Pop-up suggesting download of repair tool

[choro]

I have a paid CD edition of the second edition, but it isn't installable
on my 64-bit W7. In response to this thread, I set it up in my virtual
XP machine, which must be 32-bit, because it works OK there (I don't
know how to check for that in XP).

That edition (OED2) also gives spee'shees as the *only* pronunciation.

Now it's time for Bob Henson to insist that we have special
(spess'ee-al) American editions of the OED.

I say djigabyte, and when necessary I explain that I think that to say
it the other way would be a ghigantic mistake.

I have come to believe that many people with a background in physics &
related fields (I'm one) say djigabyte, since we always said djigahertz,
and so on, as well.

alpha, beta, gamma, delta
Pezeveksin sen da o da!

This is an old ditty and don't ask me in which language!

The letter gamma is voiced as Ghamma and should be pronounced Ga/Ghe not
DJa/Dje if we are to remain true to its origins. --
choro
*****

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

Ditto! Especially if he's a US President.

If you think about it, it's more sinister than that. Someone who has
reached that position must have been told, many times, over the years,
that he's saying it wrong (OK, with more and more deference as he
reaches higher office, but still, there would be some people who would
still respectfully have pointed it out). So he must have _deliberately
decided_ to keep using that variant.

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

Really? Can you provide a reference backing that up?

On the contrary. Most dictionaries - despite what people think - are not
prescriptive; they record usage. As for the order, I think some may
record the most-used first, I'm not sure. The OED tried hard to record
_meanings_ in chronological order, i. e. the oldest-used meanings first;
I'm not sure about pronunciation.

There _are_ dictionaries that give an opinion on what is "correct",
especially those produced for people learning a language as a foreigner,
for whom it is useful to know what is considered the right meaning and
pronunciation (and spelling for that matter). For English at least,
these will vary depending on the part of the world you intend to use it
in (probably the case for most languages).

 

[Mike Barnes]

Although I can't remember looking it up, it's something I've known for
many decades--since I was in high school.

IME such knowledge is highly suspect, and I'm extremely sceptical in
this instance.

No time now, but perhaps I can do a web search on it tomorrow.

If the practice is as widespread as you think, that should be pretty
easy. Good luck, and do let me know how you get on (either way). And you
could always look in a paper dictionary if you have one to hand.

 

[John Williamson]

If you think about it, it's more sinister than that. Someone who has
reached that position must have been told, many times, over the years,
that he's saying it wrong (OK, with more and more deference as he
reaches higher office, but still, there would be some people who would
still respectfully have pointed it out). So he must have _deliberately
decided_ to keep using that variant.

As it seems to have been common usage for at least the last couple of
decades, I'd dispute that.

 

[Bob Henson]

How odd! Do you have a second edition? Mine is first.

My apologies - I checked and mine does have both - I didn't look carefully
enough at those weird little symbols. I don't speak funny symbols fluently,
but I do know how to speak the English language - and I would have been
rapped over the knuckles with a ruler as a child if my Biology master had
heard me saying "speeshees"!

Most of the people I know are Americans. Despite what the dictionaries
say, most of them pronounce it your way.

Oh good, they have murdered so many of our lovely words that I just assumed
they would get it wrong. To borrow an American sales-training phrase -
"Never assume - it makes an ASS out of U and ME".

So, do you think it's "spesseeall" or "speshull"?

If I can cobble up some phonetic spelling that gives the desired effect,
it's correctly pronounced "spessial" - no "h" in it, as with "species,
specific, specious" etc. It's more often than not mispronounced, these
days, as "speshull" - but that doesn't make it correct - yet. Hopefully, I
will be long gone before we all speak Textspeke or Urdu - whichever takes
over the UK first.

And do you say "djigabyte" (as I do) or "ghigabyte" (as most people
do)? Assuming the latter, how do you prounce "gigantic"?

Different etymology, hence difference pronunciation. Gigabyte is an
obviously compound word and logically would be pronounced with the hard "g"
as you would be unlikely to say "giga" with the soft "g" - although both
are in the OED. Gigantic comes from the Latin word for giant and is not a
compound word and would never be pronounced with the hard "g" - although my
Latin master might have actually argued with that. Even he wasn't old
enough to know for sure O tempora, O mores.

 

[Bob Henson]

Of course there is the ever popular word that 90% of politicians, actors
and all around famous people cannot even get right! The old nucular (
NUKE-U LAR) war versus the proper word being nuclear (NU CLEAR). Drives
me nuts to have somebody that supposedly has some education and cannot
even pronounce or spell that word!

