On Sep 18, 2015, at 12:30 PM, Gareth McCaughan <gareth.mccaughan@pobox.com> wrote:
On 18/09/2015 18:47, rkg wrote:
I've just remembered Flanders & Swann's ``I'm a g'nu!''
``... and nobody knows wuhoo's wuhoo''.
`` nor am I in the least like that dreadful hearty beast; oh g'no, g'no, g'no, I'm a g'nu!'' R.
Hartebeest. (A kind of antelope.)
It is true but not universally known that before F&S wrote that song, "gnu" was pretty much always pronounced "nu", but now the initial "g" is extremely common.
I've heard the same thing. So I looked it up in (what I consider) the 6 most respectable dictionaries at http://onelook.com/ <http://onelook.com/>, as well as in the online OED, and for what it's worth every one of these lists only the NOO or NYOO pronunciations — none starting with the G sound. Maybe the initial G sound came on the coattails of Gnu, Not Unix. —Dan