Vegan prescriptivism

[Laurence Horn]

>>... everyone I have ever heard pronounce it uses a hard g.  There is
>>waffling about the vowel, but veegan seems to occur more often than vaygan.
>
>US:
>
>Webster's Third: no listing
>RHUD (1994): /vEdZ at n/; ("esp. Brit.") /vig at n/
>AHD4: /vig at n/; /vEdZ at n/
>M-W (Web): /vig at n/; /veig at n/; /vEdZ at n/; /vEdZ&n/
>
>Other:
>
>Cambridge (Web): /vig at n/
>Macquarie (Web): /vig at n/

I wonder if the pronunciation has stabilized since '94.  (I assume
the hard "g" was originally a spelling pronunciation, since all its
cognates are /dZ/.)  If so, RHUD might have been accurate back in
'94, but if the rest of us are right, the standard US pronunciation
(at least in the Northeast, California, and the Midwest, and
especially among vegans themselves) is now /vig at n/.  Is there a
region where /vEdZ at n/ predominates?

On the animal-friendly front, I appreciate the efforts of those who
put together the web site Lynne referred us to, but you'll note that
they accept as gospel the folk story about "rule of thumb".  I'm not
too sure about their take on "raining cats and dogs" either.  And I
wonder about the amatory and/or culinary habits of someone who thinks
that "There are plenty of other leaves in the tea" would satisfy the
same metaphorical interpretation as "There are plenty of other fish
in the sea".

larry