cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/70869345

Credit to Jack Scully

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[–] 6 points 3 weeks ago (10 children)

He loved nothing more than jivving jifts to his wife and family at Christmas.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago (8 children)

    Afterward he would sip a gin and tonic while reading about giant giraffes. Absolutely gigantic. Ginormous even. It would always send him into a fit of raging laughter.

    Charging.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago (6 children)

    Not one of those has F or V as the third letter. Name an English word that starts "gif-" or "giv-" where the g is soft. I'll wait.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago (5 children)

    I'd like you to point at the rule that's says G MUST be a hard consonant if F comes after I. You can just say you prefer it for arbitrary reasons instead of trying to justify it with nonsense, especially with 99% evidence for that claim would be different forms of the word "gift". :P

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  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago (4 children)

    The point is that there is absolutely no precedent for a soft G in that situation. The question is "Would you say that it was pronounced "jif" if the creator hadn't said it was pronounced that way?", and you'd have to look at what already exists in English and conclude that, no, you wouldn't pronounce it that way.

    For comparison, look at the number of people who pronounce "gibs" with a hard g when it's derived from "giblets" which isn't. There's clearly some kind of rule being followed here, even if it hasn't been strictly codified anywhere.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago (3 children)

    It could also be that the most commonly used reference point is gift. That doesn't make it a rule, that makes it a reasonable assumption and it would be just as reasonable if your reference point was giraffe. What I'm saying is the only people who are wrong are the people that insist that they are the only correct ones.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    I have to disagree with the idea that "giraffe" is equally reasonable as a reference. Yes, it has an F in it, but it's not exactly the third letter, is it?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago (1 child)

    I'm saying the presence of an f at all affecting the pronunciation of the g is laughably arbitrary as all the evidence for it has the same exact root word and isn't enough to make it a rule.

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