Deciding pronunciation of new words that don't obey natural rules of a language

Question

This question was sparked by considering the "word": pwn.

"Pawn" and "-pone" are both existing written form and vocalizations, but "pown" pronounced like "pone" is not a valid written form. It exists nowhere in English except for the modern term. In fact, I feel that it should be pronounced like "down" or "clown" with that written form.

Of course, it has it's origin as a mis-typing of "own" thus it may be natural to pronounce in "pone." However, pronunciation of words sort of evolves organically, and words generally have their origin in the vocal form.

How are we to decide on the pronunciation of a "word" that has its origin in written form (and not verbal communication), and more than that a written form that doesn't obey any of the natural rules of the vocal language?

This question could extend to any lol-speak "word" whose origin is in typed communication, e.g. saying "LOL" like "lull." I don't think it applies to constructed words that obey the rules of language, e.g. complicated technical jargon of academic fields. Such words are often derived from natural words, even if from a foreign language.

Answer 1

"We" don't really decide anything when it comes to pronouncing constructed or contrived words or symbols, various of which which have been discussed previously on Stack Exchange, for example

• Invented names, e.g. TeX and LaTeX, Leia, Eärendil, Radchaai, etc.
• Linnaean taxa
• Protein names
• Computing terms and commands, e.g. char, lib, regex, grep, dmesg
• Mathematical terms like cos, sinh x, ∈
• Domain names like jsfiddle.net
• Other abbreviations and initialisms, whether or not acronymized. A few that have come up on this site include
  • the unit of measure kg
  • the HCI term GUI
  • the Latin abbreviation cf
  • the academic degree Ph.D.
  • the US government term FEIN

You'll find many of the questions linked have been closed as opinion-based, because they are opinion-based; knowledgeable people may pronounce them differently from one another, and have no reason for doing so other than that being how they first heard it pronounced, or how they think it should be pronounced.

What tends to happen instead is that one or other pronunciation becomes popularized because it is similar to an existing commonplace word, phrase, or similar abbreviation, or because some novel pronunciation is taken up by an influential person. There is no predictability in it. The standardized exam known as the PSAT is spoken as an initialism: pee-ess-aiee-tee. But the LSAT, a different standardized exam, is always the ell-sat. There is no particular reason why one became known as one and the other the other, that is simply the convention that has arisen.

You might think that where the author or creator of a word or name is known, that person would be the authority on its pronunciation, but you would be demonstrably wrong. Steven Wilhite, creator of the GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), set off a firestorm when he said it should be pronounced /dʒɪf/ and not /gɪf/. Countless electrons have been spilled over the pronunciation of Linux, with one camp supporting /ˈlaɪnʌks/ and another pushing /ˈlɪnʌks/, when to my ear, Linus Torvalds pronounces it more like /'linʊks/ .