I have a very simple question here today, it comes from my own confusion.
I’ve been watching lots of linux videos to try to understand linux and one thing I’ve come across so much are developers/users of linux pronouncing gnome with the “g” sound, and maybe I’m wrong but I’m almost certain that the word is actually pronounced with the “g” being a silent letter.
If it really is g-nome I’m shocked because it doesn’t sound right to me at all. It legitimately sounds to be a butchered pronunciation of the word.
Some people say “Guh-nome” because of GNU. That’s what it’s named for, not wee creatures. One can pronounce it either way. No gnu’s or gnomes will be harmed.
Well, technically, GNOME is part of the GNU Project.
The question is moot, however, because only native English speakers have a problem with the pronunciation of “gn” at the beginning of a word, leading to the “g” being either completely silent or else over-emphasized ─ the “guh-” at the beginning of the word, as Richard Stallman pronounces it.
In the Dutch language however, the “g” is pronounced differently ─ less percussive and more throaty ─ and therefore we have no problem pronouncing either word without muting or over-emphasizing the “g”.
For that matter, the ungulate in question has a differently spelled but almost identically pronounced name in Dutch. It is spelled “gnoe” in Dutch, but the “oe” sounds the same as the English “u” in “gnu”, or if you will, as the common English pronunciation of the double “o” ─ as in “Boo!”
It legitimately sounds to be a butchered pronunciation of the word.
One can pronounce it either way. No gnu’s or gnomes will be harmed.
