FLABBER-JASTED: It's 'jif', NOT '.gif', says man who should know

The internet - and especially the recently-sold content sausage machine Tumblr, epicentre of the animated gif rebirth - is reeling today at the news that when referring to image files formatted as .gifs one should pronounce it "jif". That's according to no less an authority than Steve Wilhite, the man who invented the Graphics …

[AndrueC]

Beware of geeks bearing GIFs.

[Darryl]

er, I THINK you meant 'Beware of jeeks bearing JIFs'

[Spudbynight]

On a related note the cleaner "JIF" had to be changed to "CIF" back in the 90s.

The reason, Spanish speakers couldn't pronounce Jif.

True story, bro.

[Jim in Hayward]

Mr. White

is jay. a total guvenile.

[Anonymous Coward]

I was extremely disturbed to discover when Americans pronounce the letter "Z" 'zee,' that is how we in Blighty used to pronounce it. The pronunciation "zed" came to be adopted during the war because when using radio communication the letter "zee" is very often misheard as the letter "C" (pronounced "see" of course). When pronounced "zed" such a mistake is far less likely.

"But, but, that can't be." I spluttered on hearing the truth. "You mean that awful big bird on Sesame Street has been right all along and my kindergarten nurtured sense of superiority is has been built on imploding foundations."

I have been shaken to the core and have yet to recover.

[Anonymous Coward]

Phonetically Z is pronounced as Zebra not Zeeeeeeeeeeeeebra. Again the Americans hijack a language and claim it as there own.

One point to mention here, when the US voted on a national language there were only three votes away from speaking German. Gott in Himmel!

[Martin]

...and claim it as THEIR own.

Sigh.

[Rick Giles]

@ Martin Re: ...and claim it as THEIR own.

So, do you speak English or The Queen's English? Come off your high horse.

[Rick Giles]

@Martin Re: ...and claim it as THEIR own.

And besides, we'll all be speaking Chinese soon anyway. So quit your bitchin'

[MacGyver]

JRAPHICS

So the G stands for Jraphics? Makes perfect sense. How about he just gets over it, and just pronounces it like the rest of us do. Here's why rocket scientist inventor guy.

"Did you get the `JIF`?"

"No, we have plenty of peanut butter in the cabinet."

"No, the `JIF` image file I sent you?"

"Oh, yes I did. By the way, what does JIF even stand for?"

"Why GRAPHICS IMAGE FILE my dear."

"Oh, so when we have to say `JIF image file` we are really saying `Graphics Image File Image File`?"

"Yes."

"And that is better or smaller why?"

"That is what the guy who put the J in GRAPHICS wanted."

[Anonymous Coward]

GIF

It stands for Graphics Interchange Format.

At least make sure your facts are right, otherwise your facepalm is just for yourself.

[hughca]

Re: JRAPHICS

I believe that's "Graphics Interchange Format"

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: JRAPHICS

Exactly, G as in Graphics so GIF not JIF. Just because Mr Whatever invented the format doesn't make him a language expert right?! :o)

[Anonymous Coward]

No, damnit. There was NEVER any such vote to make German the official language. There was, once, way back at the beginning, a vote as to whether to have the laws printed in German in addition to English. That vote was close, but it was voted down and never came up again.

This seems to be a common misconception in Europe. I first heard it from a German, and now from a clueless Brit who oviously lacks a good grasp of his own language - or do "there" and "their" have different meanings in British English than they do in American English?

[Trustme]

"British English than they do in American English"

British English is simply English. You wouldn't say someone speaks "German German" just because there are other deformations of the language in other countries. The fact there are American and other bastardisations of the language doesn't change the fact that English as spoken by the English (read British) is still simply English. When you refer to "English" you are default referring to the English spoken by the English (read British), it's only when you talk about one of the variant bastardisations of the language you need to qualify it with "American" et al.

[Irony Deficient]

German German, usw.

Trustme, on the contrary, one would say that someone speaks German German, when it would be necessary to contrast it to other national variants of German. This usage even exists in German itself: try searching for either „deutsches Deutsch“ or „das deutsche Deutsch“ in your preferred search engine.

