Every day we stray further from jod
Yiff
wait no
Unless…?
In hell!
Hiff
Yiff
No.
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
On the slim chance you’re arguing in good faith and are just unaware. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciation_of_GIF
A number of analysis have been done on this subject. Polling showed that more people pronounce with a hard g. Most dictionaries list a hard g as the primary pronunciation. More words that begin with gi use the hard g.
When I hear someone mispronounce gif as jif, I tend to know exactly what type of person they are.
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.
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.
Its actually a rule of the English language that g followed by i is a soft g.
Give? Gift? Gills? Girl? Giddy?
Every rule in English has exceptions, but when we make a new word should it follow the rule, or be an exception?
Except in gift which is the linguistically closest word to gif
Also, don’t misunderstand English: as the hybrid of two very different language sources (Germanic and Latin - among many others since), there are basically no rules that don’t have exceptions.
gift which is the linguistically closest word to gif
gin
Gin is closer to gif than gift?
git
Like giraffe, gist, and magic
Is that supposed to be an argument? That there are two ways to pronounce the letter g? I was actually already aware of that - even before I’d ever heard of gifs.
The argument is that words starting with g followed by i are most often soft g.
Yiff obviously
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!
Right, because that totally applies to all other acronyms.
Gif as in Gift
So a “J” sound like in gift?
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.
Or you can pronounce it “heef” as in Spanish, just saying
I pronounce it ‘yiff’.
Gif. Obviously.
xif, to be inclusive
I just read it as it appears, phonetically, like any other word. Gif.
That approach must create quite a comical result when you read words like “priest” or “social”
But yes, Gif (g like get) is the correct option
Oh, so that’s what we’re going to do today, we’re gonna fight?
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”.