowel (/e/ or /ej/ or /ɛj/), but this is almost always only in borrowed words like emir and éclair.

In general, but probably not so often in enum, how any vowel comes out also greatly depends on the stress and the emphasis placed on the word, because emphatic forms can take on lengthening properties never otherwise heard in normal speech. Plus under fast speech unstressed syllables can shorten towards schwa /ə/ and nearly disappear.

There is no reason to think one would pronounce a clipping of a word exactly the same way as one would the unclipped version but shorter. You’ve changed the stress pattern and the syllable count, and you’ve changed how the word ends. All those things change pronunciation, especially in a stress-timed language like English. Otherwise we’d be saying impede just like we say impediment, and we don’t. Syllables and stress matter a great deal in English, and they change the phonetics through regular phonological processes.

ScottishTapWater
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tchrist
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    words like enumeration and emancipation are standardly said with an /ɛ/. If not, there has to be a reason discursively, like exaggeration or emphasis or less education or regionalism. Frankly, how do you specifically answer the question? – Lambie May 16 '23 at 14:44
  • I answered because using /ə/ or /æ/ for enum (or for enumerate, enumerated, enumeration) is incorrect. The jargon term has a different vowel than the words it's clipped from have. – tchrist May 16 '23 at 15:13
  • Yeah, the jargon e changes the vowel sound. :) If you didn't change the sound, it would sound very weird indeed. Why don't you just spell it out clearly? There's another word similar to this where the shortened one changes pronunciation but I can't think of it right now. – Lambie May 16 '23 at 15:17
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    @Lambie: enumeration with an /ɛ/? Not in American English. Not in British English, either. All four dictionaries I've linked to say the vowel is /i/ or /ɪ/. Are you sure you're not thinking of enumeración (or some other Romance language)? – Peter Shor May 16 '23 at 15:26
  • @PeterShor /ɛ/ as in bet or set or edge. In non-IPA eh, like the interjection eh, except very short. – Lambie May 16 '23 at 15:41
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    @Lambie: I do not believe that I have *ever* heard enumeration pronounced like that, and the dictionaries don't give that as a possible pronunciation. You are pronouncing it differently from nearly all native English speakers. – Peter Shor May 16 '23 at 15:55
  • @PeterShor pronounced like what? like the e in bet? Maybe I got the sound wrong: ɪˌnjuːməˈreɪʃᵊn https://tophonetics.com/ But for me, it sounds like the e in bet. I realize that others but say it otherwise, but for me it's the eh sound. – Lambie May 16 '23 at 16:03
  • Some others may say this: uh, https://www.google.com/search?q=pronounce+enumeration&rlz=1C1GCEU_enUS1030US1031&oq=pronounce+enumeration&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i22i30l2.6826j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#bsht=CgVic2hocBIECAQwAQ but I do not. – Lambie May 16 '23 at 16:11
  • @tchrist Thanks for context - 3 things - can you describe the difference between pronouncing the jargon "enum" and the clip-sources? What's the difference between KIT and FLEECE? And lastly - is google translate wrong with the transcription əˈn(y)o͞oməˌrāt? Thanks ... also what is your conclusion for enum's "e"? /ɪ/? – jave.web May 16 '23 at 16:48
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    @jave.web Yes, Google Translate is ᴡʀᴏɴɢ: seldom if ever does enumerate start with a fully reduced schwa❗ The start of enum is never /ɪ/ because that would be the KIT vowel as in inning, enumerate. It’s only ever the FLEECE vowel, which is the very name of the letter E itself❗ KIT and FLEECE are completely different lexical sets in English: what’s your 1st tongue? Moreover, the 1st syllable of enum has primary stress so ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ reduces to something else. – tchrist May 16 '23 at 18:12
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    Certain Bostonians would pronounce "assign" with an [æ], but for the second vowel: [ʌˈsæːn] or even [ʌˈsæ̃ː]. My former boss had a story about a former coworker who asked whether the office had "a sand-packing" (or rather assigned parking). – A. R. May 16 '23 at 20:10
  • @tchrist I have heard people who should know better say [əˈnuːm], but it just sounds awful to me. – A. R. May 16 '23 at 20:15
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    @tchrist That "əˈn(y)o͞oməˌrāt" transcription is using some awful mess which is neither IPA nor Americanist, so it's anyone's guess what "ə" is supposed to mean. – A. R. May 16 '23 at 20:19
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    I don't agree that using /ə/ as the first vowel in "enumerate" is an error. It's an unstressed vowel and thus undergoes reduction. (This is different in "enum," as first vowel is usually stressed). And while most commonly it would be reduced only to short [ɪ], you can always reduce all the way to a neutral [ə]. The vowel is quite short. Consider the word "enunciate," which people often misspell as "annunciate" because the initial vowel can be said as a schwa. – trlkly May 16 '23 at 23:46
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    @trlkly So you think people confuse illiterate with alliterate and enumerate with innumerate? That all sounds fishy to me. – tchrist May 17 '23 at 01:20
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    @tchrist No, but only because they end differently. "Illiterate" and "innumerate" both end in /ɪt/ or /ət/, while "alliterate" and "enumerate" both end in /ˌeɪt/. (The secondary syllabic stress means that the /eɪ/ does not get reduced.) – trlkly May 17 '23 at 01:57
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    It's not just American programmers, it's the same in the UK – ScottishTapWater May 17 '23 at 09:19
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    As a native BrE working in theoretical computer science, I strongly support @trlkly — I think that plenty of speakers do fully reduce the initial vowel of enumerate to a schwa /ə/, and at least some people in the field read enum as /əˈnʌm/, rhyming with a thumb. As @ trlkly says, enumerate and innumerate remain distinct because of the later stress, but many pairs do become homophonous enough that they’re widely confused, e.g. elusive/allusive, effect/affect, … – PLL May 17 '23 at 13:56
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A helpful resource for hearing how English speakers pronounce things is Youglish. You can listen to its examples for enum to confirm that, as tchrist says, the first syllable is generally pronounced as /i/ (the same as the name of the letter E).

