At 2026-11-09T20:11:40+0100, Tadziu Hoffmann wrote: > > I consider those forms to be Commonwealth English affectations. > > They should be discarded with powdered wigs, fox hunts, and the > > monarchy. ;-) > > Though in computing we do have daemons, not demons.
Yes, and at least in the U.S., everybody seems to pronounce that word
"daymons", or like the given name "Damon". I've heard this usage since
the mid-1990s.
The pronunciation may have arisen due to ignorance but I doubt the
spelling did. Possibly these practices were an effort by university
Unix users' groups--which were once a thing--to avoid hostile attention
from Campus Crusade for Christ and similar authoritarian evangelical
groups. Those people used to be considered a major threat to a free and
open society.
Now, of course, they run every branch of the U.S. government.[1]
But whatever the reason for the vowel shape, it doesn't serve to make
the pronunciation of the "ae" bigram any clearer.
Regards,
Branden
[1] As of this coming 3 January, not Congress, assuming the newly
elected members are allowed to take their seats.
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