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[choro]

I believe it's bad form for gigolos to giggle while they are doing their
jiggling.

That's a good'un!

 

[choro]

Gamma, and it's a "hard G" in modern Greek, and Greek-derived words in
English, such a giga-. Its pronunciation in classical Greek is
apparently a matter of dispute. Most people say the hard G, but
somewhere I saw a claim that it's more like the ch in Bach, because the
chi is actually a K-H, ie, a strongly aspirated K, just as the phi is
P-H. Ask a Greek scholar if you want more pedantry. This is it for me,
for today. ;-)



Have a good day.

 

[choro]

Gamma, and it's a "hard G" in modern Greek, and Greek-derived words in
English, such a giga-. Its pronunciation in classical Greek is
apparently a matter of dispute. Most people say the hard G, but
somewhere I saw a claim that it's more like the ch in Bach, because the
chi is actually a K-H, ie, a strongly aspirated K, just as the phi is
P-H. Ask a Greek scholar if you want more pedantry. This is it for me,
for today. ;-)

Bullshite sir!

I understand this is the case in Spanish! But as far as I am concerned
the Greek G is a soft G for which there is no equivalent sound in
English though it is normally transliterated as Gh in English. One
popular Greek expression *Gamo ton kerrato sou!* which I better not
translate. *Explicit deleted!*

;-)

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

But I wouldn't dream of pronouncing the first G in Gigantic as G in
Going, going, gone! Why "Gigabyte" is pronounced with the G as in Go, I
wouldn't know except that maybe people are not au fait with the
pronunciation of such words in their original languages and because we
rely too much on the printed as opposed to the spoken word these days
particularly where technical jargon is concerned.

Physicists always pronounced gigabyte as an affricate, not as a stop,
i.e as in giant, not as in golf.

At least they used to. The programmers might have corrupted them in
these latter days.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

And then there's the other shibboleth: ambulance. HTF do people manage to
get AMB-lee-ance (rather than AMB-you-lance) out of that?

Please tell me who says that. I have never heard it said that way, and
I've even ridden in one.

 

[NY]

Please tell me who says that. I have never heard it said that way, and
I've even ridden in one.

It seems to be common here in the UK among teenagers and twenty-somethings -
the sort who refer to "train stations" instead of "railway stations", and
who ask a barman "Can I get a pint of lager" instead of "Can I have [can you
get me] a pint of lager", and who refer to distances in "kill-OMM-ittahs"
(see my earlier posting) and who, despite being British, use American words
like "closet" (for "cupboard") and "faucet" (for "tap").

 

[Ian Jackson]

Physicists always pronounced gigabyte as an affricate, not as a stop,
i.e as in giant, not as in golf.

At least they used to. The programmers might have corrupted them in
these latter days.

I've rarely heard the soft G used - but when it was, it was probably a
physicist using it (and my immediate reaction was "Uh?"). However, I'm
pretty certain I've never heard an engineer use anything other than a
hard G.

 

[Ian Jackson]

Please tell me who says that. I have never heard it said that way, and
I've even ridden in one.

It seems to be common here in the UK among teenagers and
twenty-somethings - the sort who refer to "train stations" instead of
"railway stations", and who ask a barman "Can I get a pint of lager"
instead of "Can I have [can you get me] a pint of lager", and who refer
to distances in "kill-OMM-ittahs" (see my earlier posting) and who,
despite being British, use American words like "closet" (for
"cupboard") and "faucet" (for "tap").

I very rarely hear "closet", except when "closet" means (usually
disparagingly) "secret" - as in (say) "a closet computer geek". Faucet
is never heard.

"Train station" really gets up my nose - but it is arguably a correct
description of the place where the trains stop.

The American "Can I get" is presumably a direct translation of what the
Dutch (and Germans) say.

Unfortunately, "kill-OMM-ittahs" has become a well-established word
(even among people who should know better) - but you'll never hear me
saying it.

On our London local radio station, LBC, instead of "because of" or "due
to", several of the readers (or, more likely, the writers) of the
traffic reports constantly use the expression "all down to" - as in "The
road closure is all down to a vehicle fire". More often than not, this
is followed by "Traffic is all down to one lane". It is exceedingly
tedious!

 

[John Williamson]

"Train station" really gets up my nose - but it is arguably a correct
description of the place where the trains stop.

Comparable with "Bus station", which, using the railway station analogy,
should presumably be a "Road station".

 

[NY]

I've rarely heard the soft G used - but when it was, it was probably a
physicist using it (and my immediate reaction was "Uh?"). However, I'm
pretty certain I've never heard an engineer use anything other than a hard
G.

I've never heard anyone use a soft G on giga, apart from Dr Brown in Back to
the Future - and I thought that was a weird affectation.

Ever since I've known about the SI prefixes (at school in the 1970s, and at
university in the 1980s doing physics and later electronic engineering) I've
never heard that pronunciation. I suppose the main usage, pre-computers and
GB, would have been UHF frequencies in GHz. CPU frequencies in GHz and data
storage in GB, in normal usage, date from long after I first heard giga
pronounced with a hard G at school in physics and maths. I remember my maths
teacher getting us to learn all the prefixes from pico (10 ^ -12) to tera
(10 ^ 12) and he pronounced it with hard G.

Maybe the physicists' soft-G pronunciation dates from long before this time.

 

[Wolf K]

Bullshite sir!

