# Gif's inventor says ignore dictionaries and say 'Jif'



## pwsincd (May 23, 2013)

> The creator of the Gif graphics format has said that his invention should be pronounced so it starts with a "j" rather than with a hard "g".
> Steve Wilhite told the New York Times that he was "annoyed" there was still a debate over how to say the acronym.
> He added that the Oxford English Dictionary was wrong to say it could be pronounced both ways.


 

And I suppose we should call jpegs gaypegs ?

Posted this news as its potentially puntastic.

Source


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## kehkou (May 23, 2013)

That's how I've always pronounced it.


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## jan777 (May 23, 2013)

I pronounce it.... gee-eye-ef.


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## pwsincd (May 23, 2013)

kehkou said:


> That's how I've always pronounced it.


Seriously ?

Why would you pronounce Graphics interchange format : GIF as Jraphics Interchange format : JIF ?

you're gokinj right ?


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## Nathan Drake (May 23, 2013)

Yeah, I saw this before, and it's still stupid. The idiot can shove a sock down his throat, as we aren't going to ignore general pronunciation for his idiocy.


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## kehkou (May 23, 2013)

pwsincd said:


> Seriously?
> 
> Why would you pronounce Graphics interchange format : GIF as Jraphics Interchange format : JIF ?
> 
> you're gokinj right ?


because 'gif' sounds wierd and I eat peanut butter. To me it's like the word 'ginger'.


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## Minox (May 23, 2013)

Jif is a detergent used when cleaning, why would I want to confuse things? :|



Spoiler


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## Ergo (May 23, 2013)

I hate to be the bearer of bad news for our intrepid graphic format designer, but once you put words out there, they cease to be under your control and *will* change over time.


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## rizzod (May 23, 2013)

Sorry bud, don't care if you created the earth. You Spelled it with a G.. we'll pronounce it the way we want.


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## kehkou (May 23, 2013)

Minox said:


> Jif is a detergent used when cleaning, why would I want to confuse things? :|


 
Not where I live.



Spoiler


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## Veho (May 23, 2013)

I still don't get how it should be pronounced. Anyone have the phonetic spelling?


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## Xale (May 23, 2013)

Nathan Drake said:


> Yeah, I saw this before, and it's still stupid. The idiot can shove a sock down his throat.


 





This is what I thought of lol


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## pwsincd (May 23, 2013)

Well its an acronym so sure you pronounce it as the initial letters of the full words are pronounced?


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## Snailface (May 23, 2013)

For all the beautiful images .gif has destroyed, we should pronounce it in the least flattering way possible.



Spoiler: The Caveat Says:



Ok, the animated .gif variety kinda redeems the format a bit.


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## Ericthegreat (May 23, 2013)

Minox said:


> Jif is a detergent used when cleaning, why would I want to confuse things? :|
> 
> 
> 
> Spoiler


No its this:


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## kirokun (May 23, 2013)

Veho said:


> I still don't get how it should be pronounced. Anyone have the phonetic spelling?


 
According to the creator it should sound close to "Jeep" just substitute the 'p' with the 'f'.

I also call it jif instead of gif... like someone said earlier, we can call it what we want.


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## Veho (May 23, 2013)

pwsincd said:


> well its an acronym so sure you pronounce it as the initial letters of the full words are pronounced ?


Geeayeeff? 

It's like "gift" without "t" so I pronounce it that way. Except when I'm making fun of stuff and then I pronounce it /ʒɪf/.


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## ShadowSoldier (May 23, 2013)

Veho said:


> I still don't get how it should be pronounced. Anyone have the phonetic spelling?


 
He's actually wrong. He may have came up with the word, but he's wrong about it's pronunciation. While he has a point as to why it is pronounced JIF, he's somewhat wrong too because of the way the english language works and with abbreviations.



> The hard-G pronunciation of the letter G usually comes when a, o, or u follows it (think gas, good, or guy). We pronounce G's as the soft-G when i, e, or y follow it (think giraffe, German, or analogy). There are exceptions of course, but in general practice, Wilhite has his point. GIF is followed by an I.


