John Schilling <schillin@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Only for the narrow-mindedly literal. The pronunciation of other
> words which start with *both* the letters "g-i", *and* the base
> meaning, "big/lots", makes things pretty clear.
That would be pronunciation by _analogy_ with other words.
> How do people learn English without understanding etymology?
Perfectly well, actually. Native speakers have no inherent
understanding of etymology.
Etymologically, the prefix "giga-" is a modern coinage from Classical
Greek where it was pronounced with g-.
Here's a quick rundown of initial g- before front vowels (e, i) in
English:
* Old English g- became y-, e.g. "year". This isn't spelled <g->
anymore, so it is of no further concern.
* Germanic words that retain the pronunciation g- (e.g. "gift",
"geld", fish "gill") are actually loans from Old Norse.
* g- to j- is a Romance sound****ft. Words with that pronunciation
were im****ted from French, e.g. "giant", liquid "gill". This was
then extended by analogy to learned Latin and Greek vocabulary.
--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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