"How would one pronounce the acronym TANSTAAFL?"

Asked by fastfinge 38 months ago

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Robert Heinlein is famous for coining the phrase "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch", often shortened to the acronym TANSTAAFL. In his book _Friday_, however, he goes so far as to include this acronym in spoken dialogue (quoted under fair use):
"You sound like your late father. I think he invented tanstaafl."

Neither of the characters react to this at all. So, my question is: does this acronym have some sort of standard way it should be spoken? How are words with double "a"s pronounced in English, anyway? Or are we to assume that the character spelled out the acronym? If so, it seems like saying the phrase would have been shorter, more natural, and more obvious. I find it difficult to assume Heinlein made such an atrocious mistake in dialogue.


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"Tan Staff ul"
 by Wayne on Dec 09 2006 (38 months ago)
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Double vowels are usually pronounced long. In fact, in phonetic spellings of words, double vowels are sometimes used to indicate a vowel should be pronounced long. The only problem is the last L.  The FL could be pronounced together, but this is a bit difficult since FL is normally not at the end of a English word.  Usually a single consonant like this is pronounced by adding a vowel before it. 

So, tan-staff-ul
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"tan'stah-fl"
 by oddbob on Dec 09 2006 (38 months ago)
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Tan (as in Tanning Salon)
Stah (as in, rhymes with the Bah in Bah, Humbug)
fl (as in the last sound in raffle)

Definitely the character did not spell out the acronym.  After Heinlein popularized it, it become common jargon among conservative economists and libertarians.
Sources: http://jargon.net/jargonfile/t/TANSTAAFL.html
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"Let's just invent a standard pronunciation"
 by karlc on Dec 13 2006 (38 months ago)
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I propose, "Tan-staffle". Second best would be "Tan-stawful" which is a bit harder to say, but has that "awful" homophone that conveys some of the meaning just by itself. There are other examples of acronyms that become words. NIMBY (Not In My BackYard) is one. A more apposite one is SNAFU (Situation Normal: All F*cked Up). (Also LASER, RADAR, CAD-CAM, etc.) There are even other examples in science fiction. Larry Niven liked to use TANJ, as in "TANJ it! That kzin starfighter is still on my tail." TANJ stands for There Ain't No Justice. So I wouldn't call it an atrocious mistake, maybe more a kind of feeble self-referential joke.
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"TANSTAAFL (pronounced TAN-staff-ul)"
 by Spamgirl on Dec 09 2006 (38 months ago)
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What We Do
TANSTAAFL Media is committed to the production of educational media. Our specialty is working with PBS and the Public Television system to develop, produce, and distribute educational television programs. We also have substantial experience producing training and industrial media. Our team works in video and other electronic media, including web sites, interactive media, digital video, HDTV, and specialty DVDs.


Who We Are
TANSTAAFL’s staff has extensive experience with media production and distribution, including both PBS and commercial projects. Our creative and talented team comes from an eclectic background in media and industry. We work with independent professionals, both locally and abroad, so that we can cover a wide variety of locations, topics, and specialized media needs.


What the Heck Does TANSTAAFL Mean, Anyway?
TANSTAAFL (pronounced TAN-staff-ul) is an acronym for "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch." Meaning, if you get it for free, there's still a price you must pay, somewhere. It may not be obvious, but it's there.

Or — good things take hard work.

The term was popularized by Robert Heinlein's classic science-fiction novel, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, and was (practically) the title of Dr. Milton Friedman’s economics book, There's No Such Thing As a Free Lunch, but the original use of the more grammatically correct term TINSTAAFL can be traced back to 1952 in the writings of ethicist Alvin Hansen.
Sources: http://www.tanstaaflmedia.com/about/
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