How do you pronounce gif

How To Really Pronounce GIF

It’s pronounced with a hard G, “GIF”, like “gift”.

Introduction

Throughout history, there have been numerous hotly-debated topics. That’s even more so the case today—we’ll debate about almost anything. But I don’t think there’s a segment of the population that debates issues so intensely as the web design and development community. Don’t get me wrong, we certainly have some great debates about important topics, but whoa do we argue over some minor stuff too. Look no further than the debate over, of all things, the pronunciation of an image format: GIF. Some people even go so far as to make a dedicated website of such things. Crazy, right? So… anyway, I made this website on how to really pronounce GIF. 🙂

Why is it the correct pronunciation?

It’s the most natural, logical way to pronounce it. That’s why when everyone comes across the word for the first time, they use a hard G.

How is it the logical pronunciation?

Every word that starts with G, then a vowel, then an F, is pronounced with a hard G. For example:
Gaffe. Gift. Guff. Guffaw.

Most one-syllable words that start with G have a hard G (not an exhaustive list):
Gab. Gad. Gag. Gal. Gam. Gap. Gas. Gay. Get. Gig. Gill. Gimp. Gird. Girl. Git! Give. Go. Goal. Gob. God. Gone. Gore. Got. Guide. Guild. Guilt. Gull. Gulp. Gum. Gun. Gust. Gut. Guy.

The word “gift” is the closest word to GIF, and it has a hard G. To pronounce GIF, just say “gift” without the “t”.

What about Gin, Gem, Gym, Geo, and Gel?

Gin is not a good counterexample because it’s a drink derived from juniper berries, so its name is from the Dutch jenever for “juniper”. Gem comes from the Latin gemma for “jewel”. As for the other words, they are abbreviations of larger words, so they inherited their pronunciations.

Does the G in “GIF” stand for a word that has a soft G?

No, GIF is an acronym for Graphics Interchange Format. The word “graphics” does have a hard G, but that doesn’t necessarily influence the pronunciation. That’s why JPEG, an acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group, is not pronounced jay-feg, but rather jay-peg. Pronunciation of acronyms tends to follow pronunciation rules like any regular word. So the point here is, because the word behind the G in GIF is “graphics”, it eliminates any possible argument that could be made if the word happened to have a soft G.

Why does anyone pronounce GIF with a soft G then?

The creator of the GIF image format, Steve Wilhite of CompuServe, when deciding on the pronunciation, said he deliberately chose to echo the American peanut butter brand, Jif, and CompuServe employees would often say “Choosy developers choose GIF(jif)”, playing off of Jif’s television commercials. If you hear anyone pronounce GIF with a soft G, it’s probably because they know something of this history. If the Jif peanut butter company never existed, I suspect he would have never pronounced GIF with a soft G.

Speaking of Steve Wilhite, when he explains the pronunciation of GIF, he himself has to explicitly write, “It’s pronounced ‘JIF’.” He has to explain it this way because it goes against how it would naturally be pronounced.

Are there any valid arguments for pronouncing it “JIF”?

“The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations. They are wrong. It is a soft ‘G’, pronounced ‘jif’. End of story.”

“However, the pronunciation with a hard g is now very widespread and readily understood. A coiner effectively loses control of a word once it’s out there…”

I’m sure you would agree, it’s far more likely that these masters of the English language understand better than anyone how to pronounce a word.

Wilhite also mentioned that he is annoyed there is still debate over the pronunciation. With all due respect, isn’t it his own fault for choosing a pronunciation that simply doesn’t make sense?

So what now?

Now you can go forth and freely pronounce GIF with a hard G as you naturally would, because you have every right to do so. If you feel compelled to honor the pronunciation given by the GIF’s creator out of some sense of obligation, that’s perfectly fine too. In the grand scheme of things, it really isn’t a big deal. Just don’t give those of us who pronounce it correctly a hard time. 🙂

Stickers

I was previously selling these stickers through Sticker Mule’s marketplace, but they’ve since shut that down. I am looking for a new provider, so check back soon!

Do you know a good provider? Let me know!

