OSR BECMI, how do you say it?

[Snarf Zagyg]

In Italy BECMI is pronunced in this way:
B like in Best
E like in rEst
C like in CHeddar
M as usual
I like in sIster

In France, they pronounce it béchamel .... and use it as a tasty sauce!

 

[Parmandur]

Not until this thread have I ever heard or considered pronouncing it as an acronym, instead of spelling it out as an initialism.

Same here, though I have never had reason to say it out loud or hear someone do it, but in my head I always parse it as "Bee-eeh-See-ehm-aye"

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Same here, though I have never had reason to say it out loud or hear someone do it, but in my head I always parse it as "Bee-eeh-See-ehm-aye"

In all seriousness (which is quite a strain for me, btw), I am the other way around.

As far as I can remember, ever since "BECMI" was a thing, I always pronounced it BECK-mee. It never occurred to me that people were spelling it out. Like S.C.U.B.A.

 

[Parmandur]

In all seriousness (which is quite a strain for me, btw), I am the other way around.

As far as I can remember, ever since "BECMI" was a thing, I always pronounced it BECK-mee. It never occurred to me that people were spelling it out. Like S.C.U.B.A.

I mean...I started playing D&D with 3.5, but I do remember seeing print ads for the Rules Cyclopedia in magazines when I was 7 or 8: the fine parsing of BD&D history ia something I've only learned in the past decade, and then almost entirely through textual formats. I tend to sound out acronyms, though: Nintendo released the "Enh-eeh-ees" not a "nez".

 

[darjr]

Now I want a Pointer Sisters song.

 

[Nikosandros]

In Italy BECMI is pronunced in this way:
B like in Best
E like in rEst
C like in CHeddar
M as usual
I like in sIster

Hmm... never heard it with the "CH" sound, but always with a "K" sound.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I mean...I started playing D&D with 3.5, but I do remember seeing print ads for the Rules Cyclopedia in magazines when I was 7 or 8: the fine parsing of BD&D history ia something I've only learned in the past decade, and then almost entirely through textual formats. I tend to sound out acronyms, though: Nintendo released the "Enh-eeh-ees" not a "nez".

I am not sure if there is a hard and fast rule, but I think that generally, if an acronym easily resolves (due to vowels), and is more than one syllable, then it will tend to get sounded out as a word. If it's one syllable (especially if it's three letters or less) then it will get said as the letters.

Hence-
UN is Yoo Enn.

But UNESCO is Yoo-Ness-ko.

UPS is Yoo Pee Ess (not, um, ups. Although that would be funny!).
CONCACAF (a soccer thing) is Kon-Ka-Kaf.

 

[Pedantic]

In all seriousness (which is quite a strain for me, btw), I am the other way around.

As far as I can remember, ever since "BECMI" was a thing, I always pronounced it BECK-mee. It never occurred to me that people were spelling it out. Like S.C.U.B.A.

I think maybe it's something to do with running across B/X written or said out in full as "Basic/Expert" enough times? That, and BECMI feels more separable than other, similar acronyms. You can imagine someone only talking about Expert or Immortal, so keeping them apart makes it clear that each letter is its own distinct concept, even if they're usually referred to as a whole.

 

[The Soloist]

BEC in French is a kiss. BEC-Me = kiss me.

I say each letter separately B E C M I.

 

[Muso]

Hmm... never heard it with the "CH" sound, but always with a "K" sound.

In Bologna we pronunce it BECMI (soft c) and not BECHMI with the hard c. Maybe in Rome you have a different pronunciation (to be honest it makes some sense because the C is for Companion that is pronunced with the hard c).