On the topic why "GNU" is pronounced with hard G, we have from http://www.gnu.org/events/rms-nyu-2001-transcript.html:
So I looked for a recursive acronym for Something is not UNIX. And I
tried all 26 letters, and discovered that none of them was a
word. [Laughter] Hmm, try another way. I made a contraction. That way
I could have a three-letter acronym, for Something's not UNIX. And I
tried letters, and I came across the word "GNU" -- the word "GNU" is
the funniest word in the English language. [Laughter] That was it. Of
course, the reason it's funny is that according to the dictionary,
it's pronounced "new". You see? And so that's why people use it for a
lot of wordplay. Let me tell you, this is the name of an animal that
lives in Africa. And the African pronunciation had a click sound in
it. [Laughter] Maybe still does. And so, the European colonists, when
they got there, they didn't bother learning to say this click
sound. So they just left it out, and they wrote a "G" which meant
"there's another sound that's supposed to be here which we are not
pronouncing." [Laughter] So, tonight I'm leaving for South Africa, and
I have begged them, I hope they're going to find somebody who can
teach me to pronounce click sounds, [Laughter] so that I'll know how
to pronounce GNU the correct way, when it's the animal.
But, when it's the name of our system, the correct pronunciation is
"guh-NEW" -- pronounce the hard "G". If you talk about the "new"
operating system, you'll get people very confused, because we've been
working on it for 17 years now, so it is not new any more. [Laughter]
But it still is, and always will be, GNU -- no matter how many people
call it Linux by mistake. [Laughter]
Copyright © 2001, 2005, 2006 Richard M Stallman
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