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Joined: Jan 2001
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enthusiast
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OP
enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 328 |
I recently finished Tom Clancy's The Bear and the Dragon, and noticed that numerous characters abbreviated the word computer as 'puter in everyday speech. I have never heard that done, and was wondering if anyone else has? It sounds rather odd to me. Aenigma thinks Tom Clancy is clandestine. 
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
numerous characters abbreviated the word computer as 'puter in everyday speechThis sort of observation requires very careful listening. We tend to fill in blank spaces in the sound stream according to what we expect. <Computer> => <c'mputer> is a small step. The <m> will then easily merge with the <p> and the <c> being unvoiced will easily become inaudible. Since we are used to these processes occurring we will easily fill in the sounds in post production audio centers in our brains.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 20
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 20 |
I have been trying, without success, to popularize a pronunciation I've heard from my 5-year-old for this item.
She calls it a compuker, which I find a very apt name most days....
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
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She calls it a compuker
There is a computer cable company called CompuCableŽ. Normally this would be pronounced with the primary accent on the first syllable, but if you shift it to the second syllable...
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veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
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I heard this 15 years ago, before I had ever seen or used a computer, from my assistant, an early computer geek. He used it as a sort of affectionate term, and pronounced it "pooter".
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
I heard this 15 years ago, before I had ever seen or used a computer, from my assistant, an early computer geek. He used it as a sort of affectionate term, and pronounced it "pooter".
Yes! I had a friend, also a geek, who called it "pooter". That's the only time I've ever actually heard it.
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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my kids call it my 'puter', but only because they can't yet pronounce it properly. the most common permutation i've heard, in jest (though appropos) is "confuser".
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Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 85
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 85 |
I've seen it in type more often than I've heard it aloud. And I've come across it more as a cute word than when someone is trying to be serious.
Ali
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I've never heard <puter>. Generally, people will say my PC, Mac or comp. Mon ordi in French.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
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As Arthur Godfrey, a popular radio peronality in the thirties said when he heard the name of a town in Massachusetts called "Barnstable" - that's a pee-yew name.
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