Exactly how it’s spelled.
Giff with a hard g.
Yes there are many examples of soft g before i, like gist. But English orthography isn’t self-consistent, so ultimately all these arguments become reductio ad absurdam.
G in GIF stands for Graphics. Period.I agree that g for graphics isn’t a terribly good argument one way or another. But the reductio ad absurdam part is the more important bit. All language, ultimately, is arbitrary, with successful information exchange being the only measure that really matters. It’s especially so for something like GIF that occurs far more often in text than speech.
I find the “G stands for graphics” an extremely weak argument. In English the pronunciation of acronyms never seem to consider the pronunciation of the original words. Examples include scuba and laser. If you pronounced those like the letters in the original words, they would be pronounced scuhba and laseer.
That said, pronounce it how you want, I don’t care. You don’t need a reason to pronounce it one way or another beyond “this is the way I heard first” or “this is the way I hear the most”. But the “graphics” reason is not a good one because (at least in English) nothing else follows that rule.
In that case, my vote is on GIF with the voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/ from genre and measure.
It’s ✯✯fancy✯✯
I choose giraffics.
I’d pronounce it Graphics Interchange Format Friend
Did you know SCUBA is an acronym?
“Sally”
I would rather nickname it 'raff
Still not “jiff”. I’m not a coward.
Jiff is the minority opinion, how would it be cowardly to use it?
Like Griff but without the r.
I would pronounce it Harold
If the only reason to pronounce it ‘jif’ is because of the context of it being a giraffe, then its a bad name and it also kinda proves the point of everyone who says that ‘gif’ shouldn’t be pronounced ‘jif’.
Giff, the double f means hard g to me. Whereas the single f in gif demands a soft g.
The same as how I would pronounce “giraffe” but without the “ira” and “e”.
I think I see where you’re going with this…
“Giraffe” etymologistically speaking has roots in the Middle East, giving it a “je” sound: jarraf, zarafa, et al
spoiler
“ultimately from Persian زُرنَاپَا (zurnāpā), a compound of زُرنَا (zurnā, “flute, zurna”) and پَا (pā, “leg”)”.
So if it’s “Giff” like “giraffe” - /dʒɪf/ - soft g like “George”. If it’s named after someone with a name like Kathy Lee Gifford, then hard G.
anything besides the peanut butter pronunciation sounds weird
I would pronounce it like Giraffe without the ra - unlike the GIF file format which is like Gift without the t.
