Gib Adjusters and the English Language!

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

I guess that if folk prefer to pronounce it 'jib', they should probably spell it that way as well…

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Posted by Mark Rand on 21/09/2023 18:55:56:

I guess that if folk prefer to pronounce it 'jib', they should probably spell it that way as well…

As in Jibraltar

[Chris Pearson 1Participant @chrispearson1]

Posted by Paul Rhodes on 21/09/2023 14:22:21:

As in all language there is not a correct pronunciation, merely one in common usage which often alters through time.

Gibraltar was originally a Moorish colony named after its conquerer as Jabel Tarik…Tarik's mountain. So easy to see the corruption to Gibraltar with a soft G or J.

Having worked there, I can certainly confirm that the "G" in "Gibraltar" is a soft g

Let us pity poor Johnny Foreigner who is learning English – how is he to know how to pronounce the language when we cannot agree amongst ourselves?

[Andy_HParticipant @andy_h]

Well that stirred up far more debate than I expected!

It seems I can pronounce it either way and whether my pronunciation is correct or wrong will simply depend on whose company I happen to in at that moment 😜

Andy

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

One of life’s great truths,Andy

You can’t please all of the people all of the time !

MichaelG.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

I first encountered gib when reading and read it as a soft g, in discussions I later found that there are hard g users and I doubted that my guess at it being soft was was correct. The question has come up a number of times on the forum and it seem there is not definitive answer.

Mike

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

My steam-wagon's ancestors were built in Bourton, near Gillingham. The North Dorset one.

I asked a friend from Sherborne, not ever so far from there, if Gillingham or Jillingham.

"Gillingham – hard G", he replied. "Soft G for the Kent one. Easy to remember – we're 'ard in Dorset!"

.

As for the machine components, I have heard them pronounced either way and we still understand each other. The Gib Adjusters though are designed so that on old, rather worn machines they lead to "other" uses of the English language!

Once listening to two friends Up North arguing over whether the town COLNE is "Cone" or "Coln", eventually I said, "If you two Lancashire Lasses can't agree on how to pronounce your own town names, what hope for a Southerner like me of getting them right?"

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

On pronunciation:-

Tthere's Cisester (spelt Cirencester), where the daughter lived or, from my teenage years in Devon, Bovey Tracy ("'Tes Buvvy, my luvver"&#39. Before that, from my childhood in (King's) Lynn we've got 'Windam' (spelled Wymondham).

If English were simple she wouldn't be so useful/flexible.

And:-

Quote <the Internet>
English doesn’t “borrow” from other languages: it follows them down dark alleys, knocks them over, and goes through their pockets for loose grammar and valuable vocabulary.
/Quote

[roy entwistleParticipant @royentwistle24699]

Nigel. Up north we also have Barnoldswwick pronounced Barlick and Slaithwaite pronounced Slowit

Roy

[Tony JeffreeParticipant @tonyjeffree56510]

…and of course, let's not forget the famously unpronounceable Worcestershire…

[Andy_HParticipant @andy_h]

Posted by roy entwistle on 22/09/2023 09:16:26:

Nigel. Up north we also have Barnoldswwick pronounced Barlick and Slaithwaite pronounced Slowit

Roy

Here in Norfolk we have Happisburgh… whoever would have guessed that has to be pronounced haze-borough!

and then of course there's Menzies which is ming-iss

Andy

[Chris Pearson 1Participant @chrispearson1]

Posted by Nigel Graham 2 on 21/09/2023 22:16:50:

My steam-wagon's ancestors were built in Bourton, near Gillingham. The North Dorset one.

I asked a friend from Sherborne, not ever so far from there, if Gillingham or Jillingham.

"Gillingham – hard G", he replied. "Soft G for the Kent one. Easy to remember – we're 'ard in Dorset!"

IIRC the one near Beccles on the Norfolk/Suffolk border is pronounced locally with a hard G.

What you need in this instance is a copy of the BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names.

[Andy_HParticipant @andy_h]

Posted by Chris Pearson 1 on 22/09/2023 12:17:57:

IIRC the one near Beccles on the Norfolk/Suffolk border is pronounced locally with a hard G.

Chris – you are indeed correct. It's just down the road from me

Andy

[Andy_HParticipant @andy_h]

Posted by Mark Rand on 22/09/2023 00:06:13:

From my childhood in (King's) Lynn

Me too Mark

Andy

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