I disagree. If the letter your adding is E, it will change the promounciation of the vowel. That's the function of the E. Adding a consonant like t doesn't change the vowel sound (eg. How you would pronounce something like "sif" vs "sift" - no change in the vowel.
The fact that this conversation exists is proof that the word is intuitively pronounced with a hard G.
The only reason to pronounce it like a J if because the creator liked it - and the reason he liked it was literally because of the (copyright-infringing) similarity to the peanut butter.
He made a huge contribution to the Internet by creating the format, and he deserves it gratitude. Mispronouncing gif is not the best approach to that.
Pronunciation of words is decided by consensus - and while of course people mispronounce things, what that means is, they pronounce it differently from the accepted cultural norm.
We don't get all in a knot because Americans prove things differently from British people - even though they originally set the rules for English. And we don't pronounce things the way we do because George Washington (being analogous to wilhite (or whatever his name was)) told us to; we pronounce things as we do because of cultural consensus.
Wilhite's intention was literally to use the name recognition of the peanut butter to further his own success - which, like, who cares - but the simple fact that he made that decision (and to be clear, regardless of our opinion on copyright, is a bad way to make the decision) strongly implies that he was aware that his pronunciation was unnatural.
The fact that this conversation even comes up is proof that culturally we reject wilhite's pronunciation. It's a lost battle - the only reason I get involved in these threads is because I have a hard time watching the same 3 talking points (on both sides) and the same 3 rebuttals - all of which attempt seem to use facts and logic to determine "correct" pronunciation - when the truth is, the pronunciation has already been decided, and soft-G pronounces deserve to understand it.
So your argument is actually that people who pronounce it with a hard G have just never heard anyone say it.
And we're taking about dot-g-i-f, the format that is hugely shared as memes and as reactions in chats, a form so well known that it's at Kleenex level of awareness - awareness that exceeds itself - ie, all other variants of this format (apng, animated webp, even webm) are called gifs.
And you're saying that most people, which is, given the prevalence of gifs, probably most of our species at this point - most of the sentient life forms in our solar system are aware of this format's name... But we've just never heard anyone say it. Except for a small, vocal minority - who exist mostly on the Internet and are deeply online. Those are the only people who have heard it said out loud.
And, in that impossible scenario, most of our species - who have, again, never heard it said it loud - billions of people - all, independently, came up with the same, supposedly incorrect, pronunciation.
That's your argument? I feel like your case would be stronger without it.
It's like intentionally taking a Principal Skinner stance - everyone else on earth is wrong. Except, at least Skinner was oblivious.
There's simply no justification for the jif pronunciation. There's an explanation - ie, because the creator of the format wanted to float his success on the back of a peanut butter brand. And it didn't even work - no one calls it "jif" and yet it's probably got better name recognition than the peanut butter. But - even as weak as that explanation is, an explanation is not a justification. A justified pronunciation - even if it's different from the original pronunciation, is one people natively come up with, and yet is always the same.
It's the children who are wrong, all three billion of them. The only ones who are right are me and my friends. We don't have any justification or valid argument, we're just right because we say we are.
I had literally never heard a single person pronounce it with a hard G, through middle school and high school graphic design classes, through an entire web development degree, until 2015 when HelloGeneric made that stupid video.
Why? He has no linguistic expertise, and he didn't have the perspective of the format's popularity when he made that decree. And his decision was based on intentionally infringing on copyright. And it intentionally goes against the intuitive pronunciation. And the term "gif" now even refers to files that aren't even .gif - it's way past him.
This may sound harsh, and I want to acknowledge that he did something really awesome - but the Jif pronunciation will not survive once he, as a person, is forgotten. But the format will. It's not his anymore.
Nah. We've had that conversation before, with SCSI files. No one pronounces those as "sexy" despite the creator's insistence on that being the correct pronunciation.
I hate this argument so I'm going tip start pronouncing it like the Dutch G or the Spanish J and you won't be able to tell which it is because I speak neither language.
An acronym is a kind of initialism that can be pronounced like a word e.g. NASA. Your reasoning for why it can't be pronounced as a word ("sequel") depends on it not being an acronym. But, since many people do pronounce it that way, it is, in fact, an acronym and can be pronounced that way.
Ess Queue Ell. I didn't hear the sequel pronunciation until I was well in my thirties and even then only by people older than me. Then I started working with it myself and heard people younger than me pronouncing it sequel, so now I have no idea. I still hear Ess Queue Ell from the vast majority though.
