A simple question
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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
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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.
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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
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Gigolo?* *You'll have to forgive the multiple edits - I'm on the Gin challenge. And also on Giraffe watch.
It'd not an English word but a borrowing so doesn't follow English rules, such as they are.
I hope you realise that hamsters are very creative when it comes to revenge. - Elaine
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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.
English is about learning exceptions, not rules.
I hope you realise that hamsters are very creative when it comes to revenge. - Elaine
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I think an "i" after a "g" makes it sound like "ji", except when a word starts with 'g' digit legitimate ginger (exception) agile fragile engine are some examples
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modified on Tuesday, September 1, 2009 5:46 PM
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Pravarakhya wrote:
ginger (exception)
No -- both instances of g in that word are pronounced as in gin. There has been a move to mispronounce both gs in that word, in order to deprecate red-headed people. But it's wrong, and unfair, especially given how good-looking red-headed people can be.
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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.”
That's pronounced Fanshaw, or if you're really posh, Festonhaw.
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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
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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
A comedian on a talk show was giving an example of pronunciation. Take "gh" from "enough". Take "o" from "women". Take "ti" from "nation". You get "ghoti" pronounced "fish".
"The activity of 'debugging', or removing bugs from a program, ends when people get tired of doing it, not when the bugs are removed." - "Datamation", January 15, 1984
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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 reason this changes is because of the I placed after it. Sometimes a placement of a letter after another changes the sound that the letter makes. in digit it is like git the I changes the sound that the G makes.
James Binary Warrior.
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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"?
G followed by either E or I is often pronounced soft (gesture, gibberish, etc.). I don't know that there's a rule--except to say that a soft sound is typically the case when the word is borrowed/derived from Latin or one of its successor languages, which follow that rule (G followed by A, O, or U is hard; G followed by E or I is soft). "Digit" comes from Latin "digitalis" = finger. But there's no rule to tell you when a word is borrowed from Latin vs. being a Germanic/Anglo-Saxon word (get, give). The most basic words of the language are Germanic.
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A comedian on a talk show was giving an example of pronunciation. Take "gh" from "enough". Take "o" from "women". Take "ti" from "nation". You get "ghoti" pronounced "fish".
"The activity of 'debugging', or removing bugs from a program, ends when people get tired of doing it, not when the bugs are removed." - "Datamation", January 15, 1984
Richard Jones wrote:
A comedian on a talk show was giving an example of pronunciation. Take "gh" from "enough". Take "o" from "women". Take "ti" from "nation". You get "ghoti" pronounced "fish".
Not original with the comedian. It's often been attributed to George Bernard Shaw, but there are indications it was around before him (i.e., in the 1800s)...
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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
There is a very comprehensive article at Wikipedia on this subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_orthography[^] Languages do not evolve in complete isolation. Much of English spelling is a result of loan words. In many instances, the original transcription from a different alphabet is preserved in the spelling. One of the examples in the article concerns the apparent inconsistent useage of the letters y and i in non-final positions, which in some cases is a result of Greek versus Germanic origins. The various uses of g are listed in a table.
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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
Speaking from the point of view of an amateur "phonologist" (if there is such a thing), I believe the association between the normal G and normal J sounds isn't too strange. The G in any context back in the old days might have very well been pronounced as G. Overall changes in the pronunciation habits of the speakers eventually changed the G sound to a J sound when pronounced before E, I, and Y. This is the same in Italian, and in French (which influenced English greatly) the G can become a ZH (which is similar to J if you think of it as "DZH"). To point out another example (using Chinese because it's completely disconnected from the Romance languages, yet share some similar sound changes), the character 健 is pronounced [gin] in the Cantonese dialect, but [jian] in the Mandarin dialect. The Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese pronunciations are [ken]/[kien], [gen] ("gun" to the American ear), and [ken] respectively. Historically, the Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese were exposed to Chinese culture well before the Mandarin dialect was born, so it shows that the G sound softened to J and not the other way around.
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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.”
The GH would have been pronounced much like the German CH today, but due to general speaker preferences the GH "disbanded" and became one of the following sounds instead: F, TH, or (silent).
My GUID: ca2262a7-0026-4830-a0b3-fe5d66c4eb1d :) Now I can Google this value and find all my Code Project posts!
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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
I'm curious to know what makes a sound "hard" or "soft." According to textbooks, the G sound is considered soft when it palatalizes to a J sound, but to my ears, the normal G sound sounds "softer" than the J.
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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.”
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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 don't think these are flaws. These are rules. I don't know the rules, but I know they exist. The j's and g's are not arbitrarily used I beleive. The same thing happens for my native language (Portuguese). Here is an example: Viajar (to travel) Viagem (trip) Some might wonder why not use "j" in both words which have the same sounds. I don't know, but it could be just some language rule that comes all the way back from latin. Or the word "Viagem" came first, and when they turned it into a verb, it could use the "g" as "Viagar" would sound different than "Viagem", so the put in the "j" to make both of them sound equal. Here is how in portugues g and j sounds: ga = g from "gun" ge = g from "digit" gi = g from "digit" go = g from "gun" gu = g from "gun" ja = j from "jack" je = j from "jack" ji = j from "jack" jo = j from "jack" ju = j from "jack" I'd say they should use 'g' exclusive for "gun" like sound and 'j' exclusive for "jack" like sound. It would make everything simpler (is it Geep or Jeep?)
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A comedian on a talk show was giving an example of pronunciation. Take "gh" from "enough". Take "o" from "women". Take "ti" from "nation". You get "ghoti" pronounced "fish".
"The activity of 'debugging', or removing bugs from a program, ends when people get tired of doing it, not when the bugs are removed." - "Datamation", January 15, 1984
I can explain the case for "enough" and "nation", but "women" defy explanation.
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:laugh: Me! Me! Call on me! I know the answer!
"To do is to be." [Descartes] "To be is to do." [Voltaire] "Do be do be do..."[Frank Sinatra]
There's a fair chance that you do! :-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.”