Cal, you seem to want to turn this into a freakin’ argument. I didn’t invent the term. I was only reporting what I was able to find by physical and visual inspection. The results don’t seem to jibe with the decidedly un-technical publications you read. That doesn’t mean that everybody else in the business of using this gear doesn’t do something with which you disagree. Don’t shoot the damned messenger, OK?
And no, I’ve never seen “Open Mike Night”. I stay far, far away from places that have such a thing.
I’m not turni9ng it into an argument about which is right. I’m addressing the claims made by others that they never or rarely see “mike”, but always see “mic”. This is a disconnect with my own reality, in which precisely the opposite holds true.
I wonder if we’re at some sort of language turning-point here, and the usage is changing, but everyone sticks to their own milieu and only sees the spelling they’re familiar with.
Either that or, as I’ve often speculated, the Internet actually connects parallel universes in which things are exactly the same, except for a few tiny differences. It would explain Great Debates.
FWIW I see “mic” far more often than I see “mike.” The latter has always looked and felt wrong to me. Merriam-Webster disagrees (citing two entries for “mic,” neither of which have anything to do with audio hardware) but, well … it can go take a flying fuc.
Well, Cal, could you maybe come up with a picture of any piece of audio equipment that has the word “Mike” printed over the input socket or on the volume knob?
I would conjecture that “mic” is the term used by people in the sound business, and “mike” is, for want of a better description, a civilian term, used by people who know little or nothing about the sound industry and its methods and practices.
For what it’s worth, “Open Mic Night” (with the quotes) gets 850,000 results on Google. “Open Mike Night” (with the quotes) gets 256,000. So while you personally may not have seen or noticed it, it’s out there.
I’ll agree with that. The little hole on audio equipment is tiny and ‘mic’ is shorter than ‘mike’ and it’s a shortened version of ‘microphone,’ so that works.
It’s out there, but when I do a Yahoo search the relative probability is reversed – “Open Mike Night” gets about 5 tuimes as many hits as “Open Mic Night”.
I guess “tiny” is a relative term. Professional microphones generally use a balanced Cannon (XLR) plug, a 3-pin connector which is about 3/4" in diameter. If a mic uses a 1/8" phone plug, it’s pretty safe to say it’s in the realm of Cheap Crap™.
Huh?! I knew some of you guys south of the border talked funny , but do you really pronounce it wa-LAH down there? It’s pronounced as it’s spelled up here (at least by anyone I’ve heard pronounce it).
I put in last week’s church bulletin a mention of our upcoming Vacation Bible School. I put that "this year’s theme will be " yada yada. I was told that meant the contraction and I needed to take out the apostrophe. Ummm, right.
Yeah, and “mucous” instead of “mucus”. “Mucus” is what comes out your nose (no it’s not, it’s snot). “Mucous” is an adjective to describe what comes out your nose. QtM (pauses reverently) and I can get away with “myxoid”, as in “degeneration”, which makes me think it could be a new curse to post in Lobsang’s I-need-an-Og-substitute thread. “You vapid vessel of myxoid degeneration!”
Well, to my eye it’s spelled as though to be pronounced “VOY-la” but that just sounds iggerunt…
I actually have seen message board posts reading “…so you put the cherry on top, and wallah! it’s done!” :smack:
I myself, whenever I use that word, pronounce the “v” about as strongly as I pronounce the “u” in “so desu ne!” but I judge that it’s perceived as an unalloyed “w” by the nyekulturni based on missives such as that referenced above.
I indulged in a spot of hyperbole there… <—I staunchly defend my own misuse of ellipses as their usage mimicking my verbal style. It’s colloquial, dammit!
