Pronunciation of LibreOffice in English

users
#1

Caveat, I am new to the LibreOffice users list. Please do let me know
where I should direct my suggestion.

As a Canadian I recently attended LinuxFest Northwest in Bellingham, WA.
It was a great event and LibreOffice was well represented there.

All went well until I heard some folk calling it LeeBRAY-office. Ouch!
Please, there is NO accent on the final letter in 'libre'- so no
braying, eh?

May I suggest that somewhere on their site LibreOffice give suggestions
for pronouncing the product name in English.

To my ears 'LEEbruh' would be close (Lee as in Bruce Lee or even Robert
E. Lee and 'bruh' like the first syllable of brother in American).

No doubt a proper linguist could give better instruction. Please do.

Georges

#2

It's in the FAQs:
http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/faq/general-faq/how-do-you-pronounce-libreoffice/

--Jean

#3

mmm... my French ears are sufferring from the "Lye-Bree" I listen. I add my vote to George's suggestion "Lee-Bruh".

#4

+1 too

#5

As a Canadian I recently attended LinuxFest Northwest in Bellingham, WA. It was a great event and LibreOffice was well represented there. All went well until I heard some folk calling it LeeBRAY-office. Ouch! Please, there is NO accent on the final letter in 'libre'- so no braying, eh?

Ouch indeed!

To my ears 'LEEbruh' would be close (Lee as in Bruce Lee or even Robert E. Lee and 'bruh' like the first syllable of brother in American).

And your Canadian ears should be respected, I say.

It's in the FAQs: http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/faq/general-faq/how-do-you-pronounce-libreoffice/

Aaargh! But this makes no sense.

One of the first things to do in choosing a name to be used by the general public - along with making sure it is not already a trade name and that it doesn't mean something unfortunate in some language or other - is that speakers of all relevant languages will easily determine its pronunciation accurately and identically. OK, so LibreOffice has failed at the first hurdle, but it's too late to rectify that.

Failing that, yes: there needs to be an accepted pronunciation clearly explained somewhere. But the FAQ lets us down there too: it asks the question but fails to offer an answer! Instead, it meekly says "If you want to hear" something else, here's how to get there. And I'm sorry, but what it offers makes no sense at all. First "LibreOffice is offered to Google Translate as a French word to be translated into English. Since it isn't a French word at all, Google Translate understandably fails and merely reproduces the original - exactly as it should for a proper name. (So why even point to that process in the FAQ?) Clicking the "Listen" button then merely asks Google Translate to try to read "LibreOffice" as an English word. But it's not an English word either, and the result is merely an attempt to render that string of letters as if it were!

The FAQ needs to have the definitive answer, not this mess. As it explains, the "Libre" part of the name is French or Spanish. The proper pronunciation needs at least to respect this choice and come up with something that approximates the French or Spanish word. Doesn't that mean that "Li" part has to be LEE (not LIE) and "bre" has to be BRUH or BREE (not BRAY)? (I read it as BRUH, but that's because I am marginally more familiar with French than with Spanish.)

Brian Barker

#6

I pronounce it "Lee-Bruh", not that I have much necessity to speak it.

--Jean

#7

I fully agree with all you've clearly said, Brian. Lee-Bruh is (should be?) the official pronounciation, not that Google translation thingy.

#8

Actually if you read Libre as a Spanish word (instead of French) then the
closest pronunciation for English speakers is probably Lee-Brea : Lee as
Bruce and Brea as the word Bread but without pronouncing the final d

This means that there are (at least) two correct pronunciations :slight_smile:

Just my 2 cents :wink:

#9

I know that this has been thrashed out over the last few months but when I saw the FAQ offering I was dumbfounded.

Considering the technologies around, why can't we start a pole, with all the variations being discussed posted as alternatives?

The community can then vote on the pronunciation that it prefers - Assuming their is a majority this should be the preferred pronunciation posted on the FAQ page.

#10

+1 too

Ditto !

#11

Sorry Jean, the FAQ link is to Google traduction which offers to
translate the term LibreOffice from français to anglais and then
pronounces it "Library Office" - disgusting! - and meaningless.

At the same time if one asks it to translate Libre from French to
English is clearly says Free - so the translation, or at least
pronunciation, should have been FreeOffice, eh? Free would certainly be
closer than Library!

Sadly, Google can't even pronounce Cartier or Perrier correctly - they
do not rhyme with furrier, and neither does Bouvier. Both Jacques
Cartier and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onasis must be turning in their
respective graves.

Georges

#12

Pronunciation does not make any difference when posting, since you are writing it and not saying it. can't figure what the big fuss is about.

Spokanedan

#13

Speaking for "American" English...

There isn't much ambiguity about how "libre" should be pronounced in American English. We simply can't make the proper sound and the logical substitution is "bruh" or "breh" or similar.

I say "similar" because we American's will pretty much say it as we please. It's not something we stress about. Fortunately we all pronounce "office" more or less the same. :slight_smile:

Cheers,
             tod

Tod Hopkins
Hillmann & Carr Inc.
todhopkins@hillmanncarr.com

#14

wrote, perhaps among other things:

Caveat, I am new to the LibreOffice users list. Please do let me know
where I should direct my suggestion.

As a Canadian I recently attended LinuxFest Northwest in Bellingham, WA.
It was a great event and LibreOffice was well represented there.

All went well until I heard some folk calling it LeeBRAY-office. Ouch!
Please, there is NO accent on the final letter in 'libre'- so no
braying, eh?

While there is no accent on the "e" in Libre, we're all familiar with
the delightful beverage called a "Cuba Libre", which is indeed
pronounced "LEE-bray", or at least close enough for non
hispanohablantes, and which lacks the accent (I'd describe it as a
"short long 'e' sound).. It is indeed how "Libre" would be pronounced
by my Tucsonan citymates.

May I suggest that somewhere on their site LibreOffice give suggestions
for pronouncing the product name in English.

To my ears 'LEEbruh' would be close (Lee as in Bruce Lee or even Robert
E. Lee and 'bruh' like the first syllable of brother in American).

LEEbruh is a constellation, although I'm sure many more folks who
follow the insanity of astrology use it than do astronomers.

No doubt a proper linguist could give better instruction. Please do.

I had 6 or 7 linguistics classes, but that was about 40 years ago. I'm
sure the language has moved on since then.