T-Shirt

Some of you may feel quite passionate about pronouncing GIF with a hard G, so much so that you might even wear a t-shirt about it. In that case, I’ve designed a t-shirt for you. To gauge interest, I’ve created a mailing list that you can subscribe to, and if the shirt goes up for sale, I can notify you. Your email addresses will not be used for any other purpose.

Comments or Questions

If you have any comments or questions, send me tweets at @HTRPGIF!

Here’s a Timeline of the Debate About How to Pronounce GIF

T he Graphics Interchange Format, or GIF, was first developed by computer scientist working at CompuServe back in 1987.

And while it has swelled or dipped, the debate over how to pronounce the acronym for those minute looping animations became a thing once the GIF really took off. Is it a hard g like in graphics? Or a soft g like giant? Answering that question depends who you ask and whose authority on the matter you believe in.

Here is a timeline of how to pronounce GIF, one of the great debates of the internet age.

June 1987:

Steve Wilhite releases the Graphics Interchange Format, or GIF, while working for Compuserve. He called it a GIF with a soft g. “Choosy developers,“ he reportedly said, “choose JIF.” This was of course a play on the peanut butter brand Jif’s line “choosy mothers choose Jif.”

The pronunciation debate was apparently already in progress. Australia’s ABC reports that “[i]n 1994, the author of an encyclopedia of image formats said ‘most people’ seem to prefer saying a different way than the GIF godfather instructed: GIF.

November 2012:

GIF is selected as the Oxford Dictionaries USA Word of the Year 2012. The dictionary wrote that “GIF may be pronounced with either a soft g (as in giant) or a hard g (as in graphic).

April 2013:

The White House announces its new Tumblr page where, according to New York magazine, it threw down the pronunciation gauntlet with an illustration that told visitors to the page that they can expect “ANIMATED GIFs (‘HARD G’).” This was the same year that we got GIPHY, a GIF database people could search for the GIFs they wanted.

May 2013:

Wilhite receives a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Webby Awards and used his platform to make his declaration. “It’s pronounced JIF, not GIF.” Just like the peanut butter. “The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations,” Wilhite told The New York Times. “They are wrong. It is a soft ‘G,’ pronounced ‘jif.’ End of story.” But it’s not so simple.

May 2013:

Many people on the internet disagree with Wilhite. Gizmodo declared him “wrong” and Twitter filled with people expressing their disagreement. “Pffffffffffffff,” posted one; “Graphics Interchange Format. Graphics. Not Jraphics. #GIF #hardg,” tweeted another.

May 2013:

At the time, the J. M. Smucker Company, which owns Jif, agreed with Wilhite’s pronunciation, tweeting, ”It’s pronounced JIF”.

June 2014:

President Barack Obama chooses a side, announcing his “official position” is that it is pronounced GIF with a hard g like grape.

June 2014:

A survey of more than 1,000 Americans were asked whether they “pronounce GIF as ‘jiff’ or ’gift‘” and “‘gift’ handily beat ‘jiff,‘ nearly 54% to 41%.” It was conduced by eBay Deals and a digital marketing agency.

August 2014:

Designer Aaron Bazinet launches website, howtoreallypronouncegif.com, arguing for the hard g pronunciation. “It’s the most natural, logical way to pronounce it. That’s why when everyone comes across the word for the first time, they use a hard G.”

August 2015:

Mental Floss wades into the debate with the help of a linguistics professor for a comprehensive analysis, ultimately deciding that both sides are correct and that the g in GIF “really can go either way.”

July 2016:

Newsweek declares it GIF with a hard G and has a linguistics professor to back them up.

February 2020:

Online GIF site GIPHY teamed up with Jif peanut butter to have some fun with the debate. The two companies unveiled a limited-edition jar of peanut butter in Jif’s trademark packaging, but labeled “Gif”. While some may think the packaging implies that GIF and Jif rhyme, according to the two companies—and a series of accompanying GIFs on GIPHY—the opposite is true.

Confusion about Pronunciation of gif

I know there isn’t a correct way to pronounce gif. And its an abbreviation. There are two ways to pronounce it

Hard G ( as in gift)

Soft G( as in giraffe)

This is a classic example of toe-ma-toe vs toe-mah-toe. This is a question. This is a bit opinion based.You are free to downvote this post. But i request you to comment why you are downvoting this post.

