Pronunciation

[GulPlum]

No: HPFGUIDX 52586

At 12:01 20/02/03 , Heidi Tandy wrote:

>http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/exrad/991020.jkrowling.ram.
>
>This is a 27 min. interview and at about 25 min. into it she
>pronounces it as 'Ani(may)gus' as far as I can tell.**
>
>Yes, but is it "gus" like the mule in that old Disney film (hard "g") or 
>is it "gus" like "just" but without the "j"?

>Curious minds sans speakers need to know.

"Gus" as in the old Disney character. To be perfectly honest, although I've 
seen a soft g (as in "just" without the t) suggested in several places, I'm 
scratching my head wondering why. It seems to me to run contrary to the 
spirit of modern English (the language, not the country) and is absolutely 
contrary to the English (the country, not necessarily the language) :-) 
tradition of pronouncing Latin (both of which are, of course, connected). 
In both modern English, and our tradition of pronouncing Latin, the "gu" 
phoneme is always, without exception, a hard g ("ge" is a different 
proposition).

Why some learned sources (all American, as far as I can tell) suggest that 
"magus" should be pronounced with a soft g is absolutely beyond me. Does 
*anyone* have any ideas?

--
GulPlum AKA Richard, who has just noticed that this is technically now OT, 
but begs indulgence. Answers to the OT list, perhaps. :-)