Absolutely - I'd forgotten that one - another regular on the TV news.

 

[Bob Henson]

As it seems to have been common usage for at least the last couple of
decades, I'd dispute that.

Any minute now, someone has to mention aluminium?

 

[John Williamson]

Any minute now, someone has to mention aluminium?

You just did....

 

[Iceman]

X-No-Archive: Yes

I hereby grant you, unconditionally, permission to ignore my OT posts in
this and all threads in all newsgroups in which I post.

Thank you, Gene. But, you know, you can find more appropriate groups and
Web forums than you can count for this otherwise most interesting debate.

 

[Paladin]

X-No-Archive: Yes



Thank you, Gene. But, you know, you can find more appropriate groups and
Web forums than you can count for this otherwise most interesting
debate.

You must be new to Usenet.
A moderated web forum is what you want.

 

[Ken Blake]

I have a paid CD edition of the second edition, but it isn't installable
on my 64-bit W7. In response to this thread, I set it up in my virtual
XP machine, which must be 32-bit, because it works OK there (I don't
know how to check for that in XP).

I have a paper copy of OED1, but it's only two volumes, not umpteen
(It's the edition with four pages on each page).

That edition (OED2) also gives spee'shees as the *only* pronunciation.

That would have been my guess, but I gave him the benefit of the
doubt.

I say djigabyte, and when necessary I explain that I think that to say
it the other way would be a ghigantic mistake.

Then you're one of the few people I know who say it correctly <g>

 

[Ken Blake]

The letter gamma is voiced as Ghamma and should be pronounced Ga/Ghe not
DJa/Dje if we are to remain true to its origins. --

There are exceptions in English, but in general the "g" before "e" and
"i" is pronounced "dj," and before other letters is pronounced "gh."

For example, here's an English word with "ga" which is correctly
pronounced with a hard "gh", but which almost everyone pronounces
wrong: "margarine."

In Italian (which I'm not fluent in, but is the foreign language I
know the best), as far as I know, there are no exceptions to that
rule.

Can you come up with English words in which the "g" in "ga" is
pronound "gh"? There are very few, but here are two: "algae" and
"gaol."

 

[John Williamson]

There are exceptions in English, but in general the "g" before "e" and
"i" is pronounced "dj," and before other letters is pronounced "gh."

For example, here's an English word with "ga" which is correctly
pronounced with a hard "gh", but which almost everyone pronounces
wrong: "margarine."

In Italian (which I'm not fluent in, but is the foreign language I
know the best), as far as I know, there are no exceptions to that
rule.

Can you come up with English words in which the "g" in "ga" is
pronound "gh"? There are very few, but here are two: "algae" and
"gaol."

I've always heard "gaol" pronouced as "jail", and "algae" with the hard "g".

 

[Ken Blake]

Any minute now, someone has to mention aluminium?

I say "aluminium." See
http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/aluminium.htm

Regardless of the American vs British difference in pronunciation,
"aluminium" is the more correct pronunciation.

 

[Ken Blake]

IME such knowledge is highly suspect, and I'm extremely sceptical in
this instance.


If the practice is as widespread as you think, that should be pretty
easy. Good luck, and do let me know how you get on (either way). And you
could always look in a paper dictionary if you have one to hand.

I have five unabridged paper dictionaries, as well as several other
specialized dictionaries (I know, I'm a nut about this). I just took
a quick look in WNI2, my favorite American dictionary.I didn't find
anything, but I hope to look some more later.

 

[Tim Slattery]

I say "aluminium." See
http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/aluminium.htm

Regardless of the American vs British difference in pronunciation,
"aluminium" is the more correct pronunciation.

For that word, I suppose it is. But on this side of the pond, it's
spelled "aluminum". Only one "i".

 

[Bob Henson]

I've always heard "gaol" pronouced as "jail", and "algae" with the hard "g".

Likewise.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I've always heard "gaol" pronouced as "jail", and "algae" with the hard "g".

I nearly always hear "algae" pronounced "aljee", even from my own
mouth, but in this case the "ae" is easily thought of as equivalent to
an "e" (in English).

In my judgment

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Then you're one of the few people I know who say it correctly <g>

I bow in thanks

I was just reading a science fiction story (always a mistake, IMO[1],
but I was traveling) in which the author wrote of a "bow" of an oak
tree.

[1] Please be kind to the other readers of this thread and let the
flames be implicit. I promise to receive them by telepathy