Geekoid wrote:English words starting with 'GI' is the 'J' sound. That's the rule. Look it up.
My giddy, giggling gibbon gives gilded gimmicky gizmos to girdled girthy girlfriends.
Giant ginger gibbets gibed the gy
psy gimcrack with gin.... you get the gist.
There's no rule about hard or soft Gs at the start of words beginning with 'Gi'.
Tony wrote:I believe the right of people to name their own progeny should be respected.
The right to name, perhaps, but not pronounce. For instance, Adolf Dassler's hypocorism "Adi" is universally pronounced "Addy"
(unless you're putting on a ridiculous cod-French ("Frrrrronsh") accent, and you'd say "A-dee. Hon hon hon.") So when he made his company out of the first few letters of his first and last name,
Adidas, it should be pronounced "ADDy Dass". Yet the overwhelming majority of Americans pronounce it "a-DEE-dass", which is the incorrect pronunciation. Perhaps with a multimillion dollar marketing campaign, you could strive to ensure every American pronounces it correctly, or you could just let language do its "fluid thing" and stop trying to hold back the river of change with a single damp tissue.
[quote="Geekoid"]English words starting with 'GI' is the 'J' sound. That's the rule. Look it up.[/quote]
My giddy, giggling gibbon gives gilded gimmicky gizmos to girdled girthy girlfriends.
Giant ginger gibbets gibed the gy[s][/s]psy gimcrack with gin.... you get the gist.
There's no rule about hard or soft Gs at the start of words beginning with 'Gi'.
[quote="Tony"]I believe the right of people to name their own progeny should be respected.[/quote]
The right to name, perhaps, but not pronounce. For instance, Adolf Dassler's hypocorism "Adi" is universally pronounced "Addy" [size=80](unless you're putting on a ridiculous cod-French ("Frrrrronsh") accent, and you'd say "A-dee. Hon hon hon.")[/size] So when he made his company out of the first few letters of his first and last name, [i]Adidas[/i], it should be pronounced "ADDy Dass". Yet the overwhelming majority of Americans pronounce it "a-DEE-dass", which is the incorrect pronunciation. Perhaps with a multimillion dollar marketing campaign, you could strive to ensure every American pronounces it correctly, or you could just let language do its "fluid thing" and stop trying to hold back the river of change with a single damp tissue.