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How do you say it?


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I pronounce CITO correctly: "SEE-toe"

 

First, the two-syllable pronounciation is analogous to the two-syllable pronounciation of "NATO"

 

Second, the leading C is pronounced the same way it is in many CI- words (CITY, CIDER, CINGULAR)

 

Finally, the I could have several pronounciations. You could have a short I sound, like the CI in CITY (sih-toe). You could have a long I, like the CI in CIDER (sie-toe). You could also have a long-E-like sound, like the sounds used in Spanish or Japanese(?), which would give the see-toe pronounciation.

 

The short I form yields a pronounciation that doesn't quite roll off your tongue (not to mention, it sounds rather close to "sicko"). The long I form turns it into a harsh-sounding pair of two accented syllables. The long-E-like form, on the other hand, yields a prounciation that is very similar to "GEO" both in rhythm (SEE-toe, JEE-oh) and vowel sound (long E, long O; long E, long O). This makes "CITO" a drop-in replacement for "GEO".

 

Anyway, the CITO(SEE-toe)/GEO parallel means that you can very simply and pleasantly replace the GEO prefix on all kinds of common terms. If you're going to a Cache In Trash Out event, you're going to a citocache (SEE-toe-cache). If you're going off to cache with the intention of cleaning up the area, you're citocaching (SEE-toe-caching). It "Just Fits"

 

Oh, incidentally, I asked Agent's text-to-speech function... "/msg ClayJar C-I-T-O is pronounced CITO"... and the winner is: "SEE-toe"

 

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Ooohh...Having a background in speech and language pathology, I often wondered how people around the geocaching world would pronounce this.

I see the emergence of regional dialects in everyone's choice. Nice!

 

I too would choose the /cito/

 

C - /s/ is fricative (lingua-alveolar) and the tongue is forward and teeth together in the mouth to create the ssss sound.

I - /i/ is a mopthong and the tongue is still forward and the teeth are still close together, but not closed as in the /s/

T - /t/ is a stop (lingua- alveolar) where the tongue touches the area just behind the back of the teeth. (many will make the /d/ sound because the sounds are almost exact in nature, anatomically speaking, the /d/ is just a voiced version of /t/)

O - /o/ thus the o is a long monopthong where the tongue is returning to a resting position.

 

So, in chosing I think this would be the easiest for pronunciation of CITO as a word. Regionally though, I can see why it differs.

 

Interesting thread.

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It isn't communication unless the hearer understands.

 

Therefore the correct pronunciation is 'cache in, trash out' as there can be no confusion.

 

All other pronunciations are equally acceptable/unacceptable. Either the person gets it or they look confused and you end up saying 'cache in, trash out' anyway.

 

Any way you look at it, just make sure you do it. It is a good, noble, selfless thing to do. If there is such a thing as karma, then you score points too! (You don't want to come back as a toad eating bugs do you? Well, do you!?)

 

Practice CITO or get reincarnated as a toad is my motto.

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