When I say SQL outloud, I vary how I pronounce it depending on the
audience and my mood. I think that SQL Server and folks say
"sequel" while MySQL folks and those using the term related to industry
standards or separate from any particular tool are more apt to
pronounce it "es-q-el." Is this accurate? How do DB2 folks say it?
What other groups pronounce it which way?
I'm starting to write and am trying to figure out whether to write "a
SQL statement" or "an SQL statement." I get 1.96 million google hits
on an-sql and 2.3 million on a-sql. Are there any good guidelines for
when to use the one and when the other? Thanks.

"dawn" <dawnwolthuis@gmail.comwrote in message
news:1139282314.858901.194140@
I'm starting to write and am trying to figure out whether to write "a
SQL statement" or "an SQL statement."

I worked during 1997-1999 as the Manager of Technical Publications for
InterBase. I had this discussion when I was producing the InterBase 5
manuals, because my writers and I wanted to establish consistent usage
throughout our writing. My senior technical writer held a degree in
Linguistics as well as many years of professional experience as a writer.

We observed that the usage "an SQL statement" was arguably more correct
since SQL is an acronym. However, it seems to be more often colloquially
used as "a SQL statement," where SQL is pronounced like "sequel."

Since we were writing product manuals where we used less formal language
(for example, using the second person "you," contractions like "can't,"
etc.), we decided to go with the colloquial usage. If we had been writing
scientific journal articles, we might have chosen to pronounce it as an
acronym.

Many acronyms are correctly pronounced as words, instead of spelling out
their letters. For examples, SCUBA, LASER, SCSI, and WYSIWYG.
acronyms are never pronounced as words, and are always spelled out: TNT,
CIA, IDE, and RTFM.

I would say in the case of SQL, both usages are correct and common enough to
be understood easily by most audiences. Which one you choose depends on the
tone you are trying to set in your writing.

In the case of MySQL, they have an official policy of pronoucing the name by
spelling out the letters (#Pronunciation).

Regards,
Bill K.

Bill Karwin wrote:
"dawn" <dawnwolthuis@gmail.comwrote in message
news:1139282314.858901.194140@
I'm starting to write and am trying to figure out whether to write "a
SQL statement" or "an SQL statement."

I worked during 1997-1999 as the Manager of Technical Publications for
InterBase. I had this discussion when I was producing the InterBase 5
manuals, because my writers and I wanted to establish consistent usage
throughout our writing. My senior technical writer held a degree in
Linguistics as well as many years of professional experience as a writer.

We observed that the usage "an SQL statement" was arguably more correct
since SQL is an acronym. However, it seems to be more often colloquially
used as "a SQL statement," where SQL is pronounced like "sequel."

Since we were writing product manuals where we used less formal language
(for example, using the second person "you," contractions like "can't,"
etc.), we decided to go with the colloquial usage. If we had been writing
scientific journal articles, we might have chosen to pronounce it as an
acronym.

Many acronyms are correctly pronounced as words, instead of spelling out
their letters. For examples, SCUBA, LASER, SCSI, and WYSIWYG.
acronyms are never pronounced as words, and are always spelled out: TNT,
CIA, IDE, and RTFM.

I would say in the case of SQL, both usages are correct and common enough to
be understood easily by most audiences. Which one you choose depends on the
tone you are trying to set in your writing.

Thanks, Bill. This is helpful. It isn't just a matter of formal (an
SQL) vs. colloquial (a SQL) because some products lean toward one over
the other. If I write "a SQL" the MySQL folks will find it
uncomfortable (as you indicate below) while with "an SQL" the
folks get bent out of shape (past experience suggests). So the choice
seems to align the writer with a vendor or vendors.

Does anyone know what DB2, Informix, or Sybase users prefer? Thanks.

In the case of MySQL, they have an official policy of pronoucing the name by
spelling out the letters (#Pronunciation).

Regards,
Bill K.

The name of the Standard is "es-que-el" and we had a debate on that in
ANSI X3H2. Sequel was a trademark of IBM.

The rule is that in IS, pronouncable words are capitalized like
proper nouns "Fortran" and initials are spelt out "S-Q-L", "P-L-one".
The US government makes them all into words PSR (Physican Standards
Review ) is a "piss row" ; that is for real, I worked for
one.

I tend to let my editor pick a house style when I write.

wrote:
The name of the Standard is "es-que-el" and we had a debate on that in
ANSI X3H2. Sequel was a trademark of IBM.

The rule is that in IS, pronouncable words are capitalized like
proper nouns "Fortran" and initials are spelt out "S-Q-L", "P-L-one".

Ah, perhaps that is why people switched from writing BASIC to Basic and
Cobol instead of CBL.

The US government makes them all into words PSR (Physican Standards
Review ) is a "piss row" ; that is for real, I worked for
one.

I tend to let my editor pick a house style when I write.

I'm writing for clients (and in my blog), so no publishing house to set
the standards that way.

Thanks.
www.tincat-group.com

In my memory, SQL was first developed by name of SEQUEL(Structured
English like QUEry Language) as query language for System/R. Sorry, I
forgot the developer's name.
Later, it was appeared that the name could not be used by trademark
problem(another product already used it).
If I misunderstood or made mistake, please don't hesitate to point it
out.

(Perhaps I shouldn't say this, but I yielded to temptation) I feel
older people tend to pronounce SQL like as "see-k-well" boastfully to
show their knowledge and long experience in relational database area.

"A Gamache" <andre.gamache@ift.ulaval.cawrote in message
news:xMIGf.36085$1e5.634206@news20.bellglobal.com
How big is nowadays IBM? Still very large indeed! Look at internal reports
from IBM (your company) authored by Don Chamberlin (Almaden Res.
Center)) He was member of the IBM System R team and also worked on the
query language, for that system, named SEQUEL.
Later, the language was replaced by SQL and then by IS SQL.
All this information is, I suppose, published on internet.

Yep, here it is:

#History

Regards,
Bill K.

>I feel older people tend to pronounce SQL like as "see-k-well" boastfully to show their knowledge and long experience in relational database area. <<

You say it like it is a bad thing :) but get two beers in us and we
say "sequel" like a newbie.

A bit of history: Phil Shaw of IBM brought the SQL-86 document into
ANSI-X3H2 to make it "public domain" at a time when IP law was still
very new and very vague on the ownership of a language and software.
It was much ahead of the curve.