jig/gig

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:35 PM -0700 9/20/07, Laurence Urdang wrote:
>Something got lost in translation.
>  The only expression I ever heard was "The jig is up," with jig as
>in jiggle (not giggle).
>When I recently heard it with the "j," I assumed it was from a
>(younger) person who thought it had to do with "gig" as used in the
>entertainment field.  That might have made some remote semantic
>sense, but "gig" did not come into my life till about 30 years ago,
>and I thought it was a rather recent coinage.  I know, the OED shows
>first use in 1926, but I believe it was a "term of art" in the music
>biz till relatively recently.
>   In any event, the expression I know was pronounced with a "j," not
>a "g," and I didn't mis-hear anything.  I'd wager that it appears in
>a fair number of 1940s' movies.
>   L. Urdang
>   Old Lyme

I never reported hearing "The gig [gIg] is up" either, although the
<gig> spelling may be used on occasion to transcribe [dZIg].  What
was at issue in the discussion among Jon, Arnold, and I that you
partially reproduce below was solely the pronunciation of the first
name of the actor Gig Young.  I don't recall anyone else in the
thread claiming to have heard "the [gIg] is up" from anyone remotely
our age.

LH

>Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
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>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Jonathan Lighter
>Subject: Re: jig/gig
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Everybody I've known who's said it (incuding earlier generations)
>has always said "Gig" as in "good."
>
>So if Larry once thought "Gig" sounded like "jig," but got over it,
>millions probably think "gig" does too.
>
>JL
>
>Laurence Horn wrote:
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>Poster: Laurence Horn
>Subject: Re: jig/gig
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>>On Sep 18, 2007, at 8:57 AM, Larry Horn wrote:
>>
>>>Am I remembering correctly that the actor Gig Young's first name
>>>... was pronounced with velar
>>>softening?
>>
>>for what it's worth, my recollection is just the opposite.
>>
>>arnold
>>
>You're probably right; I'm not at all confident of mine. What I
>mostly remember securely is that whichever pronunciation I had come
>up with based on the spelling turned out to be wrong, but not really
>which one it was.
>
>LH
>
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