Vegan prescriptivism

[Lynne Murphy]

I'm with Larry--I have only heard hard [g] in US and UK.

Lynne

--On Friday, June 29, 2001 12:02 pm +0800 Laurence Horn
<laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:

> At 11:20 AM -0400 6/29/01, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>>> ... I've never heard 'veganism' pronounced with a soft 'g'!
>>
>> "Gaol" [so written] with /dZ/ is mostly British, "veganism" with /dZ/
>> mostly US (I think), "margarine" with /dZ/ ecumenical ... but I've mostly
>> avoided these three unhappy subjects (knock on wood). (^_~)*> [<--
>> head-knocking emoticon, extemporaneous]
>>
>> I've mostly heard "vegan" /vEdZ at n/ (meaning "herbivore") ... but mostly
>> "Vegan" /vig at n/ (meaning "resident of the vicinity of the star Vega" or
>> so). I have little need for these words, although I suppose it is
>> remotely possible that I might emigrate to Vega some day, given some
>> technological breakthroughs ... if they have good food there ....
>>
>> -- Doug Wilson
>
> Weird. This bears further investigation.  I've almost always heard
> /vi:g at n/ (rhyming with Keegan or (Major) Deegan) for the gustatorily
> constrained sense (both adjective and noun), never /vEdZ at n/ (rhyming
> with "hedgin'").  Is there a well-defined isogloss for the two
> pronunciations, or what?  (It has certainly not been my experience
> that the latter is the standard U.S. version--especially among those
> of the relevant orientation, it seems to be virtually always /vi:g at n/
> that I hear.  Possible homonymy with the 'inhabitant of Vega' sense
> does not seem to be a problem.
>
> larry



M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

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