Talk:Mpox

Pronunciation
We recently had an edit by User:Smurrayinchester to add "pronounced ," to the lead sentence. I reverted with summary "Per MOS:LEADPRON only necessary if not apparent from spelling, and "mpox" was apparently chosen because the pronunciation should be straightforward". The pronouciation has been restored by User:Ost316 with summary "with all due respect to those who chose the name, the pronunciation is not apparent, as it is an uncommon letter combination for starting a word and does not separate the "m" from the "pox". Some may think it's pronounced more like MMMBop".

The dictionaries at Dictionary.com and Collins agree with the above proposed text, but Websters does not. I've not found the term at other dictionaries. I don't know how to pronounce MMMBop but if Ost316 is suggesting mpox might be pronounced without the "e" and just a "mm" sound, then my answer is then: so what. This is a neologism. It will be pronounced how it gets pronounced. I think their suggestion of a "wrong" pronunciation is unlikely, for the reason that "MMMBop" has multiple "m"s to emphasise the mm sound.

We aren't a dictionary. The guidance at MOS:LEADPRON is that the correct (or a reasonable) pronunciation has to be obscure to the unfamiliar reader. It has to be something a reader couldn't have worked out from the spelling. It is not that there are several options, given a spelling, and Wikipedia is here to insist on only one. It is that the reader is most likely to stumble. For example, we don't tell the reader how to pronounce Colin (given name) except for the American politician Colin Powell who had an unusual pronunciation. That "Colin" could be pronounced  doesn't mean an English reader is likely to do so and misunderstood if they did so (people without English as a first language often do pronounce "Colin" in all sorts of ways, but we don't add pronunciation guides to help Spanish or Chinese readers improve their English accent).

I think here, the reader is either unlikely to so mispronounce mpox that nobody will understand what they are saying or even think they are wrong, rather than just different. Whether they drop the "e" or change the o vowel sound is pretty unimportant, and getting on for the sort of variation we might get in English naturally.

I think we should remove the pronunciation in order to keep the lead sentence, like most Wikipedia articles, focused on information. -- Colin°Talk 07:15, 26 April 2023 (UTC)


 * I don't think the inclusion of the pronunciation is problematic; it takes up very little space and is not immediately obvious. I think it's fine as-is and would prefer that the pronunciation be retained. — OwenBlacker (he/him; Talk; please &#123;&#123;ping&#125;&#125; me in replies) 09:36, 26 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Space isn't the problem, nor is there any rule that only one pronunciation is "immediately obvious". Most English words not only could be pronounced in many ways, but most English words are pronounced in many ways by those with different accents. Manual of Style/Pronunciation says "Pronunciation should be indicated sparingly, as parenthetical information disturbs the normal flow of the text and introduces clutter". There is already clutter with the former name, so now the reader (or listener) is distracted with two parentheticals before getting to any definition. The pronunciation we now waste our readers time with is "apparent from its spelling", which is the guideline rule. That other pronunciations could be generated from that spelling is entirely normal for English, and not a reason to add it here. If the "m" was silent, you'd have a point. -- Colin°Talk 12:17, 26 April 2023 (UTC)
 * I agree with Colin. The first sentence should be a clear and a concise definition. We don't needed the clutter, which breaks the flow. This is an encyclopedia not a dictionary.Graham Beards (talk) 13:29, 26 April 2023 (UTC)


 * I find it hard to believe the fact mpox should be pronounced as a hybrid initialism is "apparent from its spelling". Perhaps if it were MPOX, MPox, or even m-pox. There are many proper names, albeit non-English, that begin with "m + consonant" that the common reader may be familiar with such as Mbappé or Mnong, and from the lack of pronunciation notes on their articles their pronunciation is "apparent from its spelling."
 * A footnote could be used to note the pronunciation without breaking flow, but the field in the infobox is better than nothing. 93 (talk) 03:11, 21 September 2023 (UTC)
 * I pronounce it like MMMBop, but only in jest with colleagues! I believe "em-pox" is the correct pronunciation. If we have good RS to support that, I think it's worth adding to the article because I can see some readers might be confused. Bondegezou (talk) 13:29, 21 September 2023 (UTC)
 * Btw, the pronunciation was moved from the lead sentence to the infobox by User:WhatamIdoing on 15 May. This seems to be the ideal compromise. It is there for those who think it is needed and it doesn't clutter the lead sentence. There is a long long history of Wikipedians complaining about lead sentence clutter like this, which is why we only permit such in very exceptional cases. Just because editors can imagine that someone out there someone might find it useful or might possibly get it wrong doesn't mean we need to break the flow of the lead sentence with what is a very minor aspect. There are people who think disease ICD-9, ICD-10, ICD-11 and MeSH codes are useful information (you'll find that right at the bottom of the article). -- Colin°Talk 14:37, 21 September 2023 (UTC)