I’m 99% sure the creator was either being sarcastic, or he decided to be a contrarian for the internet clicks. “GIF” is an acronym that stands for “Graphics Interchange Format”. It makes very little sense to intentionally pronounce it like a peanut butter brand.
Of all the arguments this one always feels like the absolute weakest. There are so many acronyms that are not pronounced like that it’s unreal.
Unless you commit to pronouncing it jayfeg for the rest of your life…
actually, gif is an acronym. Specifically not an initialism. That means that it is pronounced as a single word (like “scuba”, but unlike “fbi” or “nsa”).
The pronunciation of the acronym does not have to conform to the original pronunciation of the letters.
Examples:
the “p” in jpeg stands for the “ph” sound, but we pronounce it as a hard “p”.
The “u” in scuba stands for “underwater”. We still pronounce it as “scOOba” not “scAAba”
So why is “gif” any different? Its creator chose the soft G for the pronunciation of the acronym (not its expansion), and therefore it is the correct one, simply because there is no rule about how it should be pronounced, so the choice was his. He made it
Yeah not everyone is from the US and had that brand. The soft g has always made sense as much hard g, especially if you say the words Gin or Gym besides it.
Every techie knew to pronounce it with a soft G when the format came out, it was only when it disappeared for years to the superior jpeg format (for stills) and then made a comeback as a short video format that subsequent generations started pronouncing it wrong. “Choosy developers choose .gif” is the relevant phrase. (An adapted line from an old JIF commercial)
Also, if you say the letters one by one quickly, it becomes pretty obvious why the creator might choose soft g, even if you wouldn’t have. Saying the acronym according to what the individual letters stand for is also not a rule of acronyms whatsoever.
The people who were confidently wrong grew in such numbers though that now either one is acceptable, both in pop culture and the dictionary. The people that know better have mostly let it go…right up until ya try to tell us that hard G is “the right way” and we have to stretch our pimp hand back into history just to smack you upside the head properly ;)
I’m 99% sure the creator was either being sarcastic, or he decided to be a contrarian for the internet clicks. “GIF” is an acronym that stands for “Graphics Interchange Format”. It makes very little sense to intentionally pronounce it like a peanut butter brand.
Of all the arguments this one always feels like the absolute weakest. There are so many acronyms that are not pronounced like that it’s unreal. Unless you commit to pronouncing it jayfeg for the rest of your life…
actually, gif is an acronym. Specifically not an initialism. That means that it is pronounced as a single word (like “scuba”, but unlike “fbi” or “nsa”).
The pronunciation of the acronym does not have to conform to the original pronunciation of the letters.
Examples:
the “p” in jpeg stands for the “ph” sound, but we pronounce it as a hard “p”.
The “u” in scuba stands for “underwater”. We still pronounce it as “scOOba” not “scAAba”
So why is “gif” any different? Its creator chose the soft G for the pronunciation of the acronym (not its expansion), and therefore it is the correct one, simply because there is no rule about how it should be pronounced, so the choice was his. He made it
Contrarian when he said “choosy developers choose gif” (implying the soft g) in 1987? I think that precedes the internet debate a little
This dude gets it.
Yeah not everyone is from the US and had that brand. The soft g has always made sense as much hard g, especially if you say the words Gin or Gym besides it.
It’s SQL all over again.
The sequel if you will
🤣 I remember hearing that for the first time and thinking wtf are they talking about.
Every techie knew to pronounce it with a soft G when the format came out, it was only when it disappeared for years to the superior jpeg format (for stills) and then made a comeback as a short video format that subsequent generations started pronouncing it wrong. “Choosy developers choose .gif” is the relevant phrase. (An adapted line from an old JIF commercial)
Also, if you say the letters one by one quickly, it becomes pretty obvious why the creator might choose soft g, even if you wouldn’t have. Saying the acronym according to what the individual letters stand for is also not a rule of acronyms whatsoever.
The people who were confidently wrong grew in such numbers though that now either one is acceptable, both in pop culture and the dictionary. The people that know better have mostly let it go…right up until ya try to tell us that hard G is “the right way” and we have to stretch our pimp hand back into history just to smack you upside the head properly ;)
The joke at the time was “Choosy Developers Choose GIF”
I’m also convinced he did that just to be an annoying contrarian back in 2013 when he announced how he pronounces it.
Dude likely never actually cared.