If pronounciation was an irritant they would have saved a lot of the
hand-wringing by just putting an acute accent on the "e", as in, "MATÉ".

Yes, I know it was invented in Argentina where the accent isn't used. But
if creators were at all concerned about global pronunciation and knowing
there is already a popular use of the spelling in English ... the
compromise would have helped.

Since language prefers efficiency, the one-syllable version will not go
away naturally -- the creators need to care enough to do something about
it.  Consider how most people (and even dictionaries
<https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/pronunciation/english/linux>)
pronounce Linux as "Linnicks" even though Linus himself clearly wanted
"Leenuks" in a vary short and famous audio clip
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c39QPDTDdXU>. He didn't press the issue
and now the "canonical" pronunciation is all but dead.

Nanny-scolding and obscure videos won't work. Visual clues in the word
itself will.

If only developers didn't detest marketing. It's not too late to add the
accent.

- Evan


On Mon, Jul 31, 2023 at 10:05 AM Robert Brockway via talk <[email protected]>
wrote:

> On Mon, 31 Jul 2023, Kevin Cozens via talk wrote:
>
> > There is more than one way to pronounce MATE?
>
> It should be pronounced in the manner of the South American drink it is
> named after rather than how an English speaker would normally say 'mate'.
>
> Good short vid:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAqzdnNnvSQ
>
> Cheers,
>
> Rob
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