The only thing I know about this is that it’s unnecessary to start another “internet war” over how someone pronounced terms like this one, since both pronunciation are recognizable (even my friends often spelled in with different results thanks to their accents and our local language too)
I first read that as a hitman image format.
How dare you come here with this blasphemy.
Pronounced ‘chief.’
More like Gee-f
Okay, so like a GIF Wrangler
Like Ask Jeeves but with a ffff
FUCK ALL Y’ALL ‘JIF’ MOTHERFUCKERS
They’ll bend over in a jiffy.
How do you pronounce laser
There are several arguments for why it should be pronounced a given way and OP didn’t say any of them.
I see you just picked your favorite to argue against.
Hard R
jaser
g as in gif
I wish it was gnuf
g as in gnome
Wrong, it’s pronounced “gif”
g as in genuine ginormous gendered giraffes gesticulating gingerly
‘G’ as in “Gary my guy, it’s great you have the guts to be wrong again!”
general gibberish
Why do they list an incorrect pronunciation?
To stop the edit wars.
Also the creator of the format attempted to troll people by saying it’s officially pronounced “jiff”, and it’s taken as truth by the gullible and the people who believe that if you create something, you should be able to control what people call it (even if it defies logic).
I agree that the manner this was presented at the 2013 Webbys, which kickstarted the debate, was jokingly, but the specifications have always recommended “jiff” since the format’s inception, though also a bit jokingly:
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”.[3]
*“Jeff”
Me on mobile: Huh, interesting…
It’s either an acronym or it isn’t.
Jay-Phegg
yeah well jayphegg yourself buddy
I’m not your buddy friend
well okay i guess i’ll send the cookout invitation to OOP then
That’s okay I’m more into Haskell nowadays.
Íslenska?
No: JPEG, the P is for Photo.
It’s JPEG, not JФEG.
I pronounce that as gay peg
You must make a lot of new friends.
at the leather store, yes
Meaning?
If it’s an acronym, then the pronunciation by rule would be “jif”. There is no etymological justification to pronounce it otherwise.
For example, we pronounce it “foobar” and not “fuhbar”, even though the word is “up”.
Well that makes no sense. If your view is that “it’s an acronym or it isn’t” then you pronounce it as individual letters or as a word. But the reality of language is much messier than arbitrary rules people come up with. If people pronounce it as if it’s a word in its own right, that means that’s how it works. Just as with laws of physics, if what we observe contradicts the rule, the rule was wrong.
No, it makes some sense, because it’s consistent with the general rules of English pronunciation as well as the definition of “acronym”.
Of course, people may pronounce words as they choose, but choosing to pronounce “gif” with a hard “g” is an arbitrary renunciation of the standards of the language. It’s utterly indefensible by logic. There is no etymological defence for it (as there is for pronouncing “gift” with a hard “g”). That’s fine, but let’s not pretend that it’s anything other than arbitrary.
By rule, it would be “jif”. What people choose to do is fine and delightful and arbitrary and illogical.
I make no claim regarding what is “correct”. I’m not prescribing a right choice. I’m only pointing out what’s consistent with standards and definitions.
choosing to pronounce “gif” with a hard “g” is an arbitrary renunciation of the standards of the language.
Right. That’s why people naturally started pronouncing it with a hard ‘g’ to begin with…
Downvoted for being right with no counterargument. Is this reddit?
What rule? I just go by what I read in the 90s about what the creators thought.
The rule that “g” followed by “e” or “i” is pronounced “j” unless there is an etymological reason not to.
The creators’ opinion is irrelevant to the rules of English pronunciation.
An acronym by definition is an initialism pronounced as though it were a word and not according to the pronunciations of the words that form the initialism.
deleted by creator
Are they always wrong though?
Giraffe-ic Interchange Format.
i’ve forgotten most of my IPA so this is really helpful
Enough IPA and I tend to forget things as well.
This also generally works wherever you see a dotted underline.
GIF
“Gee Eye Eff”
I got real self righteous there for a second, but i see they included the wrong pronunciation as well
Looks like Wikipedia decided to let the users battle it out since they have both listed. Both the right and the wrong way.
My opinion, I always use a hard F.
wow, they used to use the hard F on Family guy?
