Is is "G"IF ir "J"IF... you be the Judge

Seems like this is an ancient hot debate

Published on January 9, 2006 By Sembetu In WinCustomize Talk

The C|net / news.com hosted esoterica blog has decided to make a foray into one of the longest standing debates in the history of computing. Hold on to your hats people, and get ready to hotly contest whether it is GIF with a hard G or JIF with a soft G. You be the judge, you decide, the public awaits your professional opinion.

Comments (Page 3)

Cyberworld

on Jan 10, 2006

GIF Rocks!

JIF is a brand of cleaner where i live so i guess it doesn't cope with anims formats...

Halluci

on Jan 10, 2006

how many times do you actually use "gif" (either pronunciation) in a spoken conversation anyway?

Jafo

on Jan 10, 2006

how many times do you actually use "gif" (either pronunciation) in a spoken conversation anyway?

If you're into computer graphics/skinning/GUI customising .... probably a few times... though it's an old format these days...

scorpio-logic

on Jan 10, 2006

hard G. Like they said: Jif is peanut butter.

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central

jebro

on Jan 11, 2006

The European Commissioners have announced that an agreement has been
reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European
communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that
English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five-year
phased plan for what will be known as EuroEnglish (Euro for short).

In the first year, "s" will be used instead of the soft "c".
Sertainley, sivil servants will resieve this news with joy.
Also, the hard "c" will be replaced with "k". Not only will this
klear up konfusion, but typewriters and komputers kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year,
when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced by "f". This will make
words like "fotograf" 20 percent shorter. In the third year,
publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage
where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage
the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent
to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent
"e"s in the languag is disgrasful, and they would go.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be replasing "th" by "z" and "w" by "v".

During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou", and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.
After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be
no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it
ezi tu understand ech ozer.

Ze drem vil finali kum tru.

aimzzz

on Jan 11, 2006

Xenon101

on Jan 11, 2006

Skarny

on Jan 11, 2006

I actually refer to bmp files as bumps (the u is almost unpronounced) in conversation. Gif is Gifh (hard G), JPG is Jay Peg, Png is Pee En Jee.
exe is Ecksy. That little hidden file that plagues me on multiboot systems in the root is Nt Elder.

I prefer the Graphic Interchange Format argument best.

Fuzzy Logic

on Jan 11, 2006

From that well known font of knowledge wikipedia, -

Pronunciation

Some English-speakers pronounce the acronym 'GIF' with a plosive (as in the word "gift"). Others pronounce it with an affricate (as in the word "giraffe"). There is evidence, including comments from Bob Berry, one of the format's creators, suggesting the affricate pronunciation is correct.

The pronunciation coined by the creators of the file format during its unravelling presentation in the 1980's pronounced the format as "JIF" in sound. This is the most popular method of pronouncing the file format in the spoken word, while most Macintosh users and Photographic artists still pronounce it as GIF", like "Gift".

The basic pronunciation of a word like GIF also dictates that the when a consonant (G) is immediatly followed by a vowel (I) the consonant's sound is elongated, so the G should be pronounced as "Gey", bound with the i and f, correctly pronounced "JIF"

aimzzz

on Jan 11, 2006

* Guffaws

Sembetu

on Jan 11, 2006

from #5 above:

This debate has been known to destroy cities. You should be ashamed Sembetu.

I am ashamed now. I sincerely believe that this will be the undoing of many a afore solid relationship... blame me, blame me.

S3vyn

on Jan 11, 2006

The inventor says "JIF" ... which happens to be the way I was taught to pronounce it when the format was first gaining popularity.

I've said it that way ever since, but there have always been plenty of people to argue with me about it. Now, whenever someone argues with me, I convert the image to a .png and tell them to forget about it and that "there is no spoon.

For the inventors thoughts: Link

Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:

Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums.
Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
It's simple, and FREE!