[texhax] What is???

[Robin Fairbairns]

> On Tue, Nov 09, 2004 at 03:38:01PM -0400, Abdiel Caceres Gonzalez wrote:
> > What is the name of the TeX Lion?
> 
> And another naming question. We know TeX is pronounced as in Texas,
> but is that the Spanish or the English pronunciation?

who says "as in texas"?  i've never encountered that claim.

in the book, don says it's derived from greek chi (which looks like an
x); chi has a variously gutteral sound in greek pronunciation, but don
characterises it by comparison with various nordic languages, and with
the celtic "ch" sound in loch.

according to don, the name's chosen on the basis of the greek word
\tau\varepsilon\chi\nu\iota.  that word came up yesterday in my greek
lesson as "art" in the gallery sense, but it also means "craft" and
would be applied to typography.

> The books say, as in Spanish, but with names like latex, I wonder if
> people face-to-face actually say it the way it is supposed to be said.

while some people do insist on saying latex as if it were an english
word, most make the gutteral sound at the end, though there's a
significant minority who use a soft "ch" sound.  (michel goossens does
that, for example.  he wouldn't, i imagine, if he came from north
holland, but he's a belgian fleming.)