At this point, you've probably heard me
pronounce SQL two ways-- sequel or S-Q-L. Some of you might even be mad that I'm pronouncing it
one way or the other, and you may have
very good reason for believing that your favorite pronunciation
is the correct one. So what's the deal? Well, SQL was originally invented
at IBM in the early 1970s. And the first version
was called SEQUEL, and it stood for
Structured English QUEry Language. That acronym, SEQUEL,
was later changed to SQL, because SEQUEL was already
trademarked by an airplane company, and companies really don't like
getting into trademark lawsuits. Nowadays, many of us still
pronounce it sequel, because it's shorter to say, and we've got historical reasons
to claim that it's the right way. However, when I surveyed
developers across the world, I found that in non-English languages,
many of them pronounce it S-Q-L, or, for example,
ese cu ele in Spanish. Since our videos get translated
here on Khan Academy, I figured I'd make it easier for translators to match
the pace of our videos, by pronouncing SQL the long way. But in everyday life,
I'm used to calling it sequel, so both of them come out of me. Now you know,
it can be S-Q-L or sequel, and you'll probably hear both
the rest of your life. The world is a messy place, but at least you now have a way of
structuring your queries about it, right?