this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2023
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gif. With a hard g, because there is also .jiff and you could not distinguish otherwise.
The fact that this conversation exists is proof that the word is intuitively pronounced with a hard G.
The only reason to pronounce it like a J if because the creator liked it - and the reason he liked it was literally because of the (copyright-infringing) similarity to the peanut butter.
He made a huge contribution to the Internet by creating the format, and he deserves it gratitude. Mispronouncing gif is not the best approach to that.
If gif is the proper noun for the format, it's pronounced as the creator says.
Why? He has no linguistic expertise, and he didn't have the perspective of the format's popularity when he made that decree. And his decision was based on intentionally infringing on copyright. And it intentionally goes against the intuitive pronunciation. And the term "gif" now even refers to files that aren't even .gif - it's way past him.
This may sound harsh, and I want to acknowledge that he did something really awesome - but the Jif pronunciation will not survive once he, as a person, is forgotten. But the format will. It's not his anymore.
Also who said it's a proper noun
Nah. We've had that conversation before, with SCSI files. No one pronounces those as "sexy" despite the creator's insistence on that being the correct pronunciation.