Thus, one could just as well say that someone speaks English English, for the same purpose of contrast. Consider the section on shall and will in Fowler’s The King’s English. These two words were, and are, completely interchangeable in Scots English, Irish English, US English, and beyond, but had (if not still have) distinct definitions in English English. Now, if you were to repeat that last sentence without the adjective English, so that it ended just in English, the contrast would not be nearly so clear.

[PJI]

Pardon?

"different ... THAN...? Aaaaargh.

As any English speaker knows, it is "different FROM" and "similar TO". Just think, would you say, "X differs FROM Y" or "X differs THAN Y" or "X differs TO Y"? Americans do use a lot of German and Yiddish (a sort of mixed up German plus others) grammar. American is, after all, English spoken by foreigners. As English speakers, we can still speak English or try to.at any rate.

[Babbit55]

Re: Pardon?

May I just point out that is would actually be pronounced JIF in the English language since the G is followed by a I as in Giraffe.

http://theschoolhouse.us/lessons/lesson53.html

[sdb]

Re: Pardon?

Yes, obviously, because it is a giraffe interchange format.

That makes me giggle (but it takes a real belly laugh to make me jiggle).

[Ed_UK]

Re: Pardon?

"May I just point out that is would actually be pronounced JIF in the English language since the G is followed by a I as in Giraffe."

Yebbut - Brits would refer to someone as "an old git" and USians might "git going" - all with a hard-G. Maybe those are exceptions, but they're the first ones which come to mind. Now, Ginger...

[Irony Deficient]

“Americans do use a lot of German and Yiddish grammar.”

PJI, which areas of German and Yiddish grammar do we Yanks use in our variety of English? Nouns always title-cased? Verbs always second in a clause? Perfective verb prefixes? Separable compound verb prefixes punted to the end of a clause? Adverbial particles?

[Irony Deficient]

phonetic pronunciation of Z

Anonymous Coward of 06:48 GMT, phonetically, Z is the voiced alveolar fricative; as such, the phonetic pronunciation of Z is neither /zɛd/ (“zed”) nor /ziː/ (“zee”), but simply /z/.

Again the Americans hijack a language and claim it as [their] own? What exactly is the count of languages that we sinister Medioleftpondians have hijacked and claimed as our own, by your reckoning? Are we holding these languages for ransom, demanding Yankgeld to let their lawful owners spell and pronounce words as they see fit?

Regarding your other point, this newly minted novelty nation has never had an official language, although a number of the constituent states do. As Anonymous Coward of 08:15 GMT mostly noted, Pennsylvania in the late 18th century nearly approved having a German translation of its laws printed, as at that time native German speakers represented a significant proportion of that state’s population.

[Anonymous Cowerd]

"that is how we in Blighty used to pronounce it"

No it isn't.

explanation here

[Ken Hagan]

Re: explanation here

"Cookies, elevator, french fries, truck; don't say 'petrol' or you suck."

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: explanation here

"don't say 'petrol' or you suck."

I have heard that for some people, that's the only way they can afford to get petrol these days. Although I also heard that it gives you gas.

[Anonymous Coward]

Kindergarten?

A Kindergarten? In the UK? Something smells fishy here...

[Dom 3]

Wikipedia notes "in American English, its name is 'zee' /ˈziː/, deriving from a late 17th century English dialectal form" and also points out that everybody else in Europe (more or less) uses a similar form. IOW the British version is the original. In this case at any rate - we've all gotten used to the idea of the opposite being true.

The American military used "zed" in their phonetic alphabet for a while:

http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq101-1.htm

which may have given rise to the story.

[goldcd]

Also

-ise versus -ize

I'd always assumed that 'ise' was 'correct' and 'ize' was just something the yanks had made up to annoy us.

Seemingly not that simple and the switch from "ize" to "ise" enforced (rather than being seen as a preference to argue over between Oxford and Cambridge) by the EU definition of English..

[Anonymous Coward]

If he had wanted it to sound like Jif he should have spelt it Jif and not Gif. Flaming Americans, they think they invented the English language...

[Rick Giles]

@Anonymous Coward 06:44

No, we didn't invent it. God knows if we had it wouldn't be so full of all the double mean words that sound alike.

As, is such, I have to correct just about everyone that I meet because of that hard G Soft G business when they pronounce my last name.

