LaTeX
“Lay-tex”, “Lay-tek”, “Lah-tek”, … I dunno, for some reason I thought LaTeX and LaTec (I think I made this one up) were pretty much the same thing. Like maybe LaTec was the open source version of LaTeX, or something. I mentioned this to Brent the other day (he’s writing his thesis in LaTeX), and we looked it up, to settle it once and for all! And here is what the always-correct Wikipedia says (now):
LaTeX is usually pronounced [ˈleɪ.tÉ›k] or [ˈlÉ‘.tÉ›k] in English (that is, not with the [ks] pronunciation English speakers normally associate with X, but with a [k]). The last character in the name comes from a capital χ (chi), as the name of TeX derives from the Greek Ï„Îχνη (skill, art, technique); for this reason, TeX’s creator Donald Knuth promotes a /tÉ›x/ pronunciation (that is, with a voiceless velar fricative as in Modern Greek, or the last sound of Scottish “loch” or German “Bach” or Arabic “Ø®”). Lamport, on the other hand, has said he does not favor or discourage any pronunciation for LaTeX.
So they are one and the same! My mind can be at ease once more.
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