Become popular? It’s been popular roughly for the lifespan of the format. It’s hardly language’s fault the developer wanted to make an unfunny reference to a since forgotten peanut butter slogan.
On the other hand linguistics indicate a hard g sound with the construction of the word, constituent words aside. Plenty of four letter words starting with the gi combo have a hard g, including but not limited to gift which you may notice is very similarly constructed.
Whatever else the English language may throw at us, people appreciate consistency because we can make some sense of the world. A hard g is the consistent, predictable, sensible choice for the limited availability of those virtues English offers.
Didn’t watch Gravity Falls but as far as I knew they were confirmed gay, admittedly in the finale.
There was also a gay cop in Onward
I also don’t agree that Finn was a minor character, he was a regular focal point in two movies much to the annoyance of the same conservative groups.
I’m by no means suggesting Disney is anywhere in the neighborhood of acceptable. Gay characters have a tendency to be tiny roles or unpromoted movies (I watch a lot of movies and I hadn’t seen anything for Strange World before it released). I’m just saying “never” is probably inaccurate for modern Disney.
You mean the Disney that conservative groups got mad at because two women had a split second “kiss” in a movie, or the Disney that made Song of the South?
Yesterday the thing you love was the crappy new thing and lots of vocal assholes hated it.
Today you can choose to be the vocal asshole or just enjoy the thing you enjoy, no false praise needed.
Tomorrow the crappy new thing will be fondly remembered and the vocal assholes of today will seem foolish and, in part, pretend they never hated today’s thing.
This is true across various properties. The fact that you think “we don’t want to hear your constant whining” equates to “you have to praise the thing I like even if you don’t like it” really says something.
people only started using the new pronunciation in the last 10-15.
As someone else pointed out already, this is untrue. While it may not have been popular in your circles, it definitely was in others. I’ve been saying it with a hard g as long as you have with a soft and I’m not the originator either.
English linguistics doesn’t indicate anything at all.
They absolutely do. That’s why you can sound out a word you’ve never seen before. You may not always be right when you do because they indicate, they don’t define.
There are no rules about word construction or pronunciation.
There are, there are just exceptions. For example, an e at the end of the word is silent. I’m certain you can give me a word where it’s not, but there are at least six in this paragraph alone where it is.
if you are understood then you have pronounced them correctly
In this logic if someone has been pronouncing a word all their life with a single pronunciation and travels to another location with a much different accent they can only now be pronouncing the word wrong.
If understanding is also the only metric then a hard g would still be preferable. Not only does a written g tend to make people lean to a hard g in my experience, but there’s more words that could be mistaken for a soft g pronunciation.
You could argue that the original pronunciation is archaic,
Could I not argue that the original pronunciation has fallen out of favor?
the word itself is like 35 years old
Is there a time requirement for pronunciations to become archaic?
since there was only one acceptable pronunciation
Which isn’t a time that existed, as we’ve established
who aren’t likely to change.
Given your stance on language this is absolutely a you problem. If the rest of us collectively decided to understand it as only with a hard g, you would not be understood and therefore be pronouncing it wrong by your own logic.
It may seem like it, but August 2022 wasn’t three years ago.
Even if it was that doesn’t really seem so disqualifying after we’ve just had a new season of Futurama and anticipate a new season of King of the Hill.
Orville may not have the financial draw, but I bet Seth had more fun with that than any of the animated stuff.