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The case for continuing to pronounce 'gerrymandering' with a soft G
By adamg on Mon, 05/28/2018 - 10:58am
The original gerrymander. Via Wikipedia.
Maeve Maddox makes the case that even if our one-time governor, Gerry, used a hard G for his name, and even if his Gerry's eponymous descendant, Elbridge Gerry, Jr. argues it's time to get back to the hard G, it's OK to keep pronouncing it like "jerrymandering."
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Comments
That's a nice GIF
Oh, wait- it's a .PNG.
(No subject)
now you've done it
So, should we pronounce GIF with a hard or soft G? And why is the letter G pronounced with a soft G?
Oh, that one's easy
Choosy Webmasters choose GIF.
You should pronounce the 'G' in 'GIF'
the same way you pronounce what the 'G' stands for.
People who pronounce "Graphics" with a soft 'G' like "Jraphics" should say "JIF". All others should use the hard G.
And that's why...
We all pronounce "NASA" as "Nay-sa".
And "ASCII" as "Uh-skih".
Did you know?
The developer of the GIF format says he expected it to be pronounced like the peanut butter. He also said it doesn't really matter to him, and that's the part I subscribe to.
Hard G before E or I happens a lot in English
get, geezer, Gilbert, give, git, finger, linger, ringer, singer, zinger, longed ...
king Kong sing song ding dong
king Kong sing song ding dong burger
The "ng" examples....
... don't really count as exceptions -- as the g is really associated with the preceding n rather than the subsequent vowel... ;-)
Ooh burn
Singed!
Or...
...zinged.
Singe, range, etc. -- end with "e". That obviously changes things (though not being a linguist, not sure why). Presumably the unit there is the "nge" rather than just "ng".
Except for every Ger word, like
Gerald, gerund, geriatric, Germany, germinate, germ, geranium, gerbil...
Gertrude
Municipalities Added Later
Revere and Winthrop out of Chelsea.
Peabody out of Danvers
Nahant and Swampscott out of Lynn.
North Andover out of Andover
Merrimac out of Amesbury.
West Newbury and Newburyport out of Newbury,
Georgetown out of Rowley.
Essex out of Ipswich
And interestingly, Bradford, which I think came out of Groveland, later merging into Haverhill.
Gerry lived where the Une Due Go is at the corner of Arch and Summer Streets. There is a marker on the building.
Interestingly, Salem and Newburyport were two of the wealthiest places in the US at the time of this cartoon was made because of the trade boom at the time.
Water Trade versus Land Trade
I was noticing yesterday that areas of the North Shore were settled quite early on in the colonial period, and then ground to a halt later on. I was also noticing that we were driving a lot further to get to places that I had previously kayaked between in short amounts of time.
Salem continued to boom - literally in one case - due to intensive industry and rail links. Newburyport did not. Seems at first that water trade and transport dominated, then inland trade and transport took over.
and Rockport out of Gloucester
but what happened to "Roxford" on this map?
Some of the ink didn't print off
Boxford was and is still there.
Is Maeve pronounced Mave?
Or is it Ma-Eve? Or a name like Sioban where the pronunciation bears pretty much no resemblance to the spelling?
The one person I ever knew with this name
pronounced it to rhyme with Dave.
More often Meeve
But then again...
City Documents at Boston City Clerks Offices.
Boston City Clerks Offices fail to make available an excellent Map, even a good Map clearly delineating the Names of Bordering Streets between adjacent Districts for folks on Bordering Streets between adjacent Districts!
Nor is an excellent Map, even a good Map hasn't been available clearly delineating the Names of Bordering Streets between adjacent Wards for folks on Bordering Streets between adjacent Wards.
Nor is an excellent Map, even a good Map hasn't been available clearly delineating the Names of Bordering Streets between adjacent Precincts for folks on Bordering Streets between adjacent Precincts
Nor is an excellent Map, even a good Map hasn't been available clearly delineating the Names of Bordering Streets between adjacent Police Districts for folks on Bordering Streets between adjacent Police Districts..
Deficient Map graphics for Redistricting leave out greater civic participation, greater civic engagement.
You know very well there's a good map
And it's here. And if you cannot figure out the streets, try using another map to track down the rare streets that are not labeled. Most locals would know where the lines are by looking at this map. Also, railroads provide a lot of boundaries.
Other municipalities are not as good as Boston in giving you this information. A few years back, I went over to the Cambridge Election Department and asked to see a map showing the ward lines. A few minutes later three Cambridge cops showed up, and the next thing I remember is coming to in a poorly lit room, my face bloodied, my kidneys hurting, and a guy dressed up like the Hamburglar telling me "the next time you come here asking these questions, we'll send you back home in a body bag." Thank God I don't live in Cambridge.
Change your comment all you want
You know you're wrong.
Are you the Cambridge Hamburglar?
Secretly trying to change the topic from the beating your goons put on me?
Gerry's Party
His party was the Democratic-Republican party. While state wide offices went to the Federalists in the 1812 election, the Great and General Court was retained as Democratic-Republican.
Interesting how the Clintonian/Whatsername wing of the Democratic Party is really the Democratic-Republican party these days.
Elbridge, Jr.
sounds like a piece of work, too.