A simple question
-
Why is "digit" spelled with a "g" and pronounced as "dijit"? I mean "g" has a different pronounciation (the one in "gun") in most of the words I know. While, "j" as pronounced in "jug" would fit better in word digit. Any English masters here who can explain?
It's not necessary to be so stupid, either, but people manage it. - Christian Graus, 2009 AD
-
Give me a chance! I've only just opened the bottle! ;)
That's the trouble today, no one is interested in productivity. Think of all the prospective lay-offs at Booth's, Gilbey's and Gordon's and get stuck in!
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
-
Why is "digit" spelled with a "g" and pronounced as "dijit"? I mean "g" has a different pronounciation (the one in "gun") in most of the words I know. While, "j" as pronounced in "jug" would fit better in word digit. Any English masters here who can explain?
It's not necessary to be so stupid, either, but people manage it. - Christian Graus, 2009 AD
Many consonants in English have a hard sound and a soft sound. G is one of those. The vowels a, o, u following one of these consonants produces the hard sound. E and i produce the soft sound. However, there are many exceptions in English, especially in words that have been 'borrowed' from other languages. Probably more than you wanted to know. Sean
-Sean ---- It's not that I like expensive things, it's just that the things I like are expensive. - My Wife
-
Why is "digit" spelled with a "g" and pronounced as "dijit"? I mean "g" has a different pronounciation (the one in "gun") in most of the words I know. While, "j" as pronounced in "jug" would fit better in word digit. Any English masters here who can explain?
It's not necessary to be so stupid, either, but people manage it. - Christian Graus, 2009 AD
I guess because that word comes from Latin: digitus. I take it that, over the time, the pronunciation was anglicized but kept the original spelling with "g". It happens in Spanish as well, dígito, pronounced as di'-hi-to.
Stupidity is an International Association - Enrique Jardiel Poncela
-
Giggle, girl...
It's not necessary to be so stupid, either, but people manage it. - Christian Graus, 2009 AD
ok let me change the rule slightly.. an 'i' after 'g' makes it to sound like 'ji' except when a word starts with 'g'.
-
Why is "digit" spelled with a "g" and pronounced as "dijit"? I mean "g" has a different pronounciation (the one in "gun") in most of the words I know. While, "j" as pronounced in "jug" would fit better in word digit. Any English masters here who can explain?
It's not necessary to be so stupid, either, but people manage it. - Christian Graus, 2009 AD
Well, ask a spanish man/women why they pronounce "j" as "h" (Heres de la frontera (sorry: Jeres ...) is beautiful) Ask french men why they need more than 5 letters to write "Bordo" (even more beautiful than ... well, both are good). And, please, dont ask me why we in Ukraine write simple words with those strange letters. So we are -- the human beings, we do strange things and this differs us from those, who, well, do not live even in caves.
-
Why is "digit" spelled with a "g" and pronounced as "dijit"? I mean "g" has a different pronounciation (the one in "gun") in most of the words I know. While, "j" as pronounced in "jug" would fit better in word digit. Any English masters here who can explain?
It's not necessary to be so stupid, either, but people manage it. - Christian Graus, 2009 AD
English is a mongrel language so we have words with different origins in different language - some of which sound the same but are written differently and vice versa. Woof woof ;)
Visit http://www.notreadytogiveup.com/[^] and do something special today.
-
ok let me change the rule slightly.. an 'i' after 'g' makes it to sound like 'ji' except when a word starts with 'g'.
Gigolo?* *You'll have to forgive the multiple edits - I'm on the Gin challenge. And also on Giraffe watch.
-
English is a mongrel language so we have words with different origins in different language - some of which sound the same but are written differently and vice versa. Woof woof ;)
Visit http://www.notreadytogiveup.com/[^] and do something special today.
Trollslayer wrote:
Woof woof
And how is that pronounced?
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
-
Trollslayer wrote:
Woof woof
And how is that pronounced?
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
-
Miaow miaow.
Visit http://www.notreadytogiveup.com/[^] and do something special today.