I read this article.
There are two common ways to pronounce this abbreviation.

I am still confused.
Different people pronounce it different way.
I have two following questions
1. Why is there no standard way pronounce it?
2. Why does its creator use different way to pronounce it( he prefers gif as in giraffe)

Some users may say that this question has already been answered by (Deciding pronunciation of new words that don’t obey natural rules of a language). But the above does not appear in the search results directly. Indeed, the title and the specifics are different. And there is general confusion due to videos and articles such as this YouTube clip.

Which one should I use? Or Can I use both? I have already read the following articles.
Links:

3 Answers 3

Use whichever version you prefer, both are in widespread use.

According to CNN the creator gave his opinion in 2013:

Steve Wilhite created the Graphics Interchange Format, or GIF, while working for Compuserve in 1987. On Tuesday, he received a Webby Award for it and delivered his five-word acceptance speech (that’s all the Webbys allow) by flashing a GIF on the big screens at the Cipriani Wall Street in New York.

And, in a flash, it all became clear:

«It’s pronounced JIF, not GIF.»

Perhaps 26 years too late! The hard-G version is so widespread, I tend to hear hard-G GIF the most and have seen little evidence of change in the past decade or so.

In 2015, internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch concluded in her article Why the Pronunciation of GIF Really Can Go Either Way:

In other words, when you see a new word starting with «gi,» your previous exposure to «gi» words is basically telling you to flip a coin—it’s just as likely that you’ll decide to pronounce it with a hard g as with a soft g. And you’ll never find an overwhelming enough piece of counter-evidence to get you to change your mind. Which probably means we’ll be fighting the gif pronunciation war for generations to come.

So take your pick, but expect some people to say it’s wrong!

How to Pronounce GIF

The Most Important Article on Medium

Greetings fellow GIF connoisseurs! Today, we will be discussing a topic that is near and dear to our hearts. So much so, that I’ve seen people get legitimately angry over this topic.

So far, in this article, you have pronounced the acronym GIF at least 4 times. How did you do it? Did you pronounce it as “Gif” (with a hard G like “gift”) or as “Jif” ( with a soft G like the peanut butter)?

In this article, we’re going to analyze the arguments for both pronunciations and attempt to come away with a clear winner!

The Case for the Hard G

There are 3 primary cases to be made for the hard G pronunciation (as in “Gift”).

Gi- Is Almost Always Pronounced With a Hard G

The phonetic argument is that “Gi-” is typically pronounced with a hard G. This includes similar words like “gift”, “gizmo”, and “give”! There are no exceptions to this rule! It seems crazy that people don’t understand this! It’s enough to make you want to drink!

G Stands For Graphics

The acronym argument is that the G stands for “Graphics” (as in Graphics Interchange Format). Are you trying to tell me that it’s pronounced “jraphics”? I don’t think so! We pronounce acronyms based on the words that the letters stand for. For example, JPEG stands for (Joint Photographic Experts Group). This is correctly pronounced “Jay-Feg”.

Everyone Says It That Way

The peer pressure argument is the strongest argument for the hard G pronunciation. A lot of people say it that way! Are you going to argue with the people? The people are always right. They would never steer us wrong. Ever.

The Case For The Soft G

There are two primary cases to be made for the soft G pronunciation.

All of the Cases For Hard G Have Exceptions

I’m not sure if you picked up on my very subtle hints above, but there are exceptions to each rule.

Gi- is typically pronounced with a hard G sound, but there are a plethora of words that use a soft G:

GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format, but there is a long list of acronyms where the pronunciation is not based on the words the letters represent:

But, the most compelling reason for pronouncing it as “Jif” is pretty straight forward.

Because Daddy Said So

Are you familiar with Steve Wilhite? Well, he is the father of the GIF. He created it. And, whether we like it or not, when you give birth to / invent something, you get naming rights. Well, Steve Wilhite says it should be pronounced “Jif”.

