# Pronunciations

The Problem[^tjbb2791ol]
------------------------

As part of my work I have to pronounce a lot of names and other uncommon/specialized words. More often than not this turns out to be hard.

This is quite time-consuming because of things like:

*   People trimming off or omitting introductions from speeches, TED talks, podcasts etc.
*   The scourge of machine-generated SEO-bait websites and YouTube channels with incorrect pronunciations flooding the internet with noise. 
*   Even when they get it right:
    *   [This guy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnA66BbuLaA) (headphone warning, try to guess the timestamp when he finally says it)
*   People sometimes being confidently wrong in their podcasts etc. (guilty...)
*   People with interesting names often not particularly caring about, or just being resigned to, mispronunciations.

Pronunciations
--------------

I'm going to maintain and regularly add to a list here of pronunciations for key names and concepts relevant to LW and its extended ecosystem. Hopefully this will be a useful resource for anyone creating audio content, giving talks, interviews etc. Maybe check here first before wading into Google.

Feel free to comment with corrections and suggested additions.\

**Pronunciations:**
-------------------

*   **Apotropaic -** æp.ə.trəˈpeɪ.ɪk
*   **Aviles** \- a VEE lays
*   **Bear Braumoeller -** Beer BROW-mewlla
*   **Bernal -** ber NAHL
*   **Brynjolfsson** \- brinYOLFsen
*   **Brower** \- like eyebrow
*   **Carnot cycle -** Approximately French kaʁno - CARno
*   **Char-RNN** \- -CAR arr enn enn
*   **Compute (noun) -** Com-PUTE  'how much comPUTE would it take to brute-force this?'
*   **COP 21** \- 'cop' 21 (not initials), 'cop' like 'copper'
*   **Dag Hammarskjöld** \- [Here are some native speakers](https://forvo.com/word/dag_hammarskj%C3%B6ld/). Darg Hammerheld/Hammerhold/Hammer-hyeld. Roll the r if you're fancy.
*   **Demeter** \- duh·MEE·tuh
*   **Duprex** \- doo PRAY
*   [**Dylan Hadfield-Menell**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfElDoZ5O4Y) **\- DIL-lan HADfield-menELL**
*   **Eleusinian** \- elle you SINny an
*   **Eli Lifland** \- Ee -lye LIFF-lend
*   **Eliezer Yudkowsky ** \- Elly EZzer Yood *(rhymes wood)* \- COW - ski  
*   **Esfandiary -** ESS fan diYAHri **(**based on the Persian pronunciation)
*   **Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI)** \- EL-see
*   [Eudaemonia](https://www.google.com/search?q=pronounce+eudaemonia) \- you-da-MOAN-ia (you da man! no, *you* da man!)
*   **Evan Hubinger** \- Evan HEW-bin-ger (as in germ) 
*   **Frequentist -** FREEquenTIST 
*   [FU YING](https://www.google.com/search?q=PRONOUNCE+FU+YING) (approximate pronunciation)- Foo (as in 'foot', don't hang onto the vowel), Ying (as written, approximately.)
*   **Stephan Guyenet** \- STEffen Geeyenay (hard g, rhymes with DNA)
*   **IARPA** \- eye-ARPA (with the dipthong between syllables 1 and 2). 'Ieyarpa.'
*   **Igic** \- IGG itch
*   **IPCC** – EYE PEE SEE SEE
*   **Jaffe** \- Jaffy
*   **Jan Leike** \- Yarn Like-eh
*   **Kareiva (Peter) -** Ka-REEva
*   **Kokotajlow** \- ko-ko-tie-low
*   **Leverhulme -** Leaver - hume
*   **Mandarin** (language) - MAN duh-ren (the last I is not sharp, the last syllable is weak.)
*   **Mercator** \- Mer - KAY - ter
*   **NeurIPS Conference** \- rhymes with europe's conference or 'new rips' conference. 
*   **Piers Millett** – Somewhere between 'pierce' and 'peers', muh-LETT
*   **Sarewitz** \- sair (rhyme hair) uh wits
*   SARS CoV 2 - 'sars KOH-vee two'
*   **Savulescu** \- savoo LEscoo
*   **Schlegeris** \- ? It's either shLEG-ris or shLERRis, I've heard both, TODO
*   **Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh** \- (yes) [Shawn uh'HAY-ger-t(h)é ](https://youtu.be/QsRro57_SxU?t=13)
*   **Selegiline** \- suh LEDGE uh lean
*   **Vernor Vinge –** VIN-djiy 
*   **Wassily Kandinsky** \- va·suh·lee kan·din·skee 
*   **Wasieleski -** Vashi-LESHky
*   Zhdanov - [ˈʐdanəf](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Russian)

[^tjbb2791ol]: Test footnote