[opendtv] Re: California Prepares to Limit TV Energy Use
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:23:19 -0500
Tom Barry wrote:
> In between stints in physics and computers I majored for a
> couple years in Human Communications. There I once took a
> language theory course that suggested in most any language a
> word that gets frequently used will evolve to become shorter
> and/or easier to pronounce. It's my belief that the jiga
> prefix was probably correct before we computer guys got a
> hold of it and actually had things to commonly discuss with
> counts in the billions, whereupon it became pronounce giga,
> with a hard g.
English is allowed to be inconsistent in these matters.
I don't know about Greek, but in Italian, a g or a c followed by the vowels i
or e is always pronounced "soft." For example, g followed by i is pronounced as
in giant, or like general if followed by e.
C followed by e or i is pronounced like ch. So ci is pronounced chee.
To make these g and c hard, when followed by i or e, you need to add an h. So
chi is pronounced kee. For instance.
English is already inconsistent, so what's wrong with making Giga inconsistent?
Why is get not pronounced like general? Probably because general comes from the
romance languages, and get some less evolved source.
Bert
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