The creator of the Gradual Interface Forget wanted people to pronounce it with a J literally because he wanted it to use the name recognition of the peanut butter - and I don't exactly care about their profits or about copyright, but it's a bad reason.
So wealthy people exploit vulnerable people and coordinate to fill the airwaves with anti-human propaganda because some people mistakenly use a J sound?
In Swedish we don't really say Jay-pegg, because it doesn't flow with the rest of the language. Due to it coming at a time when file extensions were limited to three characters on Windows, most people I know pronounce it JPG (Yee-pear-gear).
Those who say it with a hard G must also say JFEG using the same logic. I'm fine with someone saying it either way, it's been around so long that I think the choices tend to be regional (aka BBS era).
The file format is JPEG (or JPG). Its commonly pronounced "jay-peg", but if we demand that GIF is a hard-G because of "Graphics", then we must abide JPEG being pronounced "jay-feg" or "jay-pheg" because of "Photographic".
I know, English is hard. It’s ok that you’re wrong, or to put it nicely, confidently incorrect.
JPEG lacks the ph (eff) sound because, well you know, there is no ‘h’ in JPEG and that changes the pronunciation rules. based on your argument, we’d also pronounce picture as ficture. Or penis as fenis.
So, a+ for effort, but F for accuracy.
Fun tidbit though. Person, penis, and peg, all follow different pronunciation rules because the consonants that follow.
Considering gif is just an acronym there isn’t a right or wrong way to pronounce it as technically it isn’t a word, and therefore there is no “official” way to say it.
Yiff
wait no
Unless…?
In hell!
Hiff
You have spoken THE FORBIDDEN WORD
Every day we stray further from jod
"It's pronounced greg..."
how do you pronounce God, goo, grey, great, good, gun, gumption, goofy
plus jif is peanut butter
While I agree with you on how it should be pronounced, not a good argument. Giraffe.
Gift without the t, I always say
That falls apart when you have all the words like bit and bite, made and mad, same and sam.
I disagree. If the letter your adding is E, it will change the promounciation of the vowel. That's the function of the E. Adding a consonant like t doesn't change the vowel sound (eg. How you would pronounce something like "sif" vs "sift" - no change in the vowel.
Lasagna
Fahrvergnügen
I would accept gife (rhymes with life) with hard G before I accept jif.
Then go fight the dictionary, both pronunciations are in there
Gift is closer to gif than giraffe....
Geordie Laforge thumbs up
Gin Gist Giraffe Gino Gif Gimp Git Gift
English is crazy so do what you want.
Giant, geode, gel, george, gerbil. Just sayin'.
*Gust sayin'.
same as Graphical.
My favorite is the gif of the skubbah diver with a lassear beam on their frickin head.
correct.
And McAfee!
Sorry, I meant giraffe.
I am underappreciated in my time.
I agree with you but I have a simpler argument, which is the mere fact that this exists: https://fileinfo.com/extension/jif
WOAH. Didn't know about this. Maybe I can finally convince my mom... doubt.
u choose all these unrelated words when theres GIFt
Also, if jizz is not spelled as gizz, so why would jif spelled as gif?
SCUBA
I’m seeing vowel consonant vowel, that’s a long U in the new word regardless to what it stands for in the acronym.
Jraphics Interchange Format
Joint Fotographic Expert Group
I think what you meant to send is “Joint Potographic Expert Group” with the H removed, instead of the Ph swapped for F
Giraffeics Interchange Format
If you pronounce it jif, you are 100% wrong no matter who you are.
https://youtu.be/Nrk8sqZfsgI
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/Nrk8sqZfsgI
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Yiff obviously
Yiff
No.
This would be the correct Swedish pronunciation if it followed normal rules, as i is a soft vowel.
gif. With a hard g, because there is also .jiff and you could not distinguish otherwise.
The fact that this conversation exists is proof that the word is intuitively pronounced with a hard G.
The only reason to pronounce it like a J if because the creator liked it - and the reason he liked it was literally because of the (copyright-infringing) similarity to the peanut butter.
He made a huge contribution to the Internet by creating the format, and he deserves it gratitude. Mispronouncing gif is not the best approach to that.
You realize there are other words people pronounce incorrectly just because they’ve only ever read it right?
Pronunciation of words is decided by consensus - and while of course people mispronounce things, what that means is, they pronounce it differently from the accepted cultural norm.
