Re: Having seen Iron Man

Erik Max Francis <max@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Michael Ash wrote:
> 
>> Wikipedia claims that the National Bureau of Standards had a
pronunciation 
>> guide which showed it as being pronounced like "jiga" for about a 
>> twenty-year period, and the source word for the prefix is pronounced in

>> this way:
>> 
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giga
>> 
>> Alas both citations are to offline sources.
> 
> Hurray!  Wikipedia to the rescue, as usual.
> 
> Even if this is all true, it doesn't explain why it generated scoffing 
> _at the time it came out_.  "Official pronunciation" isn't very 
> meaningful, outside of maybe France.  (And even there, the "official 
> pronunciation" surely is deliberately flaunted.)

Alas I'm too young to remember its original release, so I can't really 
comment on the reasons and I'll have to take your word that it happened. I

can get in some rampant speculation, though. I'd assume that "jiga" was 
more common in years past, and by the time the NBS released its second 
pronunciation guide in the 80s with this pronunciation listed, it was to 
the point of getting laughs on its own. It wouldn't surprise me if the 
"mispronunciation" was meant to evoke older professor types who still used

it at the time rather than just to be different.

-- 
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon