pronunciation - Should 'g' followed by 'e' and 'i' be pronounced with a soft or hard g?



In English, words with a 'g' followed by a front vowel (e, i, y) can be pronounced with a soft g or a hard g:



  • Words with Germanic roots are usually pronounced with a hard g: gear, get, gift, give

  • Words with Latin and Greek roots are usually pronounced with a soft g: gem, general, giraffe, giant


But how should a purely English word (if such thing even exists) with a 'g' followed by a front vowel be pronounced? In other words, if an English speaker saw a new word of unknown origin (eg: a neologism) that starts with gi- or ge-, how would they pronounce it?




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