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

Gif is a proper noun and a computer product. It’s not a simple word like “arse”. This would be like people saying Nike should be pronounced “Nick” and the company “Nike” is yelling “no it’s Nike! Like the god!” And people are just like, “nah I don’t care what you want your company to be called, I’m calling it something else.”

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  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago

    If enough people pronounce it differently, then it's a valid way to pronounce it.

    It doesn't matter if it's a proper noun, the word is still meant to convey meaning and as long as it effectively does that for the population in general, it's valid.

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

    There exist countries where Nike rhymes with the name Mike in their language. I'm unwilling to tell people they're not allowed to pronounce it the way their majority does.

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

    We’ve solidly been talking about English this whole time, since the entire basis for the pronunciation is that it’s a play on an English advertisement “choosy developers choose gif”. I’m not going to argue with other languages. Just like with the dude that is pulling out Ancient Greek, if anyone still speaks that they yeah they can pronounce Nike differently, otherwise it’s a translation to English.

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago

    Even English doesn't have one size fits all rules. Language is social and regional. If one English speaking country pronounces zebra as "zee-bra" and another pronounces it as "zeh-bra" they're both right.

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

    In English the word "Island" has an 's' in it. This was originally done by someone purposely adding the 's' to make the word look more Latin, even though the English word "eiland" has no Latin root.

    So if the original intended usage matters I hope you also correct everyone who uses "island" and tell them "you know it's spelled eiland right?"

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

    Island isn’t a proper noun, nor a product.

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

    Neither is .gif, it's a file type. Demonstrated by the fact that you haven't capitalized it in any of your posts.

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

    and the company “Nike” is yelling “no it’s Nike! Like the god!”

    So in this example, are they yelling it like their namesake is actually pronounced ( [niː́kɛː] , the i like in "flee", the e like in "bad"), or in the english pronounciation (i like in "die", e like in "flee")?

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  • [–] -1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Oh good! Someone that thinks there’s multiple ways to pronounce it. Thankfully wiktionary only has a single IPA pronunciation for both the shoe and the brand and they’re the same. ˈnaɪkiː. Though I do appreciate you pulling out the Ancient Greek pronunciation as a “gotcha”.

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

    Thankfully wiktionary

    Okay, so common consensus is a valid source then?

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

    Your arguments are inane. Please stop talking to me.

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

    Generally "sane" people just stop talking to people they do not wish to hear from. When you don't reply to people they tend to not reply back.

    Talking to someone in order to say you don't want to talk to them is...

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

    Thankfully wiktionary only has a single IPA pronunciation for both the shoe and the brand and they’re the same. ˈnaɪkiː.

    In English. It's not even an english word though.

    My point, which you seem to not understand, is that the company doesn't define how the name is pronounced (especially if they would go "like the godess"). It was a word before they used it. And "gif" is an acronym first, regardless of what the creator of the image format might think.

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  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago

    My point, which you seem to not understand, is that the company doesn't define how the name is pronounced

    They do. They created the product they get to create the pronunciation.

    It was a word before they used it.

    Are you talking about Nike or gif, cause gif was not a word before.

    And "gif" is an acronym first, regardless of what the creator of the image format might think.

    … this has no bearing on the pronunciation at all.

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