This is hard for us to accept. We live in a culture that is very subjective. In today’s world, everyone is encouraged to experience their own truth. But, the naming rights belong to Wilhite alone.

It doesn’t matter that the name “Dwayne” is typically spelled like this. That didn’t stop “Dwyane” Wade’s parents from spelling it however they felt like it should be spelled! We don’t agressively yell at him, “Your name is Dwuh-Yane Wade”!

Besides, it’s not like we hold other products to these hard pronunciation standards. Or do you pronounce Nike like “Bike”? No? I didn’t think so.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, it seems clear that we have to declare the winner as the pronunciation given by Steve Wilhite (a.k.a. “Jif”). You don’t have to agree with him. You don’t even have to pronounce it that way! But, you should be able to recognize that this is the correct pronunciation even if you choose to pronounce it differently.

Thanks for reading! Please clap and go angrily comment about how wrong I am!

How do you pronounce gif

The GIF graphics file format was invented by Steve Wilhite at CompuServe in 1987. In the years since, a debate has been raging as to the correct way to pronounce «GIF»: like «jif» as in the peanut butter, or with a hard ‘g’ as in «gift» as a majority of Mac users seem to prefer. With this page I intend to clear this up once and for all.

It’s pronounced like «jif». Period. The end. That’s final. End of story.

The GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), pronounced «JIF», was designed by CompuServe and the official specification released in June of 1987.

There, straight from the inventors of the format.

It is a picture of CompuShow ‘s author, Bob Berry. He used some of the then-new features of the GIF89 format to display text on top of graphics. One of the lines he entered in the text states:

Oh, incidentally, it’s pronounced «JIF»

You can’t see this text within a web browser, but if you save this image and load it up in GIF Construction Set or another animated GIF89 editor, you can see the comment for yourself. Drag and View also displays this text, but kind of screwed up. For further proof from Bob Berry, check this out.

Choosy programmers choose «gif» or «jif»?

The pronunciation of «GIF» is specified in the GIF specification to be «jif», as in «jiffy», rather then «gif», which most people seem to prefer. This does seem strange because the «G» is from the word «Graphics» and not «Jraphics».

That last statement doesn’t mean anything. It’s an acronym. There’s no defined way to pronounce acronyms—it’s up to the creators.

No detail was too small for consideration in the authors’ quest for a near-perfect image format; yea, verily, even the acronym and pronunciation were major topics of discussion. The reason, of course, is the GIF format; some pronounce it with a soft G like giraffe, some with a hard G like gift, and no one really knows what they’re talking about. (For the record, the soft G is correct; it is how the author of the format pronounces it.)

«PNG» is always spelled «PNG» (or «Portable Network Graphics») and always pronounced «ping,» not «pinj» or «pee en gee» or any other multi-syllabic disaster. See the introduction to the PNG specification for the definitive statement on the matter.

However, several people wrote to say that they either worked with folks at CompuServe or read the original GIF specification, all of which specified a soft «g». None of us at NetBITS understand why we haven’t seen the definitive word before, so here it is. Charlie Reading writes:

I worked with the creator of GIF (Steve Wilhite) when I was still employed by CompuServe. Steve always pronounced it «jiff» and would correct those who pronounced it with a hard G. «Choosy developers choose GIF» (spinning off of a historically popular peanut butter commercial).

If you want to make a difference in this pronunciation conundrum, print this piece of NetBITS out and send it to the person who writes your local newspaper’s technology or Internet column. We now have the specification’s authoritative pronunciation. Let’s stamp out the hard «g,» however logical, once and for all.

Convinced yet? Last month Adam Engst’s «NetBits» newsletter posed the same question, «Is it GIF or JIF?». In a later edition the blurb: «It’s ‘Jiff’ and I Don’t Want to Hear Another Word» wherein they relate mail from Charlie Reading who worked with the creator of GIF, Steve Wilhite. Charlie reported that Steve pronounced it «jiff», spinning off of a historically popular peanut butter commercial.

My applause and thanks go out to the editors of NetBits newsletter, for persevering and digging to the bottom of the debate.

