Bill: Like you, I disagree with Stan on the pronunciation of the initials, rather than the unit name. As far as I'm concerned, it's only sounded out as gee double-U in statements such as "spelled GW, pronounced gigawatt." However, I have a personal disagreement on the pronunciation of giga. Common usage, unfortunately not yet reflected in Merriam-Webster (or the American Heritage Dictionary) in this case, is to use a hard g. The Canadians (Gage) have chosen the hard g, with the soft g permissible (and, therefore, secondary), as have the British (Oxford). I have yet to hear the soft g in conversation (or on the radio or TV). One of the problems with it is that it makes the associated unit sound like some kind of dance (particularly an Irish or Scottish one) or something related to the measurement of cocktail ingredients. Do you want to jig, or what? Boy, that little jigger hurts (GHz). Pass me the jigger, Pascal. Bill _____
Bill Potts W <http://wfpconsulting.com/> FP Consulting Roseville, CA <http://metric1.org/> http://metric1.org [SI Navigator] _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bill Hooper Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 17:53 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:45245] Re: Brevity On May 10 , at 9:45 PM, Stan Jakuba wrote: As another example, ... the same with GW. Let's use only the symbol, not the word gigawatt, and pronounce it g w . This one example does not illustrate your point well. Your point was that pronouncing the letters of the symbol is simpler (or at least shorter) than pronouncing the name of the unit. Pronouncing the letters of the symbol "GW" is LONGER than pronouncing the name "gigwatt": "GW" is pronounced "gee dub-uhl-you", four syllables. "Gigawatt" is pronounced "jig-a-watt", only three syllables. Regards, Bill Hooper Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA ========================== Make It Simple; Make It Metric! ==========================