However, even if it is only used by a few speakers, it seems a pronunciation where the first syllable is unstressed and has a reduced vowel (either /əˈnum/ or /ɪˈnum/) also exists, as demonstrated by the following links:

While you did not want information about the second syllable, others may be interested to know that it can either be /num/ or /nʌm/ (or /nəm/).

I don't think "Which one is correct?" is a very meaningful question in the context of words like this (compare the argument over "gif"), but in any case, if you use the pronunciation recommended by tchrist, you shouldn't have to worry about it.

herisson
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    Thanks, this is useful. // I do think your first example is a red herring: it's a verb here because it has do-support, so it’s a mere clipping of the actual verb, not its jargon nominalization which the asker is trying to figure out. He’s specifically saying “There was this frustration there where you wanted to set don’t enum on your properties so they didn’t screw up your for-n loops but you couldn’t.” If you keep listening he talks about a Boolean enumerable property to control whether it will let you do this. – tchrist May 17 '23 at 02:04
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    For the "num" in "enum", I think some programmers pronounce it as /num/ (like "numeric" or "enumerable") because they know (consciously or subconsciously) that that's where the word comes from. The /nəm/ alternative make sense to me if the programmer stressed the initial E in enum, making the second vowel a weak vowel and therefore more flexible to change. Ultimately, though, "correctness" in this context is only about how you spell the word -- if you spell it wrong, it is a compiler error, and therefore incorrect on the level of the formal language specification. – Brandin May 17 '23 at 06:15
  • @tchrist Technically the language specification itself refers to the phrase "don't enum" as he's using it as "non-enumerable", which functions as an adjective (and of course the opposite in the technical specification is "enumerable" without the non). If I listen to this speech, it seems the speaker finds it easier to say and think about "set X to 'don't enum'" than to try to say "set X to 'non-enumerable'". I've never given a speech about this topic myself, but I can see how the word "non-enumerable" used in a natural, flowing sentence, would be a bit of a mouthful. – Brandin May 17 '23 at 06:37
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    I am choosing this answer as the accepted answer since it clearly answers the original question and is the description most people looking for this will want, I did upvoted @tchrist's answer too, because it's great for context. – jave.web May 17 '23 at 10:45
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    @Brandin - I'm a software engineer and I have never heard anyone pronounce enum similarly to enumerable – ScottishTapWater May 17 '23 at 12:38
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    @ScottishTapWater Well then, please go listen to the first link supplied in this Answer. Mr Crockford himself (JavaScript: the Good Parts) says it that way consistently, at least in this presentation. That doesn't mean "his" way is correct, of course. By all means, use the pronunciation that is easiest for you and for your communicating with your colleagues, your collaborators, etc. – Brandin May 17 '23 at 13:48
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    @Brandin - That's because he's saying "don't enum" as an abbreviation for "don't enumerate" not as a shorthand for the enum/enumerable data structure. Those are different things – ScottishTapWater May 17 '23 at 14:33
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    @ScottishTapWater Yes, I suppose that's a possibility. I only listened to a few minutes. I'll have to listen to the whole thing again with a very keen ear to see if he ever has occasion to say "enum" as in mentioning the keyword itself or in a context where it couldn't be replaced by a verb "enumerate". In any case, personally I have heard programmers refer to the keyword in both ways, in various contexts, e.g. "we need an enum here", and so on. Logically, the word "enum" could also be replaced in such a situation by the full word "enumerable" if one wanted, though generally no one does that. – Brandin May 17 '23 at 14:47
  • @Brandin: "Enumerable" would typically refer to something that provides iteration or iteration-like operations, like Ruby's Enumerable module. The un-abbreviated form of "enum" would be "enumeration" or "enumerated type". – user2357112 May 18 '23 at 09:04
  • It's got a bit confused by Australian English there, interpreting "been, um" as "enum". – Crazymoomin May 19 '23 at 14:29