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On "data" pronunciation

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Anonymous, 2 yr 210 days ago

I don't think there is a hard and fast rule here. However:

If you have a two syllable word that ends with an 'a', it's typical that the vowel in the first is short. Like 'dada', 'feta', etc. This is not a rule so much as a pattern that should be observed. Following it, the 'da' in 'data' should not be pronounced like 'day'. Nevertheless, pronunciation and spelling in English are complicated by a number of things: most commonly from words that come from other languages. 'Datum' and 'data' belong to that category.

As for the who/whom question, since when is this controversial? Whom is an object pronoun like 'her', 'him', 'them' etc.

(a) I went to the movies with Sarah.

(b) You went with WHOM?  

It's out of popular use, but I don't think anyone who teaches grammar would say there is any argument to how it was designed to be used.

Anonymous, 1 yr 146 days ago
That psychology professor at UC Berkeley is misinformed on the subject.
Datum is the singular form.
Data is the plural form of datum.
Check Webster, Oxford, etc.
A similar example would be "Media" and "Medium"; Medium is the singular form of Media.
Data can be used as a singular non-countable noun nowadays, but the latin origin of "Data" is "Datum".
Nobody uses "Datas", or worse, "Datae".
Now, on the pronunciation...
Before even thinking about how to pronounce "Data", think about how you would pronounce "Datum".
If you start the first syllable of Media and Medium the same way, wouldn't you do the same for first syllable of Data and Datum?
Here's a little rote to help: "Orlando Bloom is cute, but I would never 'Datum'."
Related discussions
Anonymous, 1 yr 37 days ago
/da: ta/
Anonymous, 271 days ago
Da: ta as in dad is plural while datum is singular ok...   I think either is correct but since of late people tend to say da: ta more than day: ta but I still say day:ta it actually sounds much better
Anonymous, 205 days ago
Right.  classic American arrogance.  In the rest of the English-speaking world, it is "datta."
Summer Always  +  698597 Fri, 17 Apr 09 04:51 PM
How about "says" and "said"?


Years ago, my English teacher taught me to pronounce these as [SEiz] and [SEid], and that's how I've been saying ever since.  I've been living in North America for many years, and so far nobody has made any comment on this to me, but according to dictionaries, it should sound [SE:z] and [SE:d]. Have I been saying it wrong all the time?


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Summer Always
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