Thank you for donating such a wonderful language to the world.

[Jamie Jones]

Gif as in giraffe.. Nothing American about that

[RonAnon]

No, we didn't invent the English language, but we made it relevant. It's because of us that English is the world's business language. So, in that light, it's color - not colour. Get it right. And, stop replacing words that end in "a" with an "er" sound, and vice versa.

[The Serpent]

Never look a GIFt horse in the mouth

I always thought it was pronounced 'jif', but I learned I was labouring under a misunderstanding as I was first told it stood for 'General Image Format', so it made sense to me to pronounce the G as J (i.e. Jeneral, not General)

[Anonymous Coward]

Sega

At school everyone thought Sega was pronounced "See Ga". Imagine our surprise when Sonic came out and when you turned the game on up flashed the logo and "Say Ga" came out the speakers.

[Shades]

Re: Sega

Oddly I, and everyone else I knew at school, pronounced it as "SayGa". Perhaps pronunciation differences, prior to the release of, Sonic was a regional thing, or my friends and I, pronouncing it correctly, were bigger geeks than we thought?

[Uncle Siggy]

Re: Sega

"or my friends and I, pronouncing it correctly, were bigger geeks than we thought?"

One of the qualifications of being a geek is not being aware that you are.

[Lallabalalla]

Re: Sega

Or perhaps you're that much younger and the truth was already out there?

[Shades]

@Lallabalalla. Re: Sega

"Or perhaps you're that much younger and the truth was already out there?"

I wish I was, but unfortunately not. Like the OP, I too pre-date the release of Sonic.

[firefly]

Re: Sega

I get riled at people who think Nike, both the sporting goods manufacturer and the Greek goddess of victory, only has one syllable.

[M Gale]

Re: Nike

Nike has only one syllable.

Niké on the other hand...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Nike

Expats to USA might have heard: 'Putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable'?

Ah language. Putting the em-FAAA-sis on the wrong sil-a-BELLLL...

Toe-may-to...Toe-maaaaaa-to... Po-tay-to..Po-taaaa-to

[AGR]

Re: Nike

As this particular expat Yank says to his English wife: I'll start saying tomahto when you start saying potahto.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Nike

The pronunciation 'tom-ah-toe' has a more appropriate sound to it when talking about a fruit... just try saying it in an effeminate accent and you'll see what I mean!

[Rick Giles]

@firefly Re: Sega

Ahh, the consistency of English. So how do you pronounce - LIKE, HIKE, BIKE, PIKE, MIKE, DIKE, TIKE, etc?

[M Gale]

Re: Sega

Of course if you're following the same daft rules as elsewhere on the thread, you should be pronouncing it "Serga".

Service Games, and all. Wonder if they still make pinball machines for the US army?

[James Henstridge]

Re: Sega

I pronounced it "See Ga" too, but that's because all the TV ads in Australia at the time pronounced it that way too.

[Tzael]

Acronymity...

GIF - Graphics Interchange Format...

Are we all supposed to say 'jraphics' from now on?

[Code Monkey]

Re: Acronymity...

I tried Joojling it but it wasn't clear.

[Tom 35]

Re: Acronymity...

No you don't Joojle it, you search using Joojle. *

* another failed attempt to tell people what to say.

[Richard IV]

Re: Acronymity...

we surrealists pronounce it giraffics.

[Simon Harris]

Re: Acronymity...

Do they cross the road at giraffic lights?

[VinceH]

Re: Acronymity...

No, the giraffics in question are quite old - though with a bit of dna gijjery pokery, they've been recreated and can now be found in giraffic park.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Acronymity...

Nope, you're supposed to say "What the hell are you using that bloody format for? Oh for stupid little animated images that bugger up layouts and get very irritating when constantly seen out of the corner of your eye!".

[rcorrect]

Re: Acronymity...

Jraphic Park - Extinct computers brought back to life.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Acronymity...

Graphics Interchange Format"

Oh, do give the guy a break, it's not like he's into jraphix or something....

[disgruntled yank]

One hell of a thing

to have tiff about.

[Zaphod.Beeblebrox]

Re: One hell of a thing

I see what you did there...

[The First Dave]

He might have invented the file described by the acronym, but that doesn't mean he knows anything at all about the English language.

"Graphics" has a hard G, therefore so does the acronym. End of story.

[bg2b]

And while we're at it, let's also correct all the idiots saying "jay-peg" for JPEG. It stands for "Joint Photographic Experts Group", so it's obviously pronounced "juh-pheg".

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you mean juh-fej

[stratofish]

You mean Joffegg?

[AbelSoul]

juh-pheg?

Or for those of us in certain parts of Scotland:

"Jy-Pheg"

[Kubla Cant]

Re: idiots saying "jay-peg"

I disagree. There's a fairly well-established convention that when adjacent consonants in acronyms can't be pronounced as a composite, the leading consonant(s) get their alphabetic pronunciation. Hence jay-peg, bee-dos, etc.

I don't know about you, but I stopped naming letters "a, buh, cuh,...juh" at the age of six.

[Lallabalalla]

jer-peg

JPEG is not an acronym, i.e. it's not pretending to be a word, so you can pronounce it any way you see fit.

[ratfox]

Brave attempt to use logic!

What about LASER? It means Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. The S of Stimulation is unvoiced, yet the S of LASER is voiced.

[Steve the Cynic]

""Graphics" has a hard G, therefore so does the acronym."

As an indicator of acronym pronunciation, the original pronunciation of the letters that form the acronym is not reliable. Consider "laser", commonly pronounced as if spelled "laZer". If you look back at the origins and apply your logic ("Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation"), it should be pronounced as it is spelled, with a soft "s" sound in the middle, but that produces an anomalous pronunciation pattern - a single "s" sandwiched between vowels is normally pronounced as if it is a "z". Oh, and the "a" should be pronounced short like in "hat" - this sounds like the "a" at the beginning of "amplification" .

So by your rule "laser" should be pronounced as if it is spelled more like "lasser"

The conventional pronunciation of a sequence "gi" at the beginning of a word is as if it is "ji", although "git" is one of a number of exceptions. ("Gi" for the angry white pajamas worn by martial artists is merely a loanword whose spelling hasn't been anglicised.)

[Anonymous Coward]

"Consider "laser", commonly pronounced as if spelled "laZer""

Only by Americans. And morons. It's correctly pronounced something much more like 'lay-sir'.

[sisk]

Only by Americans. And morons. It's correctly pronounced something much more like 'lay-sir'.

Actually as English lacks a formal body to define such things (unlike some languages) all regional dialects pronounce things correctly within their own dialect. (Granted some regional dialects are more intelligent sounding than others. While it may be correct in the regional dialect 'Ya'll git in the truck. We're goin' ta the fishin' hole.' doesn't exactly make the speaker sound like a PhD candidate.)

Therefore even the rather absurd pronunciation of 'football' as 'soccer' and 'mutant rugby' as 'football' by Americans is correct when in America. Though personally I think 'handegg' is a more appropriate pronunciation for the mutant rugby game they play over here.

[Jan 0]

@sisk "football as soccer"

Short memories in the UK? When I was growing up in South London, a "football" was something you kicked, "soccer" was a game that you played. (A contraction of Association Football.

[sisk]

Re: @sisk "football as soccer"

@Jan Actually I've never been to the UK. In fact I've rarely been out of Kansas. I'll have to take your word for it.

[Chris Beach]

What? We do have a formal body, getting on a bit now bless her. Her Majesty The Queen. We *should* be speaking the Queen's English you know? :)

However HRH pronounces the word is the correct way.

[M Gale]

"However HRH pronounces the word is the correct way."

Ho? Ow hinteresting.

[Duffy Moon]

Interesting. I've never heard anyone who's not German, pronounce it "lay-sir".

[Intractable Potsherd]

@Duffy Moon

I'm not German, and I tend towards the softer "s" in my pronunciation of "laser", though I use a less pronounced "lay" sound at the beginning - I don't know the format to write it, but the final "ay" sound is flattened - a bit like the sound of "é" in French. I also pronounce a certain Formula 1 driver as "Alonso", not "Alonzo".

Oh, and back on topic - it is obviously a hard "g" in "gif".