I understand this is the case in Spanish! But as far as I am concerned
the Greek G is a soft G for which there is no equivalent sound in
English though it is normally transliterated as Gh in English. One
popular Greek expression *Gamo ton kerrato sou!* which I better not
translate. *Explicit deleted!*

Correct, my error.

 

[charlie]

Please tell me who says that. I have never heard it said that way, and
I've even ridden in one.

Try Am Bull Lance for another way. (old midwest)

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

See my Pasta la Vista below!



Etymology, gentlemen, Etymology!

Let us not forget that the root word is Nucleus hence the correct
adjective must be Nuclear. --
choro
*****

I think that's what Drew was saying.

This is, of course, assuming - correctly most of the time - that we're
discussing atomic power or energy. There is of course the word meaning
"of or pertaining to a nucule" - see the quote on
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Gilliver (sorry I don't have a direct
link to the source).
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

A man is not contemptible because he thinks science explains everything, and a
man is not contempptible because he doesn't. - Howard Jacobson, in Radio Times
2010/1/23-29.

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <[email protected]>, NY

Maybe it's because I'm British rather than American, but I pronounce
the word with three syllables: NUKE-lee-AH.

Another difference is that we pronounce it (whether the correct nuclear
or the incorrect nucular) as if it has a y after the n, nyoo-. (This
_is_ a bit hard to explain, but even [most] USians pronounce "uniform"
as if it has a phantom y at the front.)

And then there's the other shibboleth: ambulance. HTF do people manage
to get AMB-lee-ance (rather than AMB-you-lance) out of that?

Like another poster, I've never heard that variant.

There are a few US versus UK differences: laboratory is LAB-ra-t'ry in
the US but lab-ORR-a-t'ry in the UK. To my British ears, the US
pronunciation always sounds suspiciously similar to lavatory

Mine too (-:. (Though of course there's no confusion - they call the
latter a bathroom, even though it usually does not have a bath[tub] in
it.)

And don't get me started on "kilometre". Being from a
scientific/engineering background I pronounce it "KILL-o-MEE-ter"
rather "kill-OMM-i-tah", on the grounds that every prefix and every

If I hear someone using that version, I might ask them their weight in
kill-*O*-gr'ms, or their height in cent-IM-'t'rs.

base unit in the SI system has its stress on the first syllable:
MILL-i, MI-cro, KILL-o, GI-ga etc and MEE-ter, FAR-rad, SEC-cond etc.
But I'm thinking of changing my middle name to "Canute" because I know
when I'm fighting a losing battle which I'll never be able to win

You and me both (-:

And as for "Jiggawatts" (with the G pronounced as a J), well that
belongs only in Back to the Future

Yes, with those staring eyes.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

A man is not contemptible because he thinks science explains everything, and a
man is not contempptible because he doesn't. - Howard Jacobson, in Radio Times
2010/1/23-29.

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

Comparable with "Bus station", which, using the railway station
analogy, should presumably be a "Road station".

Old joke number 42: a train station (yes, bugs me too; I'd just use
"station") is where a train stops. A bus station is where a bus tops. So
what happens at a workstation?
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

A man is not contemptible because he thinks science explains everything, and a
man is not contempptible because he doesn't. - Howard Jacobson, in Radio Times
2010/1/23-29.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Please tell me who says that. I have never heard it said that way, and
I've even ridden in one.

The replies so far posted indicate that I am stirring up transatlantic
troubles again

I have in the last two days been (fairly, I fear) criticized for wanting
to keep my language, American English, from changing.

On the one hand I like and welcome change, but on the other hand, it has
to be only changes that I approve of.

Obviously a losing fight

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

There are a few US versus UK differences: laboratory is LAB-ra-t'ry in the
US but lab-ORR-a-t'ry in the UK.

I haven't heard LAB-ra-t'ry in the US, but there are places I haven't
been here.

I say lab'ra-to"ry, i.e., a secondary accent and full vowel on the third
syllable, and so does everyone that I have noticed here. If I heard the
other pronunciation, I'd be confused and think it was a British speaker,
even though lab-ORR-a-t'ry is what I actually think of as British.

 

[Ian Jackson]

The replies so far posted indicate that I am stirring up transatlantic
troubles again

I have in the last two days been (fairly, I fear) criticized for wanting
to keep my language, American English, from changing.

On the one hand I like and welcome change, but on the other hand, it has
to be only changes that I approve of.

Obviously a losing fight

IMHO, in the last 50 years, the only good new Americanism to hit Britain
is "escalate" (even if the circumstances of its introduction were rather
unfortunate).

 

[NY]

I haven't heard LAB-ra-t'ry in the US, but there are places I haven't
been here.

I say lab'ra-to"ry, i.e., a secondary accent and full vowel on the third
syllable, and so does everyone that I have noticed here. If I heard the
other pronunciation, I'd be confused and think it was a British speaker,
even though lab-ORR-a-t'ry is what I actually think of as British.

HaRASS versus HARRass and CONtroVERsy versus ConTROVersy !

I can see a logic in CONtroVERsy, since it is then the same as the adjective
controversial, but HaRASS just makes me think of Frank Spencer in Some
Mothers Do Have Them.

 

[Bob I]

Old joke number 42: a train station (yes, bugs me too; I'd just use
"station") is where a train stops. A bus station is where a bus tops. So
what happens at a workstation?

In that vein, does a word processor do to words, what a food processor
does to food?