First of all let me say that Mac zealots should be rounded up into cattle cars, gassed to death and incinerated to make certain there is no remaining genetic material that might infect the rest of the gene pool. I group Mac-heads with NAMBLA, the flat earth society and regional militia.

I say this merely to point out that how violently I would oppose aligning myself with this much confused group.

However, there can be only one correct pronunciation of the acronym GIF. And that pronunciation begins with a hard G as you would find in the word «graphic». Still have trouble forming the correct sound? Try this. Begin to say GIF as if you were saying the word «graphic», abandon the final six letters as you slip into the acronym. GIF, there you’ve said it correctly.

Phillip Burgess writes:

Ahhh, good, someone with their head screwed on right.

Anyone who pronounces «GIF» with a hard G simply does not understand computer programmers (and any programmers who still insist on this silly pronunciation are simply unfit). No *decent* coder would pass up an opportunity to inflict a horrid pun on the world. And seeing as peanut butter is one of the principle three programmer foods (the other two being Pepsi and nacho cheese Doritos), the reference is immediately obvious.

The «acronym theory,» that a hard G should be used because it’s «Graphics» and not «Jraphics,» simply does not hold water. If acronyms were always to be pronounced from their source words rather than as an independent new word, then by this very arrangement, «JPEG» would be pronounced «JFEG.»

Just to give these people a taste of their own medicine. I’ve started pronouncing «JPEG» with a hard G.

Brenda Harrison writes:

The «Correct Pronunciation of ‘GIF'» page made me laugh for a good 5 minutes. It reminds me of the age old debate of «How to pronounce ‘Geocities.'» That argument ended up with someone actually calling the Geocities offices to see how the phone operators answered the phone. («Hello, Geo Cities,» not «Hello, Geocities [g-os-ities],» just so you know. You probably already do, anyways.)

Sam Mefford writes:

Thanks for your page on the pronunciation of ‘gif’! I’m glad to have been vindicated by evidence!

Just thought I’d point out that in the english language, when a g is followed by an a, o, or u, it is supposed to be hard. When followed by an i or e, it is supposed to be soft. Therefore I never had any question that it was pronounced ‘jif’, despite the fact that everyone around disagreed.

Rita Minnichsoffer rebuts:

I’d like to know what happens when you give a gekko to geese, or get a gift from a girl, then.

Talbott Crowell (who apparently has a dictionary and lots of free time) also rebuts:

I did not know the English language had such rules, from now on I will pronounce the following words with a soft «J» instead of a hard «G»

Jilligans Island
Jibbon Viper
birtday jift
feeling jiddy
jiggle (laugh)
Jilbert (cartoon)
fish jills
the Jideon Bible
you are jilty of the crime
a woman’s jirdle
jirl scout cookies
jive me some
jibblets and jizzards

Pronounce GIF as you may.

Clay McGovern writes:

Although an interesting diversion, the roots of a word and its original pronunciation are completely irrelevant to common usage. Words have lives of their own. The creators of a word have little control over pronunciation beyond their original act of creation. Words are meant only for communication. The salient question is on «Do you understand my meaning when I say ‘GIF’?» If the answer is «Yes.» Then the dispute over «proper» pronunciation is absolutely absurd. Very, very, few people pronounce GIF with a soft g. Those who do are understood as well as those who don’t. Where is the problem with that.

Clay (with a «c» as in «cat»)

Erik J. Macki writes:

English words beginning in «gi-» «ge-» or «gy-» that are not of Romance origin (French, Italian, etc.) are *all* pronounced with a velar (hard) «g.» It is probably due to a misunderstanding of this principle that led the inventor of the GIF to pronounce it with an affricate (soft) «g» in the first place. This is why a native speaker of English would intuitively pronounce a word spelled «GIF» with a velar (hard) «g» without knowing otherwise. This is more consistent with all English-speakers’ natural, internal morphophonology, and that is why the velar pronunciation is so widespread.

Nonetheless, spelling is often irrelevant to pronunciation in English: with words like «tough,» through,» «gift,» «gypsy,» «egg,» «gem,» and «massage,» no one need waste any effort creating logic about how the letter «g» «ought» to be pronounced in English words: there simply is no logic. One must go by usage.