[khjohansen]

Probably germane

A German would pronounce it laaser - german vowels being somewhat more consistant!

... now, try *FallschirmjägerGewehr zwei-und-vierzig... ;>

[Michael Strorm]

AC: "Only by Americans. And morons."

As Mark Twain (*) might say "...but you repeat yourself." (^_^)

(*) Yes, I'm aware of the irony of using a quote from an American to insult Americans. Not my fault that Twain was a moron. ;-P

[Ken Hagan]

"The conventional pronunciation of a sequence "gi" at the beginning of a word is as if it is "ji", although "git" is one of a number of exceptions."

Whilst I appreciate the method to your madness, I'm not sure that the exceptions don't out-number the rule-followers in this case.

Giant, giraffe, giblets, gym, ...

Gift, give, gimbal, gimp, gibbon, ...

And pause for a moment to consider a related dispute. The giga- prefix comes from a Greek word with a hard 'g' which in English is 'giant', with a soft 'g'.

I think we just have to go with established practice on this one, so it is hard cheese to this guy and hard 'G's to the rest of us.

[Benchops]

slightly off topic

"I" before "E" except on Old MacDonald's farm.

Is it "VIL-HITTY"?

[khjohansen]

Re: slightly off topic

. .. Except for weird, their, heir, veil etc.

[Kubla Cant]

giga

I say gigabyte with an initial hard {g}, but there seems to be a community for "jigger-bite".

[badger31]

Re: giga

Like one point twenty-one jigger watts?

[Someone Else]

Could it be that...

...after all these years of poking fun, that Emmet "Doc" Brown was right?

[Danny 4]

Re: giga

I've always pronounced giga with a J as in giant, gigantic etc. Isn't that the logical pronunciation?

Does anyone know the pronunciation for the Latin (or is it Greek?) source for these English words? Has the sound of the first G transmuted on its way into English?

Oh yeah, GIF is a hard G - isn't JIF a household cleaning product?

[Jim in Hayward]

Re: giga

JIF is also peanut butter here in the states.

[Irony Deficient]

pronunciation

Danny 4, “logical pronunciation” is almost oxymoronic in English. ;*) English “giga-” and “gigantic” (and thus “giant”) come from the same ultimate source, viz Greek γίγας [gigas], meaning “giant”. In the case of “giant” and “gigantic”, the etymological route was Greek γίγας (genitive γίγαντος [gigantos]) → Latin gigas (genitive gigantos or gigantis*) → Vulgar Latin → Old French geant → Middle English geant → Modern English. Old English had independently imported gigantis from Latin as gigant, for use as both noun and adjective, with the first G pronounced according to Old English expectations, as modern Y; but gigant gave way to “giant” around Shakespeare’s time. The native Old English word for “giant” died out long ago, but Professor Tolkien “resurrected” it by coining an artificially evolved form of it: ent.

For “giga-”, the path is shorter: Greek γίγας → Modern French giga- → Modern English giga-. In French, the first G is pronounced according to French expectations, as English zh, which perhaps influenced the alternative pronunciation of “giga-” with a soft G in English.

The Ancient Greek gamma and the Latin G were both pronounced like a hard G in modern English.

As others have pointed out, Jif in North America is a brand of peanut butter, and its advertising slogan at the time, “Choosy mothers choose Jif!”, undoubtedly influenced Wilhite’s preferred pronunciation.

* — Gigantis is a bit more “native” for Latin. An analogous situation in English would be the two choices for the plural of “stigma”: either “stigmata” (reflecting the original Greek plural form) or “stigmas” (using the native English plural form).

[Roger Varley]

Re: pronunciation

Ironically, in modern greek as spoken here in Cyprus, gamma at the start of a word is pronounced 'y'

[AGR]

Re: giga

They changed the cleaning product to Cif so Spanish-speakers could pronounce it…Could you imagine cleaning things with Hif?

[Pondboy]

Re: giga

So, how to Spaniards pronounce GIF then? It could be GIF, JIF, HIF or CIF - all very confusing.

I once went to a Chinese restaurant in the Netherlands where the waiter had a lisp. Being Chinese, he had trouble pronouncing his L's and R's, speaking Dutch he got his J's, G's and H's mixed up and the lisp pretty much screwed up his S's too. I might call him and ask how he thinks it should be pronounced.

