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People who actually pronounce "gif" as "jif"

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Jif just sounds dumb. Gif sounds much better and easier to roll off the tongue.


Apparently so. It's moronic.

Again, gin. The rule in English is to use the hard G when it's followed by an I and has a soft consonant following it. Because "gihn" sounds fucking stupid. As does "gihf."
 
Again, gin. The rule in English is to use the hard G when it's followed by an I and has a soft consonant following it. Because "gihn" sounds fucking stupid. As does "gihf."

Why is "gihn" and "gihf" sound stupid? I can't find anything stupid about how they sound. Jif, on the other hand, sounds moronic and does not make it any easier to speak.
 
When that Adam Boyes thread popped up yesterday with the tag #gifnessawaits, I pronounced it with a hard G in my head without thinking. This is interesting cause I usually pronounce it with a J.

Does this mean I'll be shunned by both camps? ;_;
 
Graphics is a Greek word that came to us from Latin, so when it is abbreviated it should get a Latin pronunciation. JIF.

Gift is a Germanic word (derived from give) so it has a different set of rules, which are archaic and usually not applied to new words, GIF being one of them.

JPEG (not Jay pheg) and NATO (not neh-tau) put to rest hard g for graphics argument.
 
I read it as a hard G the first time I saw the word, and now thanks to this thread I know I was correct. Thanks!
 
Really? You say "gently" with a hard g? How old are you, may I ask?

I know there are hard g and soft g. I say gently with a soft g, of course. But to me, GAF is gaf, not jaf, jeff. GIF is gif, not jif the peanut butter.
Next I expect to see arguments why SCSI isn't pronounced "scuzzy" and SQL isn't pronounced "Sequel".

There are acronyms that we can speak like actually words, like scuba, gif, etc. But there also are acronym that we have to spell it out, like SOS, png and such. Of course there are exception. JPG, for example, you can either spell it out or just say jay-peg.
I agree with your pronunciation of GAF, but GIF has been "Jif" for a long time. Seems to be something with newer folks that think it should be pronounced with a hard g. The English language is dumb.

Let all agree that gif, like some of the English words, has many way to pronounce it. To me, it's gif. To you, it's jif. It's not something that really matter, anyway.
 
I know there are hard g and soft g. I say gently with a soft g, of course. But to me, GAF is gaf, not jaf, jeff. GIF is gif, not jif the peanut butter.

I agree with your pronunciation of GAF, but GIF has been "Jif" for a long time. Seems to be something with newer folks that think it should be pronounced with a hard g. The English language is dumb.
 
giforjif.jpg
 
There are exceptional cases, you know.

We should just stop already. Me gif, you jif, whatever. Some words can be pronounced many ways, arguing does not change that many will still say gif and many others will still say jif.

Those are Germanic words though. Gift, give, girl, get, I think those are the ones, are all Germanic in root and their spellings are irregular because they are from a time when there was no dictionary.

Any newer word or Latin word follows the soft G preceding i/e/y rule.

And no, someone is wrong on the internet damn it
LLShC.gif
 
I think anyone who thinks "gif" is the correct pronunciation has never actually said the word out loud in a social gathering. It sounds like you're trying to say gift and forgot the t. At least "jif" is a word people have actually heard before. And as far as I know the pronunciations of acronyms are not based on the pronunciations of the individual words.
 
I think anyone who thinks "gif" is the correct pronunciation has never actually said the word out loud in a social gathering. It sounds like you're trying to say gift and forgot the t. At least "jif" is a word people have actually heard before. And as far as I know the pronunciations of acronyms are not based on the pronunciations of the individual words.

Yeah and those same people are probably thinking to "gyp" someone is spelled jip. Or that shish kebab is spelled kabob. People don't really think too hard about these kind of things.
 
To all of you jiffers, just know that jif sounds similar to yiff so even if you're winning, you're still losing.
 
Hard G folks are a funny bunch with all the appeals to imaginary rules of pronunciation and the insistence that one way can somehow inherently make more sense or sound better than the other. So you took a 50/50 guess when first presented with GIF and you guessed wrong. Big deal.

But at least have the dignity to own it. You're wrong, you prefer being wrong, and you're going to keep being wrong. That's okay - no need for the mental gymnastics.
 
Soft G is correct.

Everyone important and smart knows it's soft.
The creator, the English language and common sense are all on the same side.

Only idiots support hard G
 
I know the creator is saying it's "JIF" but the oxford dictionary says it's "GIF"

Personally, I think those Oxford people know their shit so I say GIF.
 
I remember they changed the name of a kitchen cleaner called Jif to Cif because some of continental Europe could'nt pronounce it properly. They kept calling it Yif.
 
Again, gin. The rule in English is to use the hard G when it's followed by an I and has a soft consonant following it. Because "gihn" sounds fucking stupid. As does "gihf."

Spelling ≠ phoneme.

You guys are arguing semantics over pronunciation. There is no rule that /ɡ/ phoneme has to follow this /ɪ/ phoneme. Or a /i/. Or /ɪ̈/. Or /ɨ/. Or any of the other mild variants of I phonemes we use in English. I pronounce it with a J. But when I say GIF, it shouldn't look like it reads. It should read how it sounds. /dʒɪf/ is with the J, /ɡɪf/ with the hard G.

What's the point in bringing this up? Start looking at language from a descriptive point of view. There are multiple ways to pronounce GIF. All of them lead the listener to the lexical item "animated image that can be viewed in a browser" when spoken in that context. Nobody is ever speaking wrong when they are being understood. Who cares if it's /dʒɪf/ or /ɡɪf/? You know what I mean when I say it. Otherwise, you wouldn't get irritated about it and the conversation that follows (including the sixteen times this thread has been posted) is a waste of everyone's time.
 
My fiancee calls it jif. It was almost a deal breaker. I still judge her sometimes. Silent judging, the kind where you sometimes wonder if it's worth it to be petting their hair while they sleep.
 
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