jig/gig

[Laurence Urdang]

If what LH says is so, then what does this mean?:
  So if Larry once thought "Gig" sounded like "jig,"
 but got over it, millions probably think "gig" does too.
  And wotthehell have jigaboo and Gig Young got to do with it?  (I never knew how to pronounce his name, anyway, never commented on it, and often thought that he might have been a bigger star had he changed it to John.)
  L. Urdang
  Old Lyme

Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
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Poster: Laurence Horn
Subject: Re: jig/gig
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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
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 wrote:
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>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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>Sender: American Dialect Society
>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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