Gif, hard g. Gif resembles the word gift, so it's going to be similarly pronounced, regardless of the inventor's wishes.

But But But ..Beyonce..should thus rhyme with once..like in "once upon a time"..

And Colin..?..most would "not" ryhme with rollin'..

Paris..the original ( son of Priam ) is pronounced Paris..the most well known ( if you are over 25 ) is pronounced Paree..

btw..do you say general with a hard or a soft "g"..
and there are two "g"'s in garage..one hard and one soft..

The French also all say "konnect ee Kut" ( drives me crazy, Because I'm used to hearing it the "USA way".. most dubbed US cop shows have the place "Connecticut" mentioned at least once..sometimes waay more..and yet which is truly "correct".. )

[edited by: Leosghost at 3:24 pm (utc) on May 22, 2013]

Always G for me.

If the acronym stood for Jraphics Interchange Format I might reconsider.

Anyone say "gaypeg" around here?

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Always G for me.

If the acronym stood for Jraphics Interchange Format I might reconsider.

Anyone say "gaypeg" around here?

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Nope ...Would be against TOS :)

If the acronym stood for Jraphics Interchange Format

Exactly. The inventor has no right to insist on the J pronunciation. He is wrong to insist. The correct pronunciation is with a hard g.

do you say general with a hard or a soft "g"..

When in doubt I generally Joogle it.

Back in a giffy...

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OK I Joogled it and came up with this:

The cunning linguists Cholmondley and Featherstonehaugh pronounced on the debate long ago.

"You say tomato, and I say tomato".

They suggested calling the whole thing off and using PNGs instead.

No point in getting animated about it.

...

If he wanted it to be pronounced that way, he should have called it a .jif in the first place. He will forever be tormented by people calling it .gif with a hard G, it is a hard life he must live from now on.

Also, .jpeg is jaypeg.

Gee..are you sure..

I always thought that Jif was a cleaning product and was changed to Cif since so many couldn't pronounce it ... and ended up with a shortened name for a well-known infection.

Yeah, I've always said Jif as in giraffe:-) Then again I do use GiffGaff and like receiving gifts ...arghhh.

I have always said Gif.

People don't always pronounce words "correctly". If we were going to be purist we would go the the Kimema and pronounce margarine with a hard G.

This reminds me of another foo thread [webmasterworld.com]

To me, common sense says hard G

But if the creator says it's J... and even has a page dedicated to it, then IMO that's what it is.

I'll stick with the hard G though... and stick with the majority.

I should have typed Kinema of course!

using PNGs instead.

Ah, but do you pronounce it "pnig" or "pee en gee"? Odd but true, I once had a poll about this in another forum.

:: shuffling papers ::

"ping" 31% [ 39 ]
"p'nig" 0% [ 1 ]
"pee enn gee" 58% [ 73 ]
"page" 0% [ 1 ]
other 8% [ 10 ]
Total Votes : 124

(There's a site-specific reason for the "page" option. No, I don't know why php/bb rounds off 1/124 to zero percent.)

Does anyone really say "mouses"?

OK let's bejin ... how about a gin and tonic?

Surprised nobody has yet come out for "yif". It's got as least as much language-historical justification as some of the other pronunciations kicking around this thread.

graphics interchange format = hard G GIF
gee eye eff - soft G GIF

you say potato, i say potahto
i'm ok either way.


now if you're talking "mysql" pronunciation...
http://www.webmasterworld.com/foo/4081751.htm [webmasterworld.com]
=8)

g before a front vowel = depends on whether word is inherited Germanic ("hard" as in get, give) or borrowed French ("soft" as in gentle, ginger). Words that were imported or created after writing became widespread are pronounced any way they feel like it and are therefore free to start arguments.

Non-English speakers may need to be reminded that the English language has never had an Academy that rules on correctness.

the English language has never had an Academy that rules on correctness

... but it has never been short of volunteers.

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g before a front vowel = depends on whether word is...

acronym, actually...

There is a bit of a tiff about how to pronounce gif at elreg [theregister.co.uk] too..over 200 comments..worth reading for a laff or a jiggle..:)

acronym, actually...

And hence by definition "created after writing became widespread". I have never met the word "gif" in an Early English Text Society publication. ("pix", yes, often. Also "ax" meaning "ask".)

There is a bit of a tiff about how to pronounce gif

Ah! Does everyone at least rhyme it with "tiff"?

Tune in next week for stunning revelation that it's pronounced tea, eye, eff, eff. And I hope I am never required to pronounce "AIFF" because I would not have a clue.

If the inventor of a word had the final say, you would not have hordes of people busily destroying the useful term "factoid" :(

If the inventor of a word had the final say,

Does anybody else remember the old UK TV ads for margarine where it was always very pointedly pronounced with a hard G? It never did any good.

Except if you were Joe Cocker.
[google.co.uk...]

Does anybody else remember the old UK TV ads

Or, for that matter, the currently running US TV ads for Nevada tourism.

Remarkable that Steve Wilhite's chosen acronym GIF had the potential to become a new and unique contribution to the language that could not be confused with anything else - a feat that most would be proud of - and he wanted it to sound like an existing commercial product (peanut butter/lemon juice/bathroom cleaner) instead.

Correcting people who mis-pronounce his surname must be fun.

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