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ArchivesGinnifer, form of Jenifer?
I can't remember if I've asked this, but after watching Zootropolis on BBC 1 yesterday, I saw at the end that Judy was voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin and as Ginnifer isn't up in the G section, is it a form of Jenifer and if so, what sort of form?
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In the east of Britain, /G/ followed by a front vowel (i, e, occasionally æ) usually becomes a palatal sibilant. In the early post-Roman era this sibilant merged with the approximant /j/ now spelled "y", but in words/names introduced later the palatal version of "g" merged with the Norman French development of "j" as a new sibilant in which the written form sometimes alternates between "j" and "g". When Welsh Guinevere was taken into Cornish, the w/u from the stem word was lost and the resulting Gi/Ge becomes palatalized as the sibilant version.
This message was edited 10/20/2021, 6:48 AM
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The actress was born Jennifer and changed the spelling of her name when she went into acting as a profession. Though the Wikipedia article on her claims this was partly to go along with a "regional pronunciation", it was probably just to make the name less common and make her more memorable, and more able to get Hollywood parts, as in the Hollywood actors' union you can't have exactly the same name by spelling as another actor.
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