How to Pronounce JSON
Reading this will probably be a waste of your time. It’s not an official document. It’s a preference.
Some time back I wrote a little ditty on how to pronounce MySQL. The article, having lived on a UW server during my tenure there, is now gone. The gist: It’s “My S-Q-L,” not “My Sequel.” Yes, that’s how it’s pronounced, even if they’re flexible about it.
- SQL = Sequel
- MSSQL = Sequel Server
- MySQL = My S-Q-L
Arbitrary? Yes. Truth? Yes.
Normally I don’t write about things like this because they get me into trouble and they tend to start the worst type of flame war: one that is based solely on preference. I love language and the pronunciation of language. My rules for pronunciation are fairly arbitrary but I like to adhere strictly to those rules. Does that make sense? I’m irrationally rational.
NASA = nă-sŭh
Tron = trŏn
Megatron = mĕh-gŭh-trŏn
JSON = Jason = jā-sŭn (not jā-sŏn)
Clear? It’s Jason, like the boy’s name, like -and-the-Argonauts.
Why? Because of the obvious similarity in spelling to the boy’s name and the ease of pronunciation that similarity affords. The “O” in JSON stands for Object. Fine. That’s still not a good enough reason for me to change the way I say it.
When possible, acronyms are created in such a way as to ease their pronunciation. Why? Because it makes them memorable, even catchy, which aids in their adoption. Remember the Ajax story? The reason why XMLHttpRequest became such a big hit all of a sudden in 2005–even though developers had been using it for quite some time–is because 1) Jesse James Garrett wrote about it and 2) he used a catchy name.
The name itself is arbitrary. There is no reason why this data format that we label JSON could not have been called JSOLDTF: JavaScript Object Literal Data Transfer Format.
So why didn’t Douglas Crockford call it that? Because it’s unpronounceable.
LASER is not pronounced lă-sēR, even though the A is “Amplification,” the S is “Stimulated,” the E is “Emission,” and the R is “Radiation.” It’s pronounced like ley-zer. Why? Because it sounds better.
Arbitrary? Yes. Truth? Yes.
Now, saying all of that, I promise not to correct you or make fun of you if you pronounce JSON like you’re trying to name a new Transformers character, even if you are Douglas Crockford. Just please don’t try to correct me, either, and everything will be yacht rock.