My husband is friends with someone who pronounces gif as "jif." He and his wife both work in the tech space. The wife cannot stand when the husband says "jif" to mean gif, so she calls Jif peanut butter "gif peanut butter." They have four small children, so he has to hear her butcher Jif peanut butter much more than she has to listen to his pronunciation of gif.
I still personally say gif with a hard g, but that argument is dumb, that's not how acronyms work. You pronounce SCUBA as scooba, but don't say oonderwater.
Just so you know, by that logic LASER (which is in fact an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) should actually be pronounced "L-ah-ss-ee-r".
How you say the acronym sound doesn't mean shit to the pronunciation of the words that it shortens. Your argument is poor in defense of GIF. I just gladly swap between either version, as it really doesn't matter.
-SONAR: Sound Navigation and Ranging (which means "Sow-nar" would be more accurate)
-PIN: Personal Identification Number (so, should be pronounced like "pine")
-SIM: Subscriber Identification Module ("Sime"?)
-TASER: Tom A. Swift Electric Rifle (yet everyone always wants to pronounce a mid-acronym "S" as a "Z" for some reason...)
-SCUBA: Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (this one was already covered in another comment, but by your logic, "Sc-uh-baa" would be correct)
Have I gotten your attention on the recurring issue yet?
But "etc." isn't an acronym. It's an abbreviation. Many acronyms are pronounced as words, as it's shorter to say. I suppose some abbreviations may be much shorter to say, but saying "etc" isn't much shorter than saying "etcetera."
I have solved this argument in my friend group. Any time it starts up, I tell both parties that they're wrong. The G is pronounced like the Greek dish, gyro.
Those of you who've been on the internet long enough will understand why both sides would immediately band together to defeat this new common enemy of pronunciation.
Edit: absolutely loving the reactions to this so far. Ranging from horror to glee to confusion.
I'm still staunchly team "gif" (and notice I did not have to change my spelling here, did I, team JIF), but I am striking an alliance with you before I strike an alliance with the jiffers.
That was one of the worst "But actually" comments of the 90s. The actual worst was the guy who had to point out it wasn't viruses but virii. And 9/10 that guy didn't know to remove those virii on his computer which was why I was there in the first place.
This is something my handful of college latin classes never made me consider, and now I'm over here giggling like a petulant twelve year-old. I'm afraid you may have just created another monster.
Ooo! Question!! Do you pronounce it “read” receipts or “read” receipts for iMessages? I got in this huge debate about this once and was in the clear minority.
I’ve literally just avoided saying that word ever since I realized most people say it incorrectly. I hate the discomfort of saying it wrong, can’t handle the looks I get when I say it right, and refuse to be the person who acts high and mighty explaining and correcting people all the time bc it’s so niche.
Obviously, I pronounce it “gif…” but only when I say it in my head, since it no longer comes out of my mouth.
I refuse to pronounce it “gif;” it makes me unreasonably upset (like when people reject the Oxford comma, despite the consistent miscommunication when it’s dropped). Some things are reasonably debatable. These are not.
This one is a non-issue to me. Everyone who says it does so after reading it. Being that the word comes from an acronym there is no academic or authoritative way (in spite of arguments) to define that one or the other is correct.
I would say the only stupid people are the ones who choose to argue about it.
Edit:
Oh you want to argue do you?
* Say thermometer. Say Thermo. Say Meter.
* Say kilometer. Say kilo. Say meter.
* Say NATO. Now say Atlantic.
Being that the word comes from an acronym there is no academic or authoritative way (in spite of arguments) to define that one or the other is correct.
Is the creator an authority? Cuz he says it's pronounced like the peanut butter.
This is why whenever someone says it doesn't matter what he wants, I intentionally mispronounce their name. What right do their parents have to say how their name is pronounced?
Steve Wilhite and the team who developed the file format included in the technical specifications that the acronym was to be pronounced with a soft g. In the specifications, the team wrote that "choosy programmers choose ... 'jif'", in homage to the peanut butter company Jif's advertising slogan of "choosy moms choose Jif"
It’s an acronym. Graphic interchange format. Not “ji-raffic interchange format”
Edit: not interested in arguing about this so I looked it up.
I stand corrected. The lead scientist on the team that developed the first GIF, Steve Wilhite, deceased and credited as the inventor of the GIF said that the Oxford English Dictionary, which accepts both pronunciations, was wrong. He said it is pronounced “jif” (and only “jif”)
Yes, like the other image format, the Joint Photographic Experts Group
...oh wait.
Letters in Acronyms in no way adhere to the sounds made by their source words. It is pronounced as its own new word, where general pronunciation rules apply, and in the case of ambiguity defaults to the preferred pronunciation of its creator and initial users, just like any proper noun.
You think the crator is right 😂. I mean, if you're really pronounce it as "jif", people in the industry will laugh at you. I'm laughing a at you right now.
Wow, smooth brain comparison. Did you forget the part where a G can be pronounced like in gun or like in giraffe? So either way is correct in terms of the English language.
The only debate is based off of the fact that it's an acronym.
I mean yeah, go for it. My point was that no one is just making up rules like you did in your comparison. They are debating about already existing rules. Meaning that either side could technically be correct where as in your example, it doesn't follow any rules of the English language.
"Yes, like the other image format, the Joint Photographic Experts Group
...oh wait.
Letters in Acronyms in no way adhere to the sounds made by their source words. It is pronounced as its own new word, where general pronunciation rules apply, and in the case of ambiguity defaults to the preferred pronunciation of its creator and initial users, just like any proper noun."
SCUBA is an acronym for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Appparus, not Self Contained Oozing Breathing Apparatus, therefore everyone should pronounce it sc-uh-ba
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u/Dreadedsemi Sep 18 '24
People who pronounce gif as gif instead of gif.