 
That's his argument, and logically it makes sense, but:



> The problem with Wilhite's thinking is how we see acronyms. Are they their own words or do they stand for something? Is BBC a word? Buhbuhck? Or is it B-B-C. If you combine the letters into a word, how does jay-peg for JPEG make sense as opposed to juh-peg? If GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format, does the 'Graphics' portion of the phrase point toward a hard-G in the acronym?


 

It can't make any sense for it to be pronounced "Jif". While he brings up a good point, it becomes moot when you take that GIF isn't a word, but an abbreviation for Graphics.


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## Bladexdsl (May 23, 2013)

rizzod said:


> Sorry bud, don't care if you created the earth. You Spelled it with a G.. we'll pronounce it the way we want.
> snip


god damn beat me to it!


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## Veho (May 23, 2013)

ShadowSoldier said:


> He's actually wrong. He may have came up with the word, but he's wrong about it's pronunciation.


I thought that with all the loanwords and archaisms and stuff, pronunciation in English is a matter of consensus. Especially when it comes to names. Sort of like with Leicester or Worcestershire.


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## ShadowSoldier (May 23, 2013)

Veho said:


> I thought that with all the loanwords and archaisms and stuff, pronunciation in English is a matter of consensus. Especially when it comes to names. Sort of like with Leicester or Worcestershire.


 
Yeah. If he had called it "Jumping Image Frames" or something, then go for it, call it "JIF" but because the word is graphics, with the hard G, it has to be "Gif" as in "Give"

Bottom line is he's wrong and going against the english language and changing logic. It's like him saying "2+2 isn't 4, it's 7 because I said it is!"


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## pwsincd (May 23, 2013)

Last week I went to watch matchbox20 at the Apollo Manchester it was a great GIG, certainly wasn't a JIG.
While I was there I drank lager, but my mrs drank GIN as in JIN .

Its a split decision when it comes to words, but it ain't a word its an acronym, therefore pronunciation comes from the full term, namely "GRAPHICS"


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## gifi4 (May 23, 2013)

My username sort of fits in on this discussion.
I've always pronounced it with a solid g like saying 'gift' without the 't' and finishing it off with a sound resembling 'e'.
GIF is and always has been pronounced as 'gift' without the 't'.
Why?
Because the 'G' stands for a word that is pronounced with a solid sound.


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## FAST6191 (May 23, 2013)

pwsincd said:


> but it ain't a word its an acronym, therefore pronunciation comes from the full term, namely "GRAPHICS"


Others have already stated a preference for it to be an initialism.

Also I have seen a band with the defining feature of the night being the jig.



Minox said:


> Jif is a detergent used when cleaning, why would I want to confuse things? :|
> 
> 
> 
> Spoiler



Did they not change it to CIF some time back?






Personal take on the matter... G I F file or jiff if I am being lazy. On the matter of JPEG as three letter extensions pervaded for years Jay Pee Gee is just as likely to come out of my mouth.
Thankfully the TIFF format is largely dead at this point.


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## raulpica (May 23, 2013)

Minox said:


> Jif is a detergent used when cleaning, why would I want to confuse things? :|
> 
> 
> 
> Spoiler


That's called CIF here. The mystery deepens 

EDIT: FAST ninja'd me because of tethered 3G connection


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## shakirmoledina (May 23, 2013)

Png's better


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## FAST6191 (May 23, 2013)

shakirmoledina said:


> Png's better



Tried doing animations in PNG lately and expecting the result to have widespread support?

Granted unless you are hosting a legacy geocities site it had better be animation for you to still be using GIF.


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## shakirmoledina (May 23, 2013)

FAST6191 said:


> Tried doing animations in PNG lately and expecting the result to have widespread support?
> 
> Granted unless you are hosting a legacy geocities site it had better be animation for you to still be using GIF.


 
then again animations could be done with flash or html5 or simply upload a video if its a long animation.


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## FAST6191 (May 23, 2013)

shakirmoledina said:


> then again animations could be done with flash or html5 or simply upload a video if its a long animation.



GIF
http://www.benetonsoftware.com/Beneton_Movie_GIF.php
If you are already half versed in images that is a 5 minute learning curve from the point it is installed.
Flash
http://swftools.org/ aside it is still largely pay money for a program to make them or learn a coding language. Granted it allows far greater functionality than GIF might but that is somewhat irrelevant when ease of use dominates.
You also have to find somewhere to host it, embed it and where simple image hosts are plentiful....
HTML5
http://animateyourhtml5.appspot.com/
http://www.html5canvastutorials.com/advanced/html5-canvas-animation-stage/
Basically a type of coding.


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## Bladexdsl (May 23, 2013)

FAST6191 said:


> Granted unless you are hosting a legacy geocities site


that's still around??


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## FAST6191 (May 23, 2013)

Bladexdsl said:


> [geocities]that's still around??



Japan aside Yahoo finally murdered it a few years back
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/26/geocities_closes/

A few groups did mirror lots of it though
http://www.oocities.org/ (this one is quite nice as you just change a letter should you encounter a link to one)
http://archiveteam.org/index.php?title=GeoCities


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## Depravo (May 23, 2013)

It's spelt GIF but it's pronounced 'throatwobbler mangrove'.


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## shakirmoledina (May 23, 2013)

FAST6191 said:


> GIF
> http://www.benetonsoftware.com/Beneton_Movie_GIF.php
> If you are already half versed in images that is a 5 minute learning curve from the point it is installed.
> Flash
> ...


 
okay, I didn't realise I was talking to fast. its like Kratos against Zeus except without Gaia's Help and the Blade of Olympus


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## Issac (May 23, 2013)

I've known it's been pronounced "JIF" for the last 10 years at least. I often say GIF though, because no one knows what I'm talking about when I say JIF.

And to people saying that it's supposed to be a hard G, because it's an acronym... no.
GNU is an acronym as well, stands for "GNU's not Unix!", and by the same acronym logic for the pronunciation, it would be pronounced GNY (since the U in Unix starts with a Y sound just like University etc).


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## Veho (May 23, 2013)

Issac said:


> GNU is an acronym as well, stands for "GNU's not Unix!", and by the same acronym logic for the pronunciation, it would be pronounced GNY (since the U in Unix starts with a Y sound just like University etc).


Gnyoo.


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## Foxi4 (May 23, 2013)

If .gif is an abbreviation of Graphics Interchange Format, _why_ would I say /jif/? That makes no sense at all, the /g/ is right there...


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## Ethevion (May 23, 2013)

pwsincd said:


> And I suppose we should call jpegs *gaypegs* ?
> 
> Posted this news as its potentially puntastic.
> 
> Source


Haha, I burst out laughing when I read that. 

I've been reading it as gif for as long as I've known about them. I don't think I can just change how I say it.


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## RedCoreZero (May 23, 2013)

Pronounce it how you want.Still doesn't change the fact that it's actually pronounced "jif"

Like english, you can have a different accent, but it's still pronounced "buhnanuh"


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## BORTZ (May 23, 2013)

Eh its tomato tomato if you ask me.


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## ShadowSoldier (May 23, 2013)

izzyButthurt said:


> I like how a lot of people are saying that this guy is definitely pronouncing the name wrong of something that he created. Really? He created the damn thing and he can call it whatever he wants. It doesn't matter if its a damn acronym or not people. There are no hard rules for* English also btw*. There are so many exceptions to every rule it's not even funny. So if I create something tomorrow that none of you guys could ever do, are you really going to freaking tell me that I say the name of it wrong? That's a joke. Btw the right way to spell wii is we, oh wait... they made it so they can spell it/name it whatever they like.


 
Going by this man's logic, "btw", we should be pronouncing it "bit-tew"


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## ShadowSoldier (May 23, 2013)

izzyButthurt said:


> You sir are a dumbass. Nobody "pronounces" btw, omg, wtf......


 
But it still stands for something. You say "Graphics" with a hard G. You don't say "Jraphics" do you? No. And yes, it being an abbreviation does matter.


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## The Milkman (May 23, 2013)

Snailface said:


> For all the beautiful images .gif has destroyed, we should pronounce it in the least flattering way possible.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
The animated variety is the most used, who compiles a photo or art in .gif if its not going to be moving? :l


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## ShadowSoldier (May 23, 2013)

izzyButthurt said:


> It doesn't matter if its a abbreviation dude. I understand your not able to except that you could possibly be wrong about anything, but please try.


Of course it matters. He's saying "Oh yeah, all those BASIC rules and way we speak in the english language? Yeah, forget that." If it's supposed to be pronounced "Jif", then he shouldn't have called it "Graphics Interchange Format" and expect people to say "Jif". Bottom line. He's being dumb.


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## porkiewpyne (May 23, 2013)

Had always used "jif". Very likely because I used to say "gee-eye-eff" and after some time, shortening and slurring led to my preference of pronouncing it as "jif" rather than "Gif".

On a sorta unrelated note, iirc the washing liquid is also called Jif here. And iirc, in parts of SEA like Malaysia, it's called ZIP. :\


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## mysticwaterfall (May 23, 2013)

I've never in my life ever heard anybody say jif for it. That's just well, bizarre. I'm all for there being acceptable altrrnates, but they at least have to make sense.


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## Chary (May 23, 2013)

Eh, I've always pronounced it as Jif. Although, acronyms are weird. I speak as though JPEG (Jay-peg) and GIF (Jif) are words, not acronyms, but then, I pronounce stuff like BBC or CNN as B-B-C or C-N-N.


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## Gahars (May 23, 2013)

"With all due respect, sir, you are wrong."

#HardGMasterRace


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## Tokiopop (May 23, 2013)

I've always hated the pronunciation "jif". 

I'll call it jif when graphics is pronounced jrahpics.


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## spinal_cord (May 23, 2013)

porkiewpyne said:


> Had always used "jif". Very likely because I used to say "gee-eye-eff" and after some time, shortening and slurring led to my preference of pronouncing it as "jif" rather than "Gif".


 

So should it not then be called pronounced jyf/jife?!



Now I have to go back and work on some Jraphics for my game.


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## Forstride (May 23, 2013)

I say it with a hard G like everyone else, but who the fuck cares if it's GIF or JIF?  The internet gets their dicks in a twist over the dumbest shit.


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## porkiewpyne (May 23, 2013)

spinal_cord said:


> So should it not then be called pronounced jyf/jife?!
> Now I have to go back and work on some Jraphics for my game.


But if you say it fast enough....


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## ShadowSoldier (May 23, 2013)

Forstride said:


> I say it with a hard G like everyone else, but who the fuck cares if it's GIF or JIF? The internet gets their dicks in a twist over the dumbest shit.


 
Clearly the creator is mad.


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## Rydian (May 23, 2013)

This isn't a recent thing, it was always the way to pronounce it, it's just in recent years so few people have had contact with the developers that nobody's been corrected.

"Choosy developers choose gif" was where the pronunciation came from.


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## FireGrey (May 23, 2013)

Veho said:


> Geeayeeff?
> 
> It's like "gift" without "t" so I pronounce it that way. Except when I'm making fun of stuff and then I pronounce it /ʒɪf/.


Hate to derail this thread (not really), but why do keyboards never use ʒ instead of z?


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## spinal_cord (May 23, 2013)

FireGrey said:


> Hate to derail this thread (not really), but why do keyboards never use ʒ instead of z?


 
because ʒ is a sound and Z is a letter?


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## YayMii (May 23, 2013)

I've always said 'jif' ('gi-' most often makes a 'ji-' sound)... And it says in the article that he named it after a brand of peanut butter (Jif).


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## frogboy (May 23, 2013)

How about we just call it whatever the heck we want to call it?


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## Foxi4 (May 23, 2013)

We should all just agree to call it _"yiff"_ and get on with our lives.


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## McHaggis (May 23, 2013)

The word _gift _starts with the same three letters from the GIF abbreviation, but I've never heard it pronounced _"jift"_ before.  That's probably as solid an argument as any as to why nobody should give a flying fuck how it's pronounced.


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## Taleweaver (May 23, 2013)

I never even knew it could be pronounced "jif". I mean..."gif" just so happens to be the Dutch word for poison (pronounced with a hard G...kinda like the word "gifted"). Add to that that the first letter stands for Graphics" (Graphics Interchange Format), and it makes even less sence to pronounce it any other way.

I mean...how the hell does Wilhite pronounce "Graphics"? Jiraffix?


The presentation of the format must've been fun...

Wilhite: guys...I've invented a new graphics format: I'm calling it Gifs! 
colleague: hmm...doesn't sound like a good idea, mate. Don't you know what a jiff means?
Wilhite: no, not jiffs. Gifs! Y'know...with a G! Like Giraffe.
colleague: oh...of course. So the 'G' doesn't stand for 'Graphics', I take it?
Wilhite: but it does. It just isn't pronounced that way.
colleague: erm...why not? If you're going to write it with a G, you may as well pronounce it that way.
Wilhite: because I like the sound of it better. Kind of like...G.I.Joe, you know?
colleague: so...I guess that jirl you're dating...is she your jirlfriend? 
Wilhite: stop mocking me.


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## Rydian (May 23, 2013)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoti


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## mechadylan (May 23, 2013)

I find it hard to believe that he seems to be more upset at the Oxford Dictionary people because it suggests that there is a second way to pronounce it; already acknowledging that his own pronunciation is correct.

Technically, I can see where he's coming from though. In a Latin based etymology, a "g" followed by any vowel other than "u" is usually pronounced like a Modern English "j." In order to create the hard "g" sound, a silent "u" must be placed between them. If you want the hard "g" AND a non-silent "u," you simply add the umlaut above the "u." I suppose a .guif extension would make most people (other than him) happy.

HOWEVER, this is not a word based on 11th century Latin; it's based on 20th century Computer, and it's still evolving. I'd like to suggest an alternate spelling to the Graphic User Interface abbreviation to Oxford while we're at it: "güi."


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## Foxi4 (May 23, 2013)

Rydian said:


> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoti


That's not an abbreviation though - _most_ abbreviations inherit their pronounciation from the first phonemes in the words they abbreviate. Of course there are some exceptions, such as _C.I.A __(/siːˈaɪ eɪ/)_ which is nothing like _Central Intelligence Agency (/ˈ*s*entrəl *ɪ*nˈtelɪdʒəns ˈ*eɪ*dʒənsi/)._


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## Rydian (May 23, 2013)

Foxi4 said:


> That's not an abbreviation though - _most_ abbreviations inherit their pronounciation from the first phonemes in the words they abbreviate. Of course there are some exceptions, such as _C.I.A __(/siːˈaɪ eɪ/)_ which is nothing like _Central Intelligence Agency (/ˈ*s*entrəl *ɪ*nˈtelɪdʒəns ˈ*eɪ*dʒənsi/)._


Just pointing out that _the idea_ of standard English pronunciation is laughable.


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## RchUncleSkeleton (May 23, 2013)

I refuse to pronounce it like peanut butter.  It's Gif, gift without the t...nuff said!


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## Eerpow (May 23, 2013)

Rydian said:


> Just pointing out that _the idea_ of standard English pronunciation is laughable.


Speaking of made up names, most of us thought your username was pronounced "Ryddian" until we saw a video where you pronounced it as "Rhydian" instead iirc.


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## RchUncleSkeleton (May 23, 2013)

Eerpow said:


> Speaking of made up names, most of us thought your username was pronounced "Ryddian" until we saw a video you posted where you pronounced it as "Rhydian" instead iirc.


I always thought it was pronounced Rhy-Dee-En. Never saw any video though.


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## Tokiopop (May 23, 2013)

mechadylan said:


> Technically, I can see where he's coming from though. In a Latin based etymology, a "g" followed by any vowel other than "u" is usually pronounced like a Modern English "j." In order to create the hard "g" sound, a silent "u" must be placed between them. If you want the hard "g" AND a non-silent "u," you simply add the umlaut above the "u." I suppose a .guif extension would make most people (other than him) happy.


I disagree with this idea.

Graphics. It's not _guraphics_, or _jraphics_. Good. Glad. Game. Get. The only time it's a _ji_ sound is with an i following the g, but even then _give_ isn't _jiv_. Also, since .gif is an acronym not a word I don't really like saying jif, since I don't believe in such things as jraphic interchange formats (and I've already shown _gi_ words are not always _ji_ sounds).
But people can say it however they want, I'm not going to complain or tell them I think they're wrong. It's a little too late to go around trying to get everyone to pronounce something one way or another after american-english butchered the pronunciations of a lot of words 

Edit: Never mind, I didn't read the "Latin based etymology". I don't know anything about Latin, so I'm just going to assume I'm wrong with what I said?


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## VashTS (May 23, 2013)

I always turn up being right about crap like this, I've always uses the JIF pronunciation. just like using SATA, it's S-A-T-A, letter by letter, not Say-Tuh. you don't call non-serial ATA, Ay-Tuh right? Its A-T-A letter by letter. 

GIF = Jif

the creator says the same. end of story.


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## mechadylan (May 23, 2013)

Tokiopop said:


> Edit: Never mind, I didn't read the "Latin based etymology". I don't know anything about Latin, so I'm just going to assume I'm wrong with what I said?


 
Actually, if it was a word derived from Olde English or Germanic you'd be completely correct.  If it was Latin based (Specifically Spanish,) it could be pronounced, "hif."  In fact, I'm pretty sure I watched a youtube link from EoL once (completely in Spanish) where this was the case.


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## duffmmann (May 23, 2013)

Yeah I don't care what the inventor says, they will always be Gifs with a hard G.  if it was a jif, it would be spelled as jif, end of discussion.


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## Snailface (May 23, 2013)

People are taking this too seriously. This was meant to be a humor story, not a controversy.


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## Lastly (May 23, 2013)

English is a complicated languages. There are rules. And there is exception.

Think of it like this: we pronounce puck with a strong p while the exception is with silent p in phone. We skip the strong p and replace it with f. We wouldn't want to pronounce puck with with an f, would we! Good thing there are exception and not just one plain rule!


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## mechadylan (May 23, 2013)

Snailface said:


> People are taking this too seriously. This was meant to be a humor story, not a controversy.


Taking things too serious is my own brand of dry humour.



Lastly said:


> Think of it like this: we pronounce puck with a strong p while the exception is with silent p in phone. We skip the strong p and replace it with f.


Ummm, no.  "Ph" is a grapheme; there is nothing silent there.


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## Eerpow (May 23, 2013)

Relevant:


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## lokomelo (May 23, 2013)

Eerpow said:


> Relevant:



GAYM 

This video made me remember long ago when I first played pkm red, I coundnt understand a word in english back then, so I took the dictionary to see the meaning of Gym. I keep years without understand what "gymnastics" had to do with pokemon. When the cartoon aired here in brazil that I understood that "gym" on pkm is "gymnasium".


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## mechadylan (May 23, 2013)

@lokomelo  In Brazil, does anyone say "zhif"?  Just curious.


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## FAST6191 (May 23, 2013)

Tokiopop said:


> Also, since .gif is an acronym not a word



By definition isn't an acronym something you say as a word might be said when an initialism is something you spell out? Bonus is it can even vary between American and UK English (the superbug MRSA is an initialism in UK English but an acronym in US English).

Either way a gigantic giraffe just gyrated when I cranked it up to the gigawatts. I shall take my gin and avoid gesticulating (or worse causing gestation) as I appear to be starting to gibber and last time that happened my giro ended up being overused.


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## lokomelo (May 23, 2013)

mechadylan said:


> @lokomelo In Brazil, does anyone say "zhif"? Just curious.


Nop, people here say like you do in english: Gif, with the same "G" of "Girl". The strange here is the way we speak"jpeg", it is like "yotapeag".


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## mechadylan (May 23, 2013)

lokomelo said:


> Nop, people here say like you do in english: Gif, with the same "G" of "Girl". The strange here is the way we speak"jpeg", it is like "yotapeag".


Pfft, if I spoke Portugese I'd pronounce it "zheef" kinda like Gilberto, Astrud; you could start a trend.  In Spanglish, I've heard people say "jotapeg" for jpeg.  I guess there's something to be said for locale.


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## gamefan5 (May 23, 2013)

Hmm...
He wants us to pronounce it a Jif, eh???
It's an acronym not a word.. But.. XD

NES - Ness
SuperNES - SuperNess
GB - GuhB
DS - Diss
PSX - PissX
Ouya - OUUUYAAAAA! XD
... Lol just thinking of some pronounciations XD


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## Jamstruth (May 23, 2013)

gamefan5 said:


> Hmm...
> He wants us to pronounce it a Jif, eh???
> It's an acronym not a word.. But.. XD
> 
> ...


Only two of those are acronyms: NES and SNES. The rest (bar Ouya which isn't an acronym to my knowledge) are initialisms. One of the things that makes an acronym an acronym is that it is pronounceable.


As for this. "I'm suprised the debate still goes on" so I'm going to prolong it for as long as possible. Who cares in all honesty? Some say "jif" some say "gif" I prefer "gif" because the full name is "Graphics Interchange Format" which starts with a hard G so it just goes to reason.


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## mechadylan (May 23, 2013)

gamefan5 said:


> Hmm...
> He wants us to pronounce it a Jif, eh???
> It's an acronym not a word.. But.. XD
> 
> ...


It's an extension, an abbreviation, and an acronym because it has evolved to that status.  Acronyms are words, but abbreviations aren't necessarily.  An acronym is an abbreviation, but an abbreviation is not always an acronym.  Not all extensions become acronyms and I don't believe that there's any de facto standard that decides which get the acronym status and which don't.  Exe, for example, is "ee-ekhs-ee" and is quite possibly more common than a gif.


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## Another World (May 23, 2013)

They were always called J-ifs. If you went to school for computers were should have been taught that. 

-another world


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## jacksprat1990 (May 23, 2013)

To be fair, who gives a fuck?


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## kehkou (May 23, 2013)

I would love to hear the people here try to pronounce "giant" or "ginger" or "gin". By the logic here all should be pronounced with hard 'G's.


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## Jamstruth (May 24, 2013)

kehkou said:


> I would love to hear the people here try to pronounce "giant" or "ginger" or "gin". By the logic here all should be pronounced with hard 'G's.


English has never been determined by logic nor will it ever be.

Seriously, everyone else looks at our language and is like "Dafuq u doin". No regular verbs. No accents. Few set rules to our language whatsoever.

I still use the pronunciation "gif" because I always have. Don't tell me I'm wrong as this is how I've always heard it and I only heard people pronounced it any differently a year ago, maybe.

If somebody really cares about this then it's their problem. Who honestly cares?


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## YayMii (May 24, 2013)

gamefan5 said:


> Hmm...
> He wants us to pronounce it a Jif, eh???
> It's an acronym not a word.. But.. XD
> 
> ...


And I've been calling my DS a "diss-icks-ull" since its launch day


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## vincentthegamer (May 24, 2013)

Jif is peanut butter...DEAL WITH IT

so every time I watch a jif. I watch peanut butter...hmmmmm well ok


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## ferofax (May 24, 2013)

If you say it "G.I.F.", like, "G. I. F. images are cool", you're fine by me.

If you say it "gif", or "jif", we're just gonna argue, so let's stick to "G.I.F.".


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## FAST6191 (May 24, 2013)

kehkou said:


> I would love to hear the people here try to pronounce "giant" or "ginger" or "gin". By the logic here all should be pronounced with hard 'G's.


ginger is easy enough -- it is already a somewhat derogatory term for people* with ginger hair.

*this is if you count people with ginger hair as people and not some subhuman oddities in which case it is not a derogatory term.



vincentthegamer said:


> Jif is peanut butter...DEAL WITH IT
> 
> so every time I watch a jif. I watch peanut butter...hmmmmm well ok



Because words can never have two meanings?


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## vincentthegamer (May 24, 2013)

ferofax said:


> If you say it "G.I.F.", like, "G. I. F. images are cool", you're fine by me.
> 
> If you say it "gif", or "jif", we're just gonna argue, so let's stick to "G.I.F.".


I SAY gif.



FAST6191 said:


> ginger is easy enough -- it is already a somewhat derogatory term for people* with ginger hair.
> 
> *this is if you count people with ginger hair as people and not some subhuman oddities in which case it is not a derogatory term.
> 
> ...


well gif is a better sounding word for a moving picture than jif


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## ShadowSoldier (May 24, 2013)

kehkou said:


> I would love to hear the people here try to pronounce "giant" or "ginger" or "gin". By the logic here all should be pronounced with hard 'G's.


 
No. Because they don't stand for anything or are abbreviations.

GIF is an Abbreviation for "Graphics..." which has the hard G. Going by this man's logic (which he is wrong) It's not pronounced Graphics with a hard G, but rather with a soft G so you get "Jraphics".

Just "JPEG" you don't say "Jay-Page" you say "Jay-Peg" because the G is a hard G.


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## jacksprat1990 (May 24, 2013)

GIF creator is right. Facts are facts. You have no choice but make that G a soft one. He says so.


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## ProtoKun7 (May 24, 2013)

Dear sir,

We don't care how you think it should be pronounced. I pronounce it with the hard G (i.e. logically) and that is therefore the correct form.


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## GamerzHell9137 (May 24, 2013)

Like veho said, Gift without the "t" I always pronounced like that and always will.
Jif sounds weird and I don't like it.


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## disbala (May 24, 2013)

I'll be back...







...in a gif.


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## FAST6191 (May 24, 2013)

ShadowSoldier said:


> No. Because they don't stand for anything or are abbreviations.
> 
> GIF is an Abbreviation for "Graphics..." which has the hard G. Going by this man's logic (which he is wrong) It's not pronounced Graphics with a hard G, but rather with a soft G so you get "Jraphics".



To use the American reading of MRSA am I now supposed to pronounce it Methicillin errristant Staphylococcus aureus?


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## ShadowSoldier (May 24, 2013)

FAST6191 said:


> To use the American reading of MRSA am I now supposed to pronounce it Methicillin errristant Staphylococcus aureus?


Uh.... sure? 

(no seriously wtf did you just call me?)


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## kehkou (May 24, 2013)

Either 'GIF' or 'JIF' is correct, neither is incorrect. Its a matter of personal preference. fire extinguished.


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## EZ-Megaman (May 24, 2013)

This thread reminds me of ]this, haha. 
Anyway, I could kinda see his logic (another word with a G pronounced like a J?) since some languages like French swap the pronunciation of both letters around, but I'll continue to use the hardened sound.


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## mechadylan (May 24, 2013)

Curiously, Oxford has only changed the multiple pronunciations in the US English Dictionary:
http://oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/GIF

Meanwhile, the British & World English version still only shows the wrong right pronunciation:
http://oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/english/GIF

inb4 'MURRICA!


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## Veho (May 24, 2013)

As long as it's not "yiff", we're cool.


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## kehkou (May 24, 2013)

Veho said:


> As long as it's not "yiff", we're cool.


LOL. I live in a region that's almost exclusively Mexican. I can totally imagine them saying "Orale! nice Yiff!"


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## ProtoKun7 (May 24, 2013)

FAST6191 said:


> By definition isn't an acronym something you say as a word might be said when an initialism is something you spell out? Bonus is it can even vary between American and UK English (the superbug MRSA is an initialism in UK English but an acronym in US English).
> 
> Either way a gigantic giraffe just gyrated when I cranked it up to the gigawatts. I shall take my gin and avoid gesticulating (or worse causing gestation) as I appear to be starting to gibber and last time that happened my giro ended up being overused.


No one says "gigawatts" with a soft G anymore.


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## jacksprat1990 (May 24, 2013)

kehkou said:


> Either 'GIF' or 'JIF' is correct, neither is incorrect. Its a matter of personal preference. fire extinguished.



Oh no, you're not ending it that easy.


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