Thought it might be. :-D
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
-
Why is "digit" spelled with a "g" and pronounced as "dijit"? I mean "g" has a different pronounciation (the one in "gun") in most of the words I know. While, "j" as pronounced in "jug" would fit better in word digit. Any English masters here who can explain?
It's not necessary to be so stupid, either, but people manage it. - Christian Graus, 2009 AD
Because Dijit™ is a registered trademark of Eastman Kodak Company, my employer.
Software Zen:
delete this;
Fold With Us![^] -
Gigolo?* *You'll have to forgive the multiple edits - I'm on the Gin challenge. And also on Giraffe watch.
I started hating myself for writing stupid language rules which dont make any sense...
-
So, how would you pronounce 'Featherstonhaugh'?
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
Featherho. As in, "Nice boa, Featherho!"
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
-
Why is "digit" spelled with a "g" and pronounced as "dijit"? I mean "g" has a different pronounciation (the one in "gun") in most of the words I know. While, "j" as pronounced in "jug" would fit better in word digit. Any English masters here who can explain?
It's not necessary to be so stupid, either, but people manage it. - Christian Graus, 2009 AD
Because it's derived from Latin, and precedes an "i" (if it preceded a, o, or u, it would be a hard sound, as in "go").
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
-
You are looking for logic in a language that has none. As someone who has had the pleasure of learning English from scratch (actually haven't we all, but I mean from an outside perspective), I can only say that it is the product of mad men and drunkards.
dighn wrote:
You are looking for logic in a language that has none
English has lots of logic. That's the problem.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
-
Why is "digit" spelled with a "g" and pronounced as "dijit"? I mean "g" has a different pronounciation (the one in "gun") in most of the words I know. While, "j" as pronounced in "jug" would fit better in word digit. Any English masters here who can explain?
It's not necessary to be so stupid, either, but people manage it. - Christian Graus, 2009 AD
The short answer is the one everyone else gave; the language is a hodgepodge. The word "digit" comes as a measurement from Ancient Roman times. It is Mediterranean in origin. The word probably came north with the Normans in 1066. They were fond of a "J" sound where the Saxons would have used a sound closer to a "K". Several etymologies trace "digit" to 1398 but it is older than that. That does tell us about when it appeared in "English" writing, and that was before the original project Gutenburg, of course. So figure it was hand written about then. Spelling was pretty fluid back then. Nobody yet knew a reason to standardize. And at that time the I and J hadn't yet separated so the J wasn't really available as an option. Add on to that that a given literate monk might be from another country than England and it would take a language or history professor to give you the best guess at a real answer. We might have a real clue if we ever saw the 1398 reference and maybe knew who wrote it at that time. Simple question regarding English is often not the case. Good question, though. Wish I knew the answer. All of the above are just chaseable factors.
_____________________________ There is no I in team. But there is meat in there.
-
Why is "digit" spelled with a "g" and pronounced as "dijit"? I mean "g" has a different pronounciation (the one in "gun") in most of the words I know. While, "j" as pronounced in "jug" would fit better in word digit. Any English masters here who can explain?
It's not necessary to be so stupid, either, but people manage it. - Christian Graus, 2009 AD
d@nish wrote:
Why is "digit" spelled with a "g" and pronounced as "dijit"?
Because it's fun to confuse the tourists. ;P
Anna :rose: Having a bad bug day? Tech Blog | Anna's Place | Tears and Laughter "If mushy peas are the food of the devil, the stotty cake is the frisbee of God"
-
It'd be too expensive to reprint all the books if you were to "fix" the language. ;)
-- Kein Mitleid Für Die Mehrheit
Writing as Mark Twain Samuel Clemens did have a plan to fix the language. I can't find a link to the whole article but this will give the jist of his proposal: http://www.plainlanguage.gov/examples/humor/marktwain.cfm[^] His proposal also dealt with pesky details like 'g' being 'guh' and 'gee' arbitarily.
-
So, how would you pronounce 'Featherstonhaugh'?
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
Fanshawe.
I hope you realise that hamsters are very creative when it comes to revenge. - Elaine