Tell me the difference between gnome and Gnome. One is an elf-like creature that spends most of it’s life in gardens of old fat widows, and the other is a window manager for X. Now, if the spellings are the same, then why are they pronounced different? Because of the captial ‘G’?

Christer and Lonnie-

I will correct the way I say Ubuntu. I stand corrected. Thanks. I actually have pronounced this a few different ways over the years.

Ubuntu, an African word from Zulu and Xhosa, is pronounced “oo-BOON-too”. See the other FAQ on its meaning, it’s a worthwhile read, and no, you’re not the first person to wonder.

1. GIF as in “gift” minus the t.

2. PNG as “P-N-G”.

3. Debian …
“Debian is pronounced /ˈde.bi.ən/. It comes from the names of the creator of Debian, Ian Murdock, and his wife, Debra.”
(http://www.us.debian.org/intro/about#history)

With “gill”, “gizzard”, “giddy” and “gimmick”, the vowel is followed by a double-consanant. This makes the “g” hard. This same rule applies to the letter “c”. However, with c, “a”, “o” and “u” following, stress the hard rule, where “e”, “i” and “y” stress the soft rule. Other rules, such as the r-controlled vowel or tickle words can nullify it.

For the remaining words, “gig”, “gift” and “gilt”, I don’t know of any rules at play that are creating the hard “g” (or my wife, who is teaching me all these rules, being the school teacher that she is). You have to remember that English is a melting pot of languages, which creates exceptions for every rule.

- gill
- girl
- gird
- gimmick
- gig
- gift
- gilt
- giddy
- gizzard

If you can tell I’m with the “normal” gif-pronouncing (g1f – from Webster’s Concise English Dictionary pronunciation guide) crowd.