Pronounce GIF · the Correct Way, Without Question

[SamBam]

I'm confused by the "Front Vowels" argument, since it doesn't seem to hold particularly well for ⟨ɪ⟩ (the "i" in gif).

I took a look at onelook for all "gi*" words, sorted by commonness [1]. Out of the first 30 words I count using the ⟨ɪ⟩ sound, I see:

- 19 with a Hard G (gift, gig, gill, gilt, gigabyte, give, gibbous, gild, git, giggle, gingham, ginkgo, giddy, gimlet, gibbon, gifted, gimp, gilding, gimmick)

- 11 with a Soft G (ginger, gin, gingivitis, ginseng, gist, giraffe, gibbet, gib, gibberish, giblets, gingerly)

This isn't an argument one way or another, but it seems to discount the entire first argument. It seems that the author is performing a bit of a sleight of hand by focusing on the entire class of "front vowels," instead of the specifics of the ⟨ɪ⟩ sound, because otherwise the numbers wouldn't work out nearly as well. Also, front and back vowels aren't nearly as simple as "I, E, Y = front" and "A, O, U = non-front. ⟨a⟩, the a in "hat" is a front vowel, for instance.[2] And you'll never find a soft g before ⟨a⟩.

1. https://onelook.com/?w=gi*&ssbp=1

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_front_unrounded_vowel

[stinkytaco]

I've actually never heard it pronounced "Jiff" in conversation. Ever. I'm not going to categorically claim that people don't do it, because anecdote isn't evidence, but I've only ever heard the word "jiff" in the context of an Internet debate I'm increasingly believing is made up.

EDIT: Additionally, I've never heard anyone say po-tah-to or toe-mah-to outside of the song. Where does this urge come from?

[SamBam]

> toe-mah-to

I mean... this merely means you've never been to an English speaking country outside North America.

[Youden]

If the song really does say toe-mah-to, I agree with you.

However in the English-speaking world (as in the world that speaks similarly to the people in England) I've not heard it pronounced any way other than "tom-ah-toe".

[rhacker]

As soon as someone wants to take a hard stance on it it makes me want to switch. I don't know why. I typically said Jiff (like the PB) but with this site's attitude I'm going to start saying GIFT (with no T) again.

[beej71]

Good. My hard stance is that you must say it like GIFT. ;)

[throwaway894345]

Welcome to the resistance!

[coolso]

Similarly, when someone wants to take the opposite stance of a well reasoned stance for reasons unrelated to the stance itself (feelings, etc.), I tend to want to take the stance of the original to counter the person taking the opposite stance. I'm going to start staying GIF (like JIF) again.

[sosuke]

Probably because I was a Peter Pan kid but I loathed the Jiff commercials. No joke I was angry about the slogan because I loved my mom and Peter Pan PB.

I'm going to keep calling it GIFT (with no T) because no one has ever misunderstood me. And I'm not about to start putting Giff in my PB sandwiches. Jiff or GIF is also such a small thing. Like alu-mi-nium or alu-mi-ni-um perhaps?

[amanzi]

That ship has sailed, I've never heard anyone call it "jiff". The "Two types of vowels" argument doesn't hold water, because the exceptions to the rule are all so common that they feel like the norm. Also, in the tech industry, words starting with 'g' are usually pronounced with a hard 'g': git, gig, gigabyte, gigabit, and gif.

I think the only people who care about the pronunciation are the few who are clinging to the soft-g camp. On that note, the end of the page clearly contains a bit of self-reflection: "Holding on dearly to that pronunciation because it’s infinitely intertwined to your sense of identity?"

[jcelerier]

> https://pronouncegif.com/#acronyms

I don't understand this argument. for every acronym they list, the first sound is the same for the acronym and the complete version, it's actually an argument for a hard G.

[pertique]

It looks like the author either confused about this argument, or are refuting an argument I've never heard.

They're refuting the argument that each and every letter should be pronounced according to the word it represents. Their take on pronouncing 'JPEG' makes this the most clear; they believe if this argument were true then 'JPEG' would be pronounced 'JEG' due to the silent/'F' sounding 'P' in 'Photographic.'

Honestly, I've never heard someone argue this, and it's a bit ridiculous for all the reasons the author put forward. I've heard this argument for just the first letter ('Graphical' > hard 'G') before which, as you pointed out, fits every example they've given.

[oldstrangers]

That non-transparent gif logo makes me sad. That's not a #000 background as they probably thought from making it on a monitor that wasn't color corrected.

[jks]

Why only those two options? I like the Swedish pronunciation: yif

Obligatory Dilbert link: https://dilbert.com/strip/1994-12-26

[SAI_Peregrinus]

You must be a Yavascript programmer. I bet your company uses Yira for issue tracking!

[nayuki]

I agree with this page about GIF. However, I disagree about PNG. The creators say it's pronounced like ping, but I find that to be ridiculous because: The acronym contains no vowels, there is no letter I in Portable or Network, it confuses with the useful network utility named ping, and many many other acronyms are simply pronounced by spelling out their letters. Hence for me, PNG is P-N-G.

[EForEndeavour]

I'm with you in this case, but:

> The acronym contains no vowels

didn't stop HMMWV being pronounced "humvee"! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humvee

[muthdra]

> is no letter I in Portable or Network

So it should be "pong".

[nerdponx]

Moderators: I don't think this should be flagged.

Also I will keep saying "hard G" until I drop dead!!

That said, I'm actually curious about this one:

> For the Lip-Readers and Hearing Impaired

Is there any basis to this particular claim? Are there other words in English that are best avoided for the sake of lip readers?

[muthdra]

Just be careful when discussing Stronghold strats.

https://stronghold.fandom.com/wiki/Pitch_Digger

[gremlinsinc]

The correct way is whatever way the 'majority' of people pronounce it, because that's how language works. Language, and etymology isn't derived based on conjecture but on usage.

If 90% use hard-g then I'm pretty sure Websters would categorize that as the correct pronunciation.

[beej71]

You either say it like the creator of GIF says it, or you say it a different way.

Either way, you still have to pay taxes.

"Enter 1 for yourself if no one in your family says GIF with a hard G."

[NanoWar]

I still call HTTP-APIs simply REST APIs, just because most people just get what I mean. Same with gif, as in gift. It works better for communication.

[muthdra]

Or how people often use "ironic" to mean "sarcastic" but never the other way around.

[cosmotic]

Missing the argument to disambiguate with '.jif'

[homonculus1]

gif is pronounced like gin

[nayuki]

gin is pronounced like ginza /s

[muthdra]

exactly, like git