We don't get all in a knot because Americans prove things differently from British people - even though they originally set the rules for English. And we don't pronounce things the way we do because George Washington (being analogous to wilhite (or whatever his name was)) told us to; we pronounce things as we do because of cultural consensus.
Wilhite's intention was literally to use the name recognition of the peanut butter to further his own success - which, like, who cares - but the simple fact that he made that decision (and to be clear, regardless of our opinion on copyright, is a bad way to make the decision) strongly implies that he was aware that his pronunciation was unnatural.
The fact that this conversation even comes up is proof that culturally we reject wilhite's pronunciation. It's a lost battle - the only reason I get involved in these threads is because I have a hard time watching the same 3 talking points (on both sides) and the same 3 rebuttals - all of which attempt seem to use facts and logic to determine "correct" pronunciation - when the truth is, the pronunciation has already been decided, and soft-G pronounces deserve to understand it.
The conversation exists to correct people who only ever read it, not because people reject the pronunciation rather they are unaware of it
So your argument is actually that people who pronounce it with a hard G have just never heard anyone say it.
And we're taking about dot-g-i-f, the format that is hugely shared as memes and as reactions in chats, a form so well known that it's at Kleenex level of awareness - awareness that exceeds itself - ie, all other variants of this format (apng, animated webp, even webm) are called gifs.
And you're saying that most people, which is, given the prevalence of gifs, probably most of our species at this point - most of the sentient life forms in our solar system are aware of this format's name... But we've just never heard anyone say it. Except for a small, vocal minority - who exist mostly on the Internet and are deeply online. Those are the only people who have heard it said out loud.
And, in that impossible scenario, most of our species - who have, again, never heard it said it loud - billions of people - all, independently, came up with the same, supposedly incorrect, pronunciation.
That's your argument? I feel like your case would be stronger without it.
It's like intentionally taking a Principal Skinner stance - everyone else on earth is wrong. Except, at least Skinner was oblivious.
There's simply no justification for the jif pronunciation. There's an explanation - ie, because the creator of the format wanted to float his success on the back of a peanut butter brand. And it didn't even work - no one calls it "jif" and yet it's probably got better name recognition than the peanut butter. But - even as weak as that explanation is, an explanation is not a justification. A justified pronunciation - even if it's different from the original pronunciation, is one people natively come up with, and yet is always the same.
The ones that have heard it pronounce it jif
I don’t see why you’re so insistent on being wrong
When I hear someone mispronounce gif as jif, I tend to know exactly what type of person they are.
That's you. That's what you sound like.
I had literally never heard a single person pronounce it with a hard G, through middle school and high school graphic design classes, through an entire web development degree, until 2015 when HelloGeneric made that stupid video.
If gif is the proper noun for the format, it's pronounced as the creator says.
Why? He has no linguistic expertise, and he didn't have the perspective of the format's popularity when he made that decree. And his decision was based on intentionally infringing on copyright. And it intentionally goes against the intuitive pronunciation. And the term "gif" now even refers to files that aren't even .gif - it's way past him.
This may sound harsh, and I want to acknowledge that he did something really awesome - but the Jif pronunciation will not survive once he, as a person, is forgotten. But the format will. It's not his anymore.
Also who said it's a proper noun
Nah. We've had that conversation before, with SCSI files. No one pronounces those as "sexy" despite the creator's insistence on that being the correct pronunciation.
I make the distinction simply by talking about gifs
I don't think there's any real argument here. So I turned this into a meme.
this is the way
Make it two goofy heads and it'd be perfection
👑
Giraffe. Giant. Gigolo.
Like a sane person. Why do you ask?
I hate this argument so I'm going tip start pronouncing it like the Dutch G or the Spanish J and you won't be able to tell which it is because I speak neither language.
It's not jraphics interchange format
neither do divers use "self contained OOnderwater breathing apparatus", usually written as SCUBA.
Nor do we say jPHeg files.
Nor "north AYYtlantic treaty OHHrganization"
or "light AYYmplification by stimulated emnssion of radiation"
Get the fuck out of here with your logic! We're not here to be right, we're here to win!
Except it used to be genie interchange format, or something along those lines. (It is still gif though I don't care what it stood for jif is dumb)
Right, because that totally applies to all other acronyms.
Gif as in Gift
Not gif like gel?
Nope, not even close. It's followed by an E.
So a “J” sound like in gift?
New one I just became aware of:
How does everyone say SQL?
I go back and forth between "Ess Cue Ell", "Sequel", and "You Fucking Whore"
This is what we do at work.