Oh, and on the Gigabyte/Jigabyte thing - do people really say "I've got 8 Jigs of RAM???" Surely not!

[Daniel B.]

1.2 Gigabytes!

Um... isn't "jigabyte" the correct pronunciation? Of course, "jigawatt" for Gigawatt was popularized by "Doc" Brown at least a full decade before we started handling Gigabytes, so probably the pronunciation stuck from those days. Then there's the thing that I'm both an English and Spanish speaker, and Spanish pronunciation of "Gigabyte" uses the Spanish-J pronunciation of G as well.

I actually consider the hard-G usage in Giga- as the odd one.

That said, GIF is hard-G. JIF is Peanut Butter (or was it a cleaning product?)

[Anonymous Coward]

"The conventional pronunciation of a sequence "gi" at the beginning of a word is as if it is "ji", "

apart from the common English word "gift" which shares three of its letters in the correct order with the acronym in question. We're not mispronouncing the word, we're stopping where its been cut-off.

(and the Germans have "Giftig", I wonder how they pronounce .gif ?)

[Chairo]

@ AC 18:57

and the Germans have "Giftig", I wonder how they pronounce .gif ?

The first part is pronounced just the same as the English word "gift". Thus .gif is usually pronounced like "gift" without the "t".

[Shasta McNasty]

Stephen Fry

I think the Reg should ask Stephen Fry for his opinion...

[Glenn Booth]

Twaddle.

@TFD - It's got nothing to do with the English language. It's a name, and you can name things whatever you want - in any language you want. Or even in no language at all (like The Moron Formerly Known as Wotzisname). On top of that, it's an acronym, so all bets are off.

He named it to echo the name of some peanut butter or other.

the 'G' is soft, like in Gin.

Suck it up.

[MJI]

Re: Peanut butter

So lets call it Sunpat then!

[Parax]

So this is a bit of a conundrum.

When exactly did it become Jraphics?

[pewpie]

Ever since Jraphic Park came out.

[Ben Norris]

Say JPEG

Say Photographics

Did you say Jay-Peg or did you say Jay-Feg? The argument that it should be pronounced like graphics is invalid.

[Intractable Potsherd]

Why would I say "Jay-Pheg"? "Photographics" begins with a "p", therefore, "jay-peg".

[Captain Save-a-ho]

25 years too late

Given how long people have been pronouncing GIF with a hard G, this announcement seems really belated (stupidly so).

My first thought was of Harvey Korman trying to correct Mel Brooks: "It's Count de Monet!"

[TheRealRoland]

Re: 25 years too late

It's pronounced 'Fronkensteen'!

[4d3fect]

Re: 25 years too late

...."That's Headley."

[JDX]

Re: 25 years too late

How do you know he hasn't spent 25 years saying this?

[Pirate Dave]

Re: 25 years too late

I've been using a soft "g" for it since the early 90's. I remember reading somewhere in the docs for CompuShow (a popular DOS image viewer back in the day...) that it was pronounced with a soft "g", so that's what I've stuck to. I always assumed those using a hard "g" were newbies.

[Nate Amsden]

Re: 25 years too late

me too, I don't remember where I heard it first pronounced, but I have always been soft g, since early 90s too.

[Not That Andrew]

Re: 25 years too late

And I've assumed the pronunciation is hard G since the early 90's since my daily routine has never included talking about file formats.

[Pirate Dave]

Re: 25 years too late

"my daily routine has never included talking about file formats."

Then why are you on a computer-nerd site talking about file formats? ;)

[Alan Bourke]

Yeah just like REM

didn't stand for Rapid Eye Movement. It's GIF with a hard G, Marathon bars, Opal Fruits, world without end, amen.

[Anonymous Coward]

Are we supposed to call JPEGs Gay-Pejs now as well?

[DavCrav]

Since it stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, I think Jay-Pheg is more correct, for some suitable definition of 'correct'...

Oh, and CMOS should be pronounced commoss, according to this. Personally I call it cee-moss. Anybody?

[hplasm]

Surely...

Yoint Fotojrafix Eexperts Jroup, noe?

[VinceH]

Re: Surely...