English is full of words whose pronunciation deviates from prescribed standards—precisely because usage, and not prescriptive rules, dictates what is «correct.» No amount of arguing from pundits and word-coiners can ever change this!

I suspect from informally surveys that the velar pronunciation in «GIF» is actually more common than the affricate («soft») pronunciation—a point of view validated by the very existance of your Web site—and as such the velar variant is at least a «correct» alternative if not the more common and thus «more correct» form entirely.

(Ed: Whoa, that’s over my head dude. you lost me at «morphophonology»!)

Dean Hutchings writes:

For years I have been telling people the correct pronunciation of GIF image files. They ALWAYS claimed I was wrong. I thought I had read somewhere that the creator of the format pronounced it like «jif» but could never find the proof. Now I have the ammo I need to finally prove my point!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!

Nathan Gaines writes:

Now could someone please tell me which of the three pronunciations of LINUX is correct?

Take care,
Nathan Gaines

Rob Ford writes:

«Jiff». «Giff». they’re both wrong. The «G» in «GIF» is silent. And silence is Jolden.

(Rob was also nice enough to provide the nifty animated GIF logo up top. Thanks, Rob!)

Cole Hewitt writes:

Maybe GIF should be pronounced «zhif» with a French accent. Then we could end this controversy.

Steve Bennett writes:

I saw your site on the proper pronunciation of GIF and have to categorically state it’s pronounced with the soft G as in Jif. Back in 1987, I was an assitant Sysop on Compuserve, in the Comics and Animation forum, and also in the AmigaArts forum, and as such was given the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of GIF development. (GIF was a godsend, especially for the Comics forum which was dealing with umpteen jillion different incompatible graphics formats. )

I called that program GIFFY because I had completely rewritten the decoder code (still in use by a few programs out there. ) and made it MUCH faster. (Later, I wrote GIFFY2, and HAMGIF. ) We all pronounced it «Jif» at the time, and the name «GIFFY» seemed the obvious and clear choice of name.

It never even occurred to me that someone might pronounce it with the hard G until the mid 1990s.

I thought this might make a good link on the GIF Pronunciation Page:
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail51.html

It is a cartoon in which, at one point, the character Strong Bad says:

«Okay, next on the checklist: lots of animated GIFs! or. GIFs. or however you say it. I don’t know. I heard a couple of nerds arguing about it one time.»

A belated bit of opinion for the discussion about the pronunciation of GIF—it is well-established that it was intended by the creators for GIF to be pronounced with a «J» sound, similar to the peanut butter brand, and technically this pronunciation is correct.

However, savvy graphics people who know their history (dare I say I’m one?) are also quite familiar with the JPEG Interchange Format (JIF), which is pronounced in the same manner. Since the Joint Photographic Experts Group was organized in 1986, their development of the JPEG family of standards (including JIF) possibly began earlier than the CompuServe work, which is consistently cited as resulting in the creation of GIF in 1987. Conversely, it can be argued that the Joint Photographic Experts Group didn’t release their first standard until 1992, well after GIF’s rise in popularity.

But the timeline is not so important. Those of us who followed and became familiar with both standards ran into the pronunciation issue long years ago. And the answer was simple—adhere to typical English rules, as cited rather well by Erik J. Macki, and pronounce GIF with a hard G and pronounce JIF with a J. That rule made it simple to identify between the formats, even if it meant one was pronounced inconsistently with what its creators intended.

Such «bastardization of language» is unavoidable. People still pronounce Porsche as a single syllable, despite there being no silent E in German. Furniture stores advertise «chase lounges» instead of the correct French chaises longues. While I generally agree with Mr. Macki that «one must go with usage,» this is a different case. It’s not from laziness or poor understanding of etymology that I pronounce GIF with a hard G, nor because it follows what other people do. It’s in respect to the knowledge that there are two graphic formats with identical-sounding names, and the easiest, most efficient way to distinguish them is to pronounce them differently.

For my two cents, it was silly of the creators of GIF to go against an obvious pronunciation and ignore the words that formed that acronym. That was just asking for the very trouble that has kept this argument alive for so long.

Doesn’t matter what the «Creators» say.

