[sdiy] I can't decide....

[phillip m gallo]

Colin,

Only took two years of Latin but i was taught that In classical Latin a
"G" is almost always "hard"  at the beginning of a word now "church
Latin" is all over the place and perhaps a source of soft "g's".    Also
it's likely that the French derived "GIGA" from Greek directly as this
language was taught as part of std. western curriculum until the early
20th Century.

regards,
p


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
[mailto:owner-synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl] On Behalf Of Colin f
Sent: Monday, October 25, 2004 3:06 AM
To: 'diy >> synth diy'
Subject: RE: [sdiy] I can't decide....


 
> this word stems from ancient greek. We have no .mpg files
> or other recordings, but after all that is know, and from
> the practise os todays greek languagae we can pretty safely assume 
> that
> 
> gig-ah is the correct pronounciation and not jig-ah.

Maybe originally Greek... but came to us via Latin, which certainly uses
a soft G before i, e, ae, or oe. The French established the metric
system, and they surely pronounce it as a soft G. It's never safe to
assume ;-)

Colin f