Pronunciation of GIF
Popularly rendered in English as a one-syllable word, the acronym is most commonly pronounced /ɡɪf/ ⓘ (with a hard g as in gig) or /dʒɪf/ ⓘ (with a soft g as in gin), differing in the phoneme represented by the letter G. Many public figures and institutions have taken sides in the debate; Steve Wilhite, the creator of the image file format, gave a speech at the 2013 Webby Awards arguing for the soft-g pronunciation.
The controversy stems partly from the fact that there is no general rule for how the letter sequence gi is to be pronounced; the hard g prevails in words such as gift, while the soft g is used in others such as ginger.
[4] Wilhite and the team who developed the file format included in the technical specifications that the acronym was to be pronounced with a soft g. In the specifications, the team wrote that "choosy programmers choose ... 'jif'", in homage to the peanut butter company Jif's advertising slogan of "choosy moms choose Jif".
[3] According to ABC News, the debate stretches as far back as 1994, with an author of an encyclopedia of image formats stating that "most people" seem to prefer the hard g pronunciation over his preferred soft g.[5] In French, the acronym tends to be pronounced [ʒif] ⓘ,[6] with the voiced postalveolar fricative, [ʒ], as in the j in the French joie or the s in the English measure or vision, even though [dʒ], which does not occur in native vocabulary, tends to be retained in English loanwords (such as jeans).
[10] In English, the linguistic controversy stems partly from the fact that there is no general rule for how the letter sequence gi is to be pronounced; the hard g prevails in words such as gift, while the soft g is used in others, such as ginger, giraffe and gist.
[18] After Steve Wilhite announced his opinion that the soft g pronunciation was the only correct form, there was significant chatter on social media and in the press on both sides of the issue.
"[2][15] The audience attending the ceremony reacted positively to the short speech, but it generated controversy online, with some commentators pushing back against Wilhite's pronunciation.
[35] More than 17,000 tweets were made in the aftermath of the speech, making "GIF" a trending topic,[33] and more than 50 news articles were written on the incident.
[36] In October 2013, The New York Times faced some light criticism on social media for an article written by Sarah Lyall that began with the words, "A GIF, pronounced jif, is a compressed image file format invented in 1987.
[2][37] In December 2013, Alex Trebek, the host of game show Jeopardy!, attracted media attention when the final clue of the episode referenced Wilhite's presentation and opinion on the pronunciation.
[39] In June 2014, Barack Obama, then President of the United States, opined that the acronym should be pronounced with a hard g when prompted in a conversation with David Karp, the founder of Tumblr.
Miles Klee of The Daily Dot highlighted an April 2013 post on the White House's Tumblr blog, which included a humorous infographic with the text "animated GIFs (hard 'g')".
