Bill:
In the typical U.S. manner, ignorant of the non-AngloSaxon cultures, the
proponents of metrication in the 1970s debated how to pronounce giga (yes!).
The enlightened among the proponents realized that the word outside the A-S
sphere pronounces most letters, or their standardized combination (French,
German), always the same. Many languages are outright phonetic, meaning that
each letter has the same pronunciation in all situations and often even its
name is simply the sound it represents. Thus worldwide, the sameness of the two
g g was established from inception, generations before the US started to
reinvent the wheel. It took decades before this world-wide "common sense"
prevailed in the U.S. (thanks to gigabytes on disks imported from abroad?), but
apparently not 100 % yet.
There was never any doubt among many on the Metric Board, ASTM, ANMC, USMA as
to the "right" (i.e. worldwide prevalent) pronunciation. It cost US some money
before the others smarted out on this issue. Too bad that the NBS (now NIST)
posters, prescribing jiga, are still about. As with the -er -re issue -- the
provincial thinking helped to kill metricating USA.
Stan Jakuba
PS: I took it as self-evident that the "G" dispute had nothing to do with the
brevity discussion
----- Original Message -----
From: Bill Hooper
To: Stan Jakuba
Sent: 09 Jul 14, Tuesday 22:22
Subject: Re: [USMA:45245] Re: Brevity
Stan,
I admit that I know computer memory is sometimes measured in gigabites and
that this is usually pronounced with the hard "g". However, I have not been led
to believe that the hard "g" for the SI prefix (giga) is universal.
I have always understood that the Greek "giga" is the root of such words as
"giant" and "gigantic", and hence would be pronounced with the soft "g" sound.
Even the name of the letter,"g", is pronounced with a soft "g"
I realize also that pronouncing "giga" as "jih-guh" is inconsistent since
that has the first "g" soft and the second "g" hard.
I thought (still think?) the jury is out on this question but I am open
arguments to the contrary.
By the way, the pronunciation of "giga" is not relevant to the point I was
making (recopied below). That had to do with the length/complexity if the
unit's pronunciation, not whether the "g" is soft or hard.
Regards,
Bill
On Jul 14 , at 11:50 AM, Stan Jakuba wrote:
Bill, are you telling a computer store clerk how much computer memory you
want in jig....? Everybody else says gig.... (as in giggle) latest since 1980.
Thus a gig-a-watt, not jig...
----- Original Message -----
From: Bill Hooper
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 "gigawatt":
"GW" is pronounced "gee dub-uhl-you", four syllables.
"Gigawatt" is pronounced "jig-a-watt", only three syllables.
