jig/gig

[Laurence Horn]

At 8:15 AM -0700 9/18/07, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>No. Just showing off. Sorry.
>
>   JL

Am I remembering correctly that the actor Gig Young's first name
(apparently taken, along with his last name, from a character he
played in one of his early movies, "The Gay Sisters", which itself
would no doubt have to change its name) was pronounced with velar
softening?  I tried to get the relevant confirmation on various
sites, including his wikipedia entry at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gig_Young, but without success, although
he does seem to have had an unusually eventful life (usually cast as
the affably alcoholic second lead)--and death.

There are also 653 hits for "gigsaw", I assume all pronounced with
the affricate.

LH

>
>"Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: "Arnold M. Zwicky"
>Subject: Re: jig/gig
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>On Sep 18, 2007, at 7:41 AM, Jon Lighter wrote:
>
>>  "Jig" was often spelled "gig" in the 17th C.
>>
>>  So...well...just an observation.
>
>not likely to be relevant, it seems to me, since we're dealing with
>reports of speech, not writing. and speech from people who are
>unlikely to have seen the "gig" spelling.
>
>are you suggesting that the 17th-century spelling "gig" led to a
>spelling pronunciation with /g/ (rather than /J/), which then
>persisted for a great many years after the spelling was fixed as "jig"?
>
>arnold
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
>
>---------------------------------
>Be a better Globetrotter. Get better travel answers from someone who knows.
>Yahoo! Answers - Check it out.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org