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 ;)
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 ;)