This one fits me best
My dad has used SQL forever and calls it "Sequel."
Depends on the context
MySQL: my es que el
SQL Server: sequel Server
PostgreSQL: Postgress
or by itself just es que el
Really, my ess cue ell? I say mysequel 100% of the time. But I'm trying to get into the Primagen's My Squeal pronunciation
It's an initialisation, not an acronym, so it's only:
Ess-queue-ell.
Surely anything else is madness
Your logic is circular
Sorry, I don't understand
An acronym is a kind of initialism that can be pronounced like a word e.g. NASA. Your reasoning for why it can't be pronounced as a word ("sequel") depends on it not being an acronym. But, since many people do pronounce it that way, it is, in fact, an acronym and can be pronounced that way.
Holy shit, I completely forgot about using the term sequel - you are absolutely correct!
And yet everyone I know who has used it pre-2010s ish says 'sequel'
Yeah, I'm just a dumb-ass that completely forgot
Ess-Cue-Elle
I call it sequel but I've heard squirrel and squeal.
I like to call it "Squeal" sometimes, but usually I call it "Sequel".
Squirrel.
Ess Queue Ell. I didn't hear the sequel pronunciation until I was well in my thirties and even then only by people older than me. Then I started working with it myself and heard people younger than me pronouncing it sequel, so now I have no idea. I still hear Ess Queue Ell from the vast majority though.
Jpeg should be pronounced gaypeg whenever someone else chooses to pronounce gif as jif. Change my mind.
You mean jayfeg?
With a hard "guh" sound, because that's what I grew up with.
JIF is peanut butter
GIF is Graphic Interchange Format
The creator of the Gradual Interface Forget wanted people to pronounce it with a J literally because he wanted it to use the name recognition of the peanut butter - and I don't exactly care about their profits or about copyright, but it's a bad reason.
This stupid fucking argument is proof humans will never achieve world peace
So wealthy people exploit vulnerable people and coordinate to fill the airwaves with anti-human propaganda because some people mistakenly use a J sound?
I pronounce it 'yiff'.
Or you can pronounce it "heef" as in Spanish, just saying
Gif. Obviously.
G like the g in beige, with a long I. "Zhaif"
"Choosy developers choose gif."
It's pronounced GIF, duh.
Imagine talking in a language where people cant decide how words are pronounced
I just read it as it appears, phonetically, like any other word. Gif.
Nobody mentions the people who pronounce it G-I-F
In Swedish we don't really say Jay-pegg, because it doesn't flow with the rest of the language. Due to it coming at a time when file extensions were limited to three characters on Windows, most people I know pronounce it JPG (Yee-pear-gear).
This right here, the only one that everyone can hate equally
Oh, so that's what we're going to do today, we're gonna fight?
xif, to be inclusive
jee ayy eff
GAF?
I think they're trying to spell their name: Geoff. They're still learning, give it time.
Like the g in garage
tiff
Those who say it with a hard G must also say JFEG using the same logic. I'm fine with someone saying it either way, it's been around so long that I think the choices tend to be regional (aka BBS era).
How would you pronounce JFEG other than J-Feg
The file format is JPEG (or JPG). Its commonly pronounced "jay-peg", but if we demand that GIF is a hard-G because of "Graphics", then we must abide JPEG being pronounced "jay-feg" or "jay-pheg" because of "Photographic".
I know, English is hard. It’s ok that you’re wrong, or to put it nicely, confidently incorrect.
JPEG lacks the ph (eff) sound because, well you know, there is no ‘h’ in JPEG and that changes the pronunciation rules. based on your argument, we’d also pronounce picture as ficture. Or penis as fenis.
So, a+ for effort, but F for accuracy.
Fun tidbit though. Person, penis, and peg, all follow different pronunciation rules because the consonants that follow.
Gif As in graphical which it's short for.
Djeef like chief
heff
Giffy pop popcorn.
Geef
gee aii f
With a J but rhyming it with life
Yes, officer, this comment right here.
No! Not biting, just say it hiwever you like and fuck off :p
gee ayy effJif
Jäif for all my PBS idea channel followers - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmqy-Sp0txY
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Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
If you really want to make everyone mad, it's not "gif" or "jif" it's "jyfe"
Considering gif is just an acronym there isn’t a right or wrong way to pronounce it as technically it isn’t a word, and therefore there is no “official” way to say it.
Like Girlfriend
Gife