You can’t make up the word «banana» and tell everyone it’s pronounced «ping pong table».

Not like it matters, Spam is a stupid word for junk mail since tons of people LOVE SPAM but hate junk mail.

Computer geeks are stupid. They named the «PDA» when they had the chance to call it a «PAD».

Yes, I realize this is such old hat that it now smells like. an old hat.

My first objection is minor but meaningful to me. You see the picture you have on your site of Bob Berry? Well, I don’t have a picture of Steve Wilhite as a second confirmation, but I’ll tell you right now, no one that looks like Bob Berry is going to have any effect on how I pronounce a damned thing.

Having said that, perhaps you will consider this: I don’t accept your position that anyone has the right to define pronunciation of anything at all, whether they made it up or not. That includes, and perhaps needs to be emphasized in the case of acronyms, in light of their becoming a de facto modern day source of new words and language. Because of this fact, and attempting to stop adding stupid pronunciations to the already too confusing and contradictory English language, I will debate you on that subject any day, in front of any audience, and win overwhelming support. In other words, just because you assume, or because you SAY a thing, doesn’t make it so.

I could, for instance attempt to apply your «rights» logic to a myriad of other circumstances and be shot down without an argument. For example, if I purchase a huge tract of worthless land, drain all the swamps, clean up the old garbage dumps, build beautiful lamp-lined streets and gorgeous houses, I might think I have a right to number my streets and houses how I want. Perhaps call north south and south east. But I don’t. You see, there are laws, (in this case laws for guiding people trying to find their way, which is something the jif’s should spend a little time thinking about) just as there are laws of pronunciation. Again, arbitrarily deciding to pronounce something with a natural «j» sound, that STANDS FOR something with a natural «g» sound WILL NOT make it so. Not unless you can defend the pronunciation of graphics as jraphics.

Finally, I refuse to follow some illogical course, (especially one based upon peanut butter of all things) that stupidly flies in the face of the primary logic, which in this case would be the long name of the acronym: Grrrraphic etc. etc. This principle of mine can be found vindicated in the very town where I live. No one knows who first called this area, Buena Vista. I assume it was a Hispanic, although it might not have been. In any case, the rural, native population insists on pronouncing this name as, Byoona Vista. Guess what? Even though some of these people have FOUNDING ancestors whose opinions predate any authority I might try to enforce by over 100 years, I AM NOT, EVER, going to call this place BYOOna. To those who insist, (and there are many) and to you and your followers I say, Kiss My pet Jackass.

Kim Williamson writes:

. as long as you insist on everyone saying you’re «heels over head» in love with someone. Which is what is originally was. as you’d put it, «Period. The end. That’s final. End of story.»

Language evolves. Pronunciation is part of language. Pronunciation evolves.

Justin Garbett writes:

Thanks for the great info page on GIF pronunciation, I butt heads with this issue ALL the time.

I run ReactionGIFs and have to say GIF constantly. I always say it with the soft G (Jiff). and every dang time, the person I am talking to will correct me with the hard G: «You mean GIF? It happens every time. Then I tell them the ‘choosy developers’ story and they just stare back blankly at me like I am a crazy person. Then they continue to use the hard G and think I have some form of nerd OCD. I hate to say it, but the hard G people are winning the war. It’s an uphill battle for us soft Gs. I will continue to fight the good fight as I just prefer the soft G. I might have to stop trying to defend it though, people really don’t like to be corrected.

All the best,
Justin

John Bridges writes:

I was one of the original GIF developers, wrote the image viewer PICEM which was first released in 1987.

I have always pronounced it GIF like the word GIFT.

Sadly, I don’t have an archive of the developers forum on Compuserve from 1987, but there was at least one discussion on the pronunciation, and I was on the GIF side.

My argument then, like many of the modern arguments was that it’s Graphics Image Format, not Jraphics Image Format, and that the closest word is GIFT.

Matt Drury writes:

I have a note on my calendar every May 28th to celebrate GIF, and some quick google-fu found your page.

Thanks for keeping the faith! writes:

Jif peanut butter has weighed in on the debate with their #JIFvsGIF campaign. The highlight is this video: