GIF - I personally pronounce it the way it's written. I remember once hearing someone on YouTube call it a Jif, but I thought he was just wrong and I felt superior for a few minutes. But it turns out there is quite some debate, and a lot of people say it that way, including the guy who invented it the 'Jraphics Interchange Format'. That's almost like spelling your child's name 'Fred' and insisting it be pronounced 'Wilma' :-/
I call it jif and there is nothing wrong with it.
Haha, that article about this made me laugh. Personally:
Gif. Because I've always believed jif is another format entirely after using 90's graphics software (jpg, jif, jfif, jpeg)
So if I said jif I could mean a gif or a jif file. If I say gif I only mean gif.
Jif is never going to happen, it's delicious peanut butter brand, it does not deliver quick motion boobies or kitties. Gifs do that.
I favor the soft G myself, because it makes sense phonetically. We drink jin, work out at the jym, covet jems, like the cut of peoples' jibs, wear jel in our hair. I think you get the jist. When followed by e, i, or y, G usually takes on the J sound.
And we do pronounce acronyms phonetically. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is not Gnat-oh, it's Nate-oh. Or, really, it's Nay-Toe. We don't pronounce a short-A in laser, radar, nor sonar.
In short, all of you are wrong.
Wow, what a moment of clarity you've just provided Eric. I have always said jif, but for a few moments thought there might be something very wrong with me. I suppose I can call my boss and tell him I *will* be in today...
I think there are enough exceptions to Eric's rule that GIF can safely take the hard G as well.
Gilbert, gimmick, guitar, give, girl, gift.
We also have "gimp", which is incidentally another graphics-related acronym, and an existing word, pronounced with a hard G.
Case re-opened.
Hehe. More to the point is the initial assumption that people say this word at all. I mean, unless you're talking about an "animated g/jif" (which I doubt anyone does on a basis more regular than once a decade) then I'm pretty sure no-one ever says this word other than in their head :P I don't think it matters what people say to themselves in their head personally ;) But for some reason such things are newsworthy... I suppose cassette tapes are said to be coming back into fashion, is the gif jif cif pif next? Teh lol :)
Since I'm Dutch, I pronounce it with a hard "GGG" sound that is unpronouncable to the average English speaker. Also, "gif" is the Dutch word for "poison", so there :)
I pronounce it "gay-peg".
But for reals, the creators of the format went with soft G: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Interchange_Format#Pronunciation
Both are acceptable and we can all get along in this GIF/GIF world.
As Mods said, unless you're in the business of trading gifs, you're unlikely to say it out loud too often. And despite the protestations of the inventor, if enough people are recorded using a g-sound, then it has to be an accepted pronunciation. The dictionary-makers are concerned with what people ARE saying (or have said) not with what people should say.
Okay, here's another one then.
I've often heard people pronounce GUI as 'gooey', like a sticky oozey substance.
I prefer to just say the letters: gee-you-eye
(or jee-you-eye, as the case may be)
Quote from: Stupot+ on Thu 23/05/2013 10:09:31
Okay, here's another one then.
I've often heard people pronounce GUI as 'gooey', like a sticky oozey substance.
I prefer to just say the letters: gee-you-eye
(or jee-you-eye, as the case may be)
This heavily depends on the native language, I guess people usually try to pronounce acronyms as it would be easier to do with the speaking habits that evolved from using that language.
I would never say "gee-you-eye", because that will sound too awkward in the middle of the sentence spoken in my native language (and more difficult for me if said often).
Quote from: Stupot+ on Thu 23/05/2013 01:58:07
GIF - I personally pronounce it the way it's written.
:-\
Quote from: Stupot+ on Thu 23/05/2013 10:09:31
if enough people are recorded using a g-sound
So how do you pronounce "g-sound"?
To put it another way, you're aware that the letter "g" is used (among other things) to represent two different sounds in English, right? (Usually called "soft g" and "hard g.")
JIF is a fucking cleaning product!
(http://imageshack.us/a/img594/9806/jif.png)
Everyone knows real life is dirty. And there's no point in pretending it's easily taken care of â€" it has to be cleaned. JIF cleaner deals with even the toughest dirt without harsh scratching.
You can rely on JIF because it removes the most difficult dirt while taking care of your surfaces, keeping your home in pristine condition. It is available in Original Fresh or Lemon Fresh fragrance.
Buy JIF now!
I once went to a company dinner, and a guy from New York was there. I asked him about the "spy-neck". Turns out it's pronounced spinach :-D
Also, I say "pnnng", not pee-en-gee. No I don't.
Great. Now I'm all self-conscious about saying gif aloud! Bummer!!!
Know what I'll do from now on? I'll just hold up a SIGN whenever I talk about gif. Or png. Or maybe I'll just switch back to bitmap. At least that's an actual WORD!
I have always used the hard G because, in my head, I'm thinking "Graphical" for the G sound and since I'm phonetically speaking an acronym so I take into account the word the initial comes from.
I don't much care what the creator of the file format calls it because, until yesterday when I read about this on Reddit, I didn't even know the guy's name.
20+ years of me, and millions of others, calling it GIF (hard G) makes it a valid pronunciation IMO (as valid as JIF).
I have never had issue (aside from slight teasing to make myself feel superior) with those that do the soft G. It's not like I don't know what they're referring to!
I'm going to have to agree with monkey424 on this one. When life get's tough, mean and dirty, Jif is the only possible option. However, if you want to watch a couple of seconds of funny, that's a Gif.
Plain and simple.
According to the inventor of the Gif, Steven Wilhite, it's pronounced with a 'soft' G as in "Germany" or "gin" or "Gee".
slasher
Quote from: Snarky on Thu 23/05/2013 10:46:27
Quote from: Stupot+ on Thu 23/05/2013 10:09:31
if enough people are recorded using a g-sound
So how do you pronounce "g-sound"?
To put it another way, you're aware that the letter "g" is used (among other things) to represent two different sounds in English, right? (Usually called "soft g" and "hard g.")
I thought about typing '/g/' but changed it because not everyone is familiar with IPA. Note that the latin symbol g is used for the "hard G" in phonetics.
Clearly in the context of this conversation I was using 'g-sound' as opposed to 'j-sound'. You obviously knew what I meant.
Yeah, but I was annoyed by how you - in multiple statements - implied that the spelling indicates a hard G, when it does no such thing. There's nothing in the spelling of "gif" that specifies whether the initial letter should be pronounced as in "gin" or as in "git."
Quote from: Stupot+ on Thu 23/05/2013 10:09:31
Okay, here's another one then.
I've often heard people pronounce GUI as 'gooey', like a sticky oozey substance.
I prefer to just say the letters: gee-you-eye
(or jee-you-eye, as the case may be)
Yesterday, when I was pondering responding to this topic, I was going to use this example as well. I've always said the letters out aloud (and also always said pee-en-gee"), because gooey just seemed weird.
When I first saw the topic title, I said "You pronounce it jif, obviously!", but then after reading gif jif gif jif and saying it to myself, I'm confused as to how I'd actually pronounce it (I may have only ever said it aloud once). I'd probably stick with "jif"- I don't usually think of "graphical interchange format" when I say "gif", and as people have mentioned before, pronunciation of acronyms really doesn't depend at all on how the original word used the letter.
I realised that there are a lot of hard g soft g words that I'm not entirely sure about. They're all slipping my mind now, though :(. As a kid, I used to read "Reggie" (from Archie comics) as "Regi" as opposed to "Reji", but I guess since it is a shortened form of Reginald, it'd probably have the soft g.
It is interesting how people might read these words regularly that they never need to say out aloud, and how they might never realise they're pronouncing them differently. A friend of mine, who is very well read, but doesn't speak english as a first language surprised me a while back with "ren-dez-vus" (rendezvous) and "jen-er" (genre).
I never thought about the possibitlity to use a soft-g for gif (roll)
And if there is a format called jif it might become confusing if you do so - hmmmm - I think I'll hold on to use the hard-g for gif.
... btw. you don't use the soft-g when talking about the gip-thread, do you? :shocked:
Definitely hard-G. Don't be like Christopher Lloyd and his bumbling mistake of 1.21 jigawatts (also as a side note, he also pronounces it as: One point twenty-one, instead of One point two, one. Any scientist should know the standard way of saying it - unless different countries group the decimals like that).
:D
Despite what gigabytes and gigahertz may have conditioned you to believe, "jigawatts" is a completely valid pronunciation.
And I've never said (in my mind or out aloud) "gip-thread" :D. If I had to, I'd say X game's thread or games-in-production thread.
The g is short for graphics and graphics does not have a silent G. So how does one even get to the point of using a J? Presumably via acid or LSD, which most animated GIFs seem to be induced by themselves :P
(http://cdn.chud.com/b/bf/bfa6f03d_clap.gif)
^ classic GIF of Snarky clapping
I give in, the gift of a GIF pronounced jif gives me grief.
In Croatia it's mostly said like it's written, so GIF is "gift" without the "t" and we also usually read "jpeg" as y+peg and I know that one is clearly wrong, but on the .gif thing it's weird. We do it because it's kind of easier to understand when you're not talking in English. In general, the English language has some overcomplicated (well every language has it quirks) rules that just make the language so weird for beginners or non-frequent users, one of those rules is the "silent g" where it basically says you're supposed to say G very similarly to J, which is redundant to say the least.
The English language has been influenced by so many different cultures, we've been invaded or settled by Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, Normans, Welsh, Scots, Dutch...
It's no wonder the English language is difficult!
Quote from: Mods on Thu 23/05/2013 19:44:53
The g is short for graphics and graphics does not have a silent G. So how does one even get to the point of using a J? Presumably via acid or LSD, which most animated GIFs seem to be induced by themselves :P
(http://cdn.chud.com/b/bf/bfa6f03d_clap.gif)
^ classic GIF of Snarky clapping
I think it's time we all pull out our favourite gifs in celebration of coming to the conclusion that it has, and always will be, pronounced gif.
(http://i.imgur.com/gHFpzqb.gif)
YEAH - celebrating the gif's!
I am all in - YEEEE-HA! :grin:
(http://www.ja-pics.net/images/full/3/f88bb2f86.gif)
I just read something I thought was funny, and sorta relevant considering "g stands for graphics, not jraphics" line of thought.
It isn't "gay-peg", it sounds more like "j-fag", because the P there stands for "Photographic" :D.
To reiterate many excellent arguments:
I agree with so many of you that it's pronounced "Gif", with a "G" sound, just like Gin, Gypsy, Gipped, Giraffe, Geoffrey, Giselle, and Genuine. Saying it's pronounced "jif" not "gif" is an embarrassment to this argument. Stand strong, true believers! Type it boldly: "It's pronounced GIF"! If you are misinterpreted, it's the reader's fault for not knowing phonetics.
The list of acronyms that you pronounce phonetically is larger than the list of acronyms that you pronounce by stringing together the each individual sounds from the words the acronym is derived from (i.e. no one is arguing to pronounce jpeg like JEG because the p is silent - kudos Babar).
Lastly, I'm pretty sure if you invent a word you can be the tiebreaker in a controversy like this.
Quote from: Adam H on Thu 23/05/2013 22:15:44
I agree with so many of you that it's pronounced "Gif", with a "G" sound, just like Gin, Gypsy, Gipped, Giraffe, Geoffrey, Giselle, and Genuine. Saying it's pronounced "jif" not "gif" is an embarrassment to this argument.
..........my brain has just exploded.
Hahah...thanks, I guess. But there isn't really any tie-breaker here. People who pronounce it with a soft g will continue doing so, people who pronounce it with a hard g will also continue doing so, and even the creator of the word can't tell them otherwise, and at this point, both ways are "correct". I wasn't so much arguing for "my side" as I was addressing a specific point (about pronouncing acronyms based off the phonetics of their original words).
I still pronounce Adobe (the company) as "a-doab", even though it is an american company that pronounces it "a-doe-bee", and telling me I'm wrong isn't going to help.
So yeah, as Adam says, pronounce it GIF, and let the reader decide what you mean by that :D.
Random cat:
(http://i.imgur.com/g1oqg3Q.gif)
Faith:
(http://i.imgur.com/vtjyQKE.gif)
I pronounce it G.I.F.
Quote from: Oldschool_Wolf on Thu 23/05/2013 20:12:37
The English language has been influenced by so many different cultures, we've been invaded or settled by Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, Normans, Welsh, Scots, Dutch...
It's no wonder the English language is difficult!
Why do you differentiate Celts from Welsh and Scots?
Also, it's a hard g. Anyone who disagrees with me will be banned!
It interesting that there are both AGA and AJA forum members around here.
Quote from: Tabata on Thu 23/05/2013 17:06:25
... btw. you don't use the soft-g when talking about the gip-thread, do you? :shocked:
I call it the 'Jee-eye-pee' thread.
In another instance of reading something often but not hearing it much and therefore getting the pronunciation wrong, up until very recently I would always read the word 'segue' as 'seeg'. On the few occasions when I heard someone say the word 'segue' I would always imagine it to be written as 'segway'. I knew what it meant, but for some reason I never made the connection that the written 'segue' and the spoken 'segway' were actually the same thing.
Quote from: Crimson Wizard on Thu 23/05/2013 23:52:43
It interesting that there are both AGA and AJA forum members around here.
Haha, true. I pronounce both of those just by saying the letters 'ay-jee-ay' and 'ay-jay-ay'. Does anyone actually say them as words?
This isn't aimed at anyone here, but when I heard about this debate all I could think was:
(http://i.imgur.com/Zc0zOdk.gif)
Quote from: Babar on Thu 23/05/2013 17:28:40
Despite what gigabytes and gigahertz may have conditioned you to believe, "jigawatts" is a completely valid pronunciation.
So am I the only one who pronounces them
jigabytes? (My thought is it's jiga like in
gigantic)
But I pronounce the hard g in .GIF like in gremlin or groovy. And nobody mentioned the Jif peanut butter? (choosey moms choose Jif!)
Quote from: Stupot+ on Fri 24/05/2013 00:08:10
Quote from: Crimson Wizard on Thu 23/05/2013 23:52:43
It interesting that there are both AGA and AJA forum members around here.
Haha, true. I pronounce both of those just by saying the letters 'ay-jee-ay' and 'ay-jay-ay'. Does anyone actually say them as words?
Mittens people have often pronounced it aga like the oven. I do not approve! It's an initialism, damnit.
Quote from: Stupot+ on Fri 24/05/2013 00:08:10
I call it the 'Jee-eye-pee' thread.
I just imagined 2 drunk guys, one says, dude, you are loosing water there, and the other one answers, Gee, I pee :D
Quote from: Stupot+ on Fri 24/05/2013 00:08:10On the few occasions when I heard someone say the word 'segue' I would always imagine it to be written as 'segway'.
Following this line of thought, I always assume that British people are lining up in a que-way.
Quote from: Eric on Fri 24/05/2013 07:25:31
Following this line of thought, I always assume that British people are lining up in a que-way.
Whaaaaaaaat!? Do brits really say "queue" as "cue-way"?
Yes, yes we do.
Quote from: Eric on Fri 24/05/2013 07:25:31Following this line of thought, I always assume that British people are lining up in a que-way.
Difference being that "segue" actually is read same as "segway", while "queue" is basically read "q"
Quote from: AGA on Fri 24/05/2013 00:33:27Mittens people have often pronounced it aga like the oven. I do not approve! It's an initialism, damnit.
I thought an "intialism" was something that couldn't be said phonetically? Like IBM or AGS. An "acronym" is something that can be phonetically spoken like NATO or LOL.
Have I been living under a falsehood all these years? Say it isn't so!!
English is a fickle little bitch [of a language]. With all the variations and exceptions to the rules I don't know why we even bother with rules (GASP!! No rules?!?! (nod)).
I before EExcept when you fun a feisty heist on a weird beige foreign neighbor.
Quote from: Darth Mandarb on Fri 24/05/2013 12:56:36
Quote from: AGA on Fri 24/05/2013 00:33:27Mittens people have often pronounced it aga like the oven. I do not approve! It's an initialism, damnit.
I thought an "intialism" was something that couldn't be said phonetically? Like IBM or AGS. An "acronym" is something that can be phonetically spoken like NATO or LOL.
Have I been living under a falsehood all these years? Say it isn't so!!
An initialism is pronounced letter by letter (FBI, CIA, AGA), while an acronym is pronounced as one word (NASA, NATO). Which seems to be what you're saying? Don't see how this goes against what I said before!
Quote from: Darth Mandarb on Fri 24/05/2013 12:56:36
I before E
Except when you fun a feisty heist on a weird beige foreign neighbor.
Isn't this rule supposed to be applied only in cases where it's pronounced as a "long E" (/iËÂ/), which none of the words in your sentence are?
Quote from: Anian on Fri 24/05/2013 12:48:46Difference being that "segue" actually is read same as "segway", while "queue" is basically read "q"
(I was kidding!)
Quote from: AGA on Fri 24/05/2013 12:58:41An initialism is pronounced letter by letter (FBI, CIA, AGA), while an acronym is pronounced as one word (NASA, NATO). Which seems to be what you're saying? Don't see how this goes against what I said before!
Well AGA
can be spoken phonetically, like "ah-guh" where-as FBI cannot be spoken phonetically (well you could say "Fibby" I suppose but that's silly).
So by what I think/thought the distinctions are; AGA would be an acronym. Though I've always said it as an initialism, A-G-A rather than ah-guh.
Here is an article about the
Difference Between Acronym and Initialism (http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/05/the-difference-between-an-acronym-and-an-initialism/) which seems to be what I was thinking, but if you look up
Intialism on Dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/initialism?s=t) the first definition seems to be the same as acronym.
I'm so confused.
The way I understand it is that acronyms encompass initialisms among other types.
'Radar', which is made up of the first two letters of one word and then the first letter of all the other words, 'AAA', which is made up of three initials but is generally referred to as 'Triple-A', as well as true initialisms like BBC, all come under the umbrella of 'acronym' as far as I am concerned.
Heh, look what I found:
http://9gag.com/gag/aejXb65
I say "jif" because that's how my old computer lab teacher, Mr. Highfil pronounced it. I also say "Gee You Eye" instead of "gooey" because of him. I blame him for lots of things, actually. ;)
For making you a real man. You should be thankful to him!
Quote from: Babar on Sat 25/05/2013 00:33:22
For making you a real man. You should be thankful to him!
I am! Thanks, Mr. Highfil! I wouldn't be the dancing cow I am today without you! "Jif" forever!! (laugh)
Now I asked google translate to pronounce it for me
... and he called it gif and not jif (http://www.smileyvault.com/albums/userpics/12962/smilie_happy_256.gif)
I've always said gif with a soft g myself. Also ping, jaypeg, and gee-you-eye.
And for a long time I pronounced Nike to rhyme with Mike.
[embed=425,349]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqf1lhK2yjo[/embed]
this song explains everything and nothing at the same time.
Apparently we have reached internet fame.
[imgzoom]http://i.imgur.com/il16EVA.jpg[/imgzoom]
We just have to wait for Penny Arcade's relevant news article to see if this thread has inspired the comic. Or it could be a coincidence!
Dudes. Pronouncing it G.I.F will solve everything.
Wow, a PA comic that's actually funny, haven't seen those in a while. I do watch the Strip search and other PATV shows though.
Quote from: Atelier on Mon 27/05/2013 11:10:00
Dudes. Pronouncing it G.I.F will solve everything.
"Internet" and "solve everything" is not compatible. :grin:
Quote from: Oldschool_Wolf on Mon 27/05/2013 10:59:39
Or it could be a coincidence!
There are no coincidences. Only bad timing, bad luck, coerciation and Dennis!
Quote from: Oldschool_Wolf on Mon 27/05/2013 10:59:39
We just have to wait for Penny Arcade's relevant news article to see if this thread has inspired the comic. Or it could be a coincidence!
People on different parts of the internet talking about the same thing at the same time! How can it be?! (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22620473)
How dumb is it to use the word "JIF" to argue how to pronounce "gif"? That's like saying "but an orange is yellow, not orange".
[embed=425,349]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj2JV9gZUNM[/embed]
Graphics. Hard G.
Giraffe. Soft G.
Giraffics. Problem solved.
(http://25.media.tumblr.com/b86fe0287f3af2da98bcba035f01b795/tumblr_mnkqc9O1kF1qzsowjo1_500.gif)
I say pronounce it in a way that makes you feel comfortable.
(Also, ignore the promotion, I was not concerned with that.)
Jesus, the guy put three already existing words together, it's not like he invented Klingon.
Hehe, I couldn't care less, it's just fun to argue a bit.
Same.
But how would you pronounce .gif in Klingon?
so is .ogg
oh - je - je
or
ock
Quote from: selmiak on Tue 04/06/2013 18:25:13
so is .ogg
oh - je - je
or
ock
I would say og, as heard in agog.
When I first came across ogg files I thought of them as og, but I find myself thinking of them as oh jee jee these days. I say 'thinking' because i'm pretty sure I've never actually uttered the term out loud.
"Og" as in "grog". I know because I've said it out loud on a few occasions, therefore making me an internet expert on the matter. :=
That's a good one !!! Should be in a game !!! LOL !!!
Overhere Jif is Cif !!! :) (laugh)
Quote from: monkey424 on Thu 23/05/2013 11:01:52
JIF is a fucking cleaning product!
(http://imageshack.us/a/img594/9806/jif.png)
Everyone knows real life is dirty. And there's no point in pretending it's easily taken care of â€" it has to be cleaned. JIF cleaner deals with even the toughest dirt without harsh scratching.
You can rely on JIF because it removes the most difficult dirt while taking care of your surfaces, keeping your home in pristine condition. It is available in Original Fresh or Lemon Fresh fragrance.
Buy JIF now!