Who here is self-hating enough to pronounce this word "jigga-byte"??!
In English, the initial g of giga can be pronounced /ˈɡɪɡə/ (a hard g as in giggle), or /ˈdʒɪɡə/ (a soft g as in giant, like a j sound, which shares its Greek root).[4]
This latter pronunciation was formalised within the United States in the 1960s and 1980s with the issue by the US National Bureau of Standards of pronunciation guides for the metric prefixes.[5] A prominent example is found in the pronunciation of gigawatts in the 1985 film Back to the Future.
According to the American writer Kevin Self, a German committee member of the International Electrotechnical Commission proposed giga as a prefix for 109 in the 1920s, drawing on a verse (evidently "Anto-logie") by the German humorous poet Christian Morgenstern that appeared in the third (1908) edition of his Galgenlieder (Gallows Songs).[6][7] This suggests that a hard German [ɡ] was originally intended as the pronunciation. Self was unable to ascertain when the /dʒ/ (soft g) pronunciation came into occasional use, but claimed that as of 1995 it had returned to /ɡ/ (hard g).[8][9]
In 1998, a poll by the phonetician John C. Wells found that 84% of Britons preferred the pronunciation of gigabyte starting with /ɡɪ/ (as in gig), 9% with /dʒɪ/ (as in jig), 6% with /ɡaɪ/ (guy), and 1% with /dʒaɪ/ (as in giant).[10]
Do we get to bring in the powers of 10 vs powers of 2 discussion yet? This being the likes of the Mebibyte and all put forth in IEEE 1541-2002Apparently it was an Americanism that has since fallen by the way side.
It's okay because per the poll at the end of that quote - I am actually much more upset that there are people who say j-eye-ga byte
Uhg, I hate those guysThe same people who pronounce "gif" "gif".
I will never stop saying jifNaw mate it's a Jif loike the paynut buttah