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[–] 11 points 11 months ago (18 children)

The "G" stands for "Graphics". Why would anybody pronounce it "jif"?

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  • [–] 48 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    The P in JPEG stands for photographic so I guess we shall pronounce it "jayfeg" based on that logic.

    /s

    Descriptive linguistic opinion: both the hard and soft G pronunciations are used, with the hard G being more common, but I like the soft G and use it myself.

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  • [–] 19 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    id vibe with jayfeg if it meant everyone pronounces gif correctly

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  • [–] 12 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Steve Wilhite (engineering lead on the team that created GIF) said the soft g is the right pronunciation.

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  • [–] 14 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    The only argument is that the guy who invented and named the GIF originally pronounced it that way, but he was a computer scientist, not a linguist. Thankfully the inevitable and uncontrollable evolution of language corrected that mistake fairly quickly.

    original comment

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  • [–] 8 points 11 months ago (23 children)

    Because at the origin of the format, "choosy graphic designers choose .GIF". Which is a direct reference to JIF, the brand of peanut butter, and their tagline.

    The pronunciation of an acronym often has little to nothing to do with the words themselves they represent, and more to do with the acronym itself as though it were a word.

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  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    You know I daresay that basically your exact comment is what OOP was responding too on reddit.

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Wouldn't doubt it.

    Some folks get unreasonably mad about what they consider "right".

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (1 child)

    That's,,,, exactly what it sounded like you were doing...

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago (4 children)

    I'm pointing to the lead of the team that created it. They get to name it, not me.

    I'm also not oddly mad about it like the person replying to me with lots of exclamation points, the user in OPs image, or the person using their alt that has only been used to downvote people they are in conversations with for the past few months.

    All I said was the people responsible for it say its a soft g, not a hard g.

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  • [–] 20 points 11 months ago

    The "G" stands for "Graphics". Why would anybody pronounce it "jif"?

    Well some of us are refined enough to pronounce it like “giraffe-ics.”

    (But also because it was a joke by the format’s creators. “Choosy developers choose GIF.” Like the “choosy moms” Jif peanut butter commercials.)

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  • [–] 15 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    Because the words inside an acronym have no bearing on how the acronym is pronounced. And in this case, it’s not just as acronym. It’s a product name, where the creators get to choose to name it whatever the fuck they want. “Choosy developers choose gif”. So there’s plenty of reasons it should be using a soft g and zero reasons it should be using a hard g.

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    The U in scuba stands for underwater yet people pronounce it scOOba

    The E in hepa stands for efficiency yet its pronounced HEPA with a short E

    The A in nato stands for Atlantic and the O stands for organization

    The first A in ASAP is for as

    The Os in POTUS, SCOTUS and FLOTUS all come from of and the Us comes from United

    Acronyms don’t need to sound like the word they are from

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago (4 children)
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