Russian pronunciation of /etc (a directory)

Question

Abstracting from the fact that it is usually pronounced as in English, how should the /etc directory be pronounced in Russian?

I was under the impression that since it transliterates to /етц, it should be pronounced "ye te tse". That's the way Дмитрий Молчанов pronounced it in "Администрирование Linux. Лекция 4" at around 18:16, and Anton Pavlenko in "Структура каталогов Linux и монтирование дисков. Как продлить жизнь SSD." at around 10:45.

However, according to my Russian colleagues — also IT specialists — it transliterates to /этц and should be pronounced as "e te tse".

I've never heard the individual letters pronounced in English. Among moderately old timers (i.e., those who were teaching Unix classes at the university level in the US in the '90s), it's pronounced as a single word, etsy. — StackOverthrow, Aug 02 '19 at 16:25
It seems like a matter of personal preference. I once had a colleague who would literally translate /etc as /итд and /home as /дом and say it like that. — Galaxy, Aug 06 '19 at 19:49

score 15 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 29 '23 at 14:37

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People who tend to use the Latin pronunciation in abbreviations (and it's a very common practice) would say "ye te tse".

Just like they say "ye dva ye chetyre" (E2-E4) to describe one of the favorite opening moves in the chess. Not ""e dva e chetyre".

edited Oct 29 '23 at 14:37

CocoPop

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answered Aug 01 '19 at 07:56

VaNdal

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"Latin" pronunciation would be "et cetera" (эт цэтэра)[A better spelling would be "config" but even Apple calls it non-specific "System"] – jfs Aug 02 '19 at 18:51
Yes, I know. I put the Latin in quotes because it's not the real Latin. Not so many people study Latin nowadays and know the correct names of Latin characters but everyone who studied mathematics, physics, and chemistry in a Soviet or Russian school is used use the French names for the most of Latin characters like 'zhe' for 'g', 'ash' for 'h', '[d]zhi' for 'j', 'igrek' for 'y' and so long. Needless to say that those who didn't study French sincerely think that these names are original Latin ones :) – VaNdal Aug 02 '19 at 21:52

score 11 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 29 '23 at 14:39

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I've never heard a single IT person call it "e te tse". You can, of course, use either option. But all my IT colleagues call it "ye te tse", since the first letter in /etc is e, looks exactly like Russian e (pronounced "ye").

edited Oct 29 '23 at 14:39

CocoPop

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answered Aug 01 '19 at 09:09

RadioLog

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Latin letter e is also called "ye", not because of Russian but because it is called so in Latin language. – Anixx Aug 02 '19 at 10:11
@Anixx Oh, that's good to know – RadioLog Aug 02 '19 at 10:54
@Anixx But then I have a question: the letter c is pronounced as [ke] in Latin, but in this examples it is still pronounced [tse]. Why? – RadioLog Aug 02 '19 at 11:00
@Anixx And another comment. Quick googling told me that E is pronounced [e] actually, not [ye] in Latin alphabet – RadioLog Aug 02 '19 at 11:02
in Russian the names of Latin letters are taken from German/Polish tradition. We also call Cicero "tsitseron" (Цицерон). – Anixx Aug 02 '19 at 11:02
It is called "ye", it is the name of the letter, like B is called "be", C is called "tse" in Russian and "si" in English, α is called "alpha" etc. – Anixx Aug 02 '19 at 11:07
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@Anixx One of the multiple examples where it is stated [e] : https://la.raycui.com/alphabet.html – RadioLog Aug 02 '19 at 11:42
As I said, Russian uses Latin letter names following German/Polish Latin tradition. – Anixx Aug 02 '19 at 11:43
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Ok, got it. Because I got confused when you said that it is called like that in Latin alphabet – RadioLog Aug 02 '19 at 11:45
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Well, e is just call [e] in German, not [ye] ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_orthography#Alphabet – René Aug 02 '19 at 11:49

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 29 '23 at 14:41

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It truly depends on the person. Some say "ye te tse", some say "e te tse".

That's because the Latin "e" usually transliterates to э, since in the Latin alphabet, Russian "ye" doesn't occur as the name of any letter. From a strictly linguistic point of view, it should be "e te tse".

However, it's like with the word router; some say "rooter" some say "rauter", even though the root word "route" is closer to "root" than to "raut".

edited Oct 29 '23 at 14:41

CocoPop

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answered Aug 01 '19 at 13:51

sergial

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Just a note: many (most?) American speakers use the pronunciation "raut" for "route"; and depending on the sources you learn from, American or British English (or another variety) might have a greater or lesser influence. – Buster Aug 01 '19 at 20:29
as an uninitiated person i would definitely spell it as э-тэ-цэ – Баян Купи-ка Aug 01 '19 at 21:27
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Another reason why етэце is preferred over этэце is its recognisability within a phrase (as /etc is not normally said on its own): "Лёха, где в линухе модемные конфиги?" - "Глянь в етэце". "В этэцэ" would sound odd, pretty much like ВТЦ (WTC). – tum_ Aug 02 '19 at 08:33

score 4 · Answer 4 · edited Oct 29 '23 at 14:42

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I consider /etc as coming from Latin etc, so it's pronounced like ет cетера see https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Et_cetera

edited Oct 29 '23 at 14:42

CocoPop

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answered Aug 02 '19 at 12:00

Mikhail

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This is also how I say it in English but I am apparently one of very few people to do so. – Michael Hampton Aug 02 '19 at 17:35
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Many of my colleagues know the derivation of this abbreviation and though many of them would say "et [t]setera" while reading out loud some written text no one would pronounce the directory name in this way. Either "i-ti-si" in English manner or "ye-te-tse" in Latin manner (a poor school Latin-French manner I mean). – VaNdal Aug 02 '19 at 19:02
@VaNdal on the other hand I personally have always called it 'ет cетера' and I have never heard someone to call it something other. Was very surprised to learn that some people call it "ye-te-tse". Like "сесурити" – d.k Aug 04 '19 at 23:08
@user907860 Could well be. We live in a great big world :) – VaNdal Aug 05 '19 at 07:47

score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Oct 29 '23 at 14:47

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The name of the folder comes from Latin Et cetera (произн. [эт цэтэра]

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Et_cetera

So I pronounce it ЭТЦ or ИТиСи, not ЕТЦ

edited Oct 29 '23 at 14:47

CocoPop

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answered Aug 05 '19 at 06:35

Иваныч

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score 0 · Answer 6 · edited Oct 29 '23 at 14:45

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Unlike those who cite the names of the letters as they are, "ye te tse", I say it all like one word, эцъ "et's", kind of like "it's" but with an e.

This is similar to pronouncing NASA as "nassa" - you don't say "en ay es ay".

/etc is a `thing'. it's not made up of three discrete components; it's one whole thing in itself. It's a directory. Why in the world would you use three syllables when you only need one?!

It seems like a matter of personal preference. I once had a colleague who would literally translate /etc as /итд and /home as /дом and say it like that.

edited Oct 29 '23 at 14:45

CocoPop

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answered Aug 02 '19 at 21:32

Galaxy

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Because the only reason for me to say the name of this directory out loud is to answer on someone's question. Like 'Where are these files stored?' 'In /etc directory'. And if I answer with something different from 'ye te tse' or 'i ti si' (like 'et [t]setera' or 'et's') I have to answer again because most probably I would be misunderstood. – VaNdal Aug 03 '19 at 09:45

Russian pronunciation of /etc (a directory)

6 Answers6