Re: Pronunciations of SI prefixes: kilo and giga -Reply

[Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at>]

At 12:31 03.10.1996 -0500, you wrote:
>Dan: What a neat topic and what a great bunch of info! I was so intrigued
>that I contacted our local expert - who happens to be on the ASTM
>committee that cranked out E 380. He had some additional info of interest.
>
>Apparently the pronounciation of giga was a real bone of contention
>among the committee members.  The ASTM comments wrt pronounciation
>were recommendations, not requirements and so it was merely
>recommended that giga be pronounced jiga. 
>
>Times have changed and I was told the new ASTM, which is close to
>completion, apparently will make no recommendations wrt pronunciation.
>And as I understand it, if there is a consensus now, it is that giga be
>pronounced with a hard g!  The dictionaries I've looked at say that both
>pronunciations are acceptable in any event. But my contact emphasized
>that a big deal should not be made about pronunciation.
>
>He pointed out that at the international level there are no required
>spellings or pronunciations for SI units for a couple of reasons. Different
>countries use different alphabets and some languages don't even include
>certain sounds i.e. pronunciations.
>
>He also said that they had some nice arguments at one time about
>whether joule should be pronounced jewel or jowel!  And I once asked
>him how they could use a kilo of anything as a basic unit (i.e. kilogram)
>He admitted that that was embarrassing and told me that as a way out,
>some of the guys involved suggested that kg is not a kilogram but a  keg.
>I wonder where they were when they came up with that one ;-)
>
>Neat stuff!
>
>Paul Frame
>Professional Training Programs
>ORISE
>framep@orau.gov
>
>======================================================================

Paul,

Your comment was interesting and especially your last two sentences showed
that at least some radiation protection experts have a nice sense of humour...

But to be serious: I was not aware of the problem - whenever I pronounced
something wrong (or correct?) in an English presentation I had the
impression that everybody understood what I said. The question of
Gigabequerel never came to my mind, because I am working mostly in
environmental radioactivity! Maybe the question is whether we should not
pronounce everything as it is pronounced in the original language? This
brings me to "Joule": When I was a student - unfortunately a long time ago -
our professor in physical chemistry explained that Mr. Joule was of French
origin and therefore his name has to be pronounced as "Joule", the ou
pronounced like "fool", "tool".... and not at all like in "foul". In case we
did pronounce it during examinations the wrong way the chance to fail was
highly elevated.......

In the case of "angstrome" - of which I cannot even write the original
Swedish way because both the Swedish "o" and the "oe" will not be displayed
correctly in radsafe the problem has been "solved" by abandoning this unit.
But we cannot abandon micro, pico, giga etc. however it is pronounced!

Franz

Schoenhofer
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