"Yoint Fotojrafix Eexperts Jroup, noe?"

You are the Swedish Chef, and I claim my five pounds.

[Anonymous Coward]

No. It's cee-mose.

[Intractable Potsherd]

Why would it be "com-mos"? You only speak what is there - it is a letter "C" ("see") followed by letters that form a a sort of word: "MOS". Therefore, "see-moss" or, at a push, "see-mose" or "see-moz".

[Stevie]

Are we supposed to call JPEGs Gay-Pejs now as well?

It is my understanding that you can't ask and they aren't obliged to answer if you do.

[pctechxp]

I hear

they are planning to change it to cif

I'll get my coat

[LesB]

Giraffics?

Maybe that's what he thought he was playing with?

[Tom 7]

Thats a cleaning fluid

that's now been renamed after a venereal disease....

[Bobthe2nd]

nah mate

Jif is what you clear stuff with my gran still has some in the cupboard, gif is a picture format... end of

[Duffy Moon]

Re: nah mate

I thought Jif was lemon juice packaged in a plastic lemon for people too lazy to squeeze lemons.

I also think it's odd that Linux is supposed to be pronounced "linnux" and not "lynux" since Linus is pronounced "lynus". Perhaps Linus Torvalds pronounces his name "linnus" - I have no idea.

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: nah mate

Just call it Finux and then no-one needs to worry.

Although even there, to pronounce it like that, surely it needs a double 'n' in the middle?

PS - conjratulations to all the El Rej commentards for the quality of the gagsjajs in this thread.

I suppose at least El Reg don't have to care, as Register = Rejister anyway.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: nah mate

> Perhaps Linus Torvalds pronounces his name "linnus" - I have no idea.

He does: http://www.paul.sladen.org/pronunciation/

I am pretty sure Red Hat used this as a sound card test file back in the day.

[Steve the Cynic]

Re: nah mate

"I am pretty sure Red Hat used this as a sound card test file back in the day."

It did. I remember playing it to, um, test the sound setup on my Red Hat boxes, a frighteningly long time ago.

[peyton?]

Re: nah mate

In America, Jif refers to peanut butter. End of story.

Linux is a combination of Linus and MINIX, so it depends on which "i" you want to pronounce ;)

[Don Jefe]

Re: nah mate

Just asked our graphics guy and he's as 'American' as they come. He said jif... Only Europeans say gif according to him. He could have already read the story though. Hard to trust those graphics guys.

[Code Monkey]

Re: nah mate

"Just asked our graphics guy and he's as 'American' as they come. He said jif... Only Europeans say gif according to him. He could have already read the story though. Hard to trust those graphics guys."

But Americans pronounce "autumn" as "fall".

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: nah mate

>Only Europeans say gif according to him.

In my experience, when Americans say "European", they usually mean those other people that aren't American.

So that would be the rest of the world then, AKA the vast majority of the population of the world.

[Don Jefe]

Re: nah mate

No. I assure you the 'American' lexicon is quite filled with distinctive names for the origins of most any people.

[M Gale]

Re: nah mate

"No. I assure you the 'American' lexicon is quite filled with distinctive names for the origins of most any people."

Italian American, Spanish American, Latin American, Irish American, Native American...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "most any"

The 'American' lexicon is also full of utter nonsense, mate.

[SuperTim]

Re: nah mate

I pronounce it like in the word "while" as heard here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqnFnWSYzaQ

[cheveron]

Re: nah mate

> In America, Jif refers to peanut butter. End of story.

Not quite. GIF files are named after Jif. If you accept any pronunciation other than the one intended by the author that makes you a post-modernist. If you're ok with that, then that's ok.

[Kubla Cant]

Re: nah mate

In America, Jif refers to peanut butter. End of story.

You clean the kitchen with peanut butter? Must be messy.

[J.G.Harston]

Re: nah mate

Well, if you wanted to pronounce it lynux, you should have spelt it lynux, or had a vowel-lengthening 'e' somewhere, linux is a short 'i'.

[M Gale]

I want to roll my own distro

Maybe an Ubuntu or a Mint with the backgrounds changed or something.

I'll call it "Linux Linux", just to play with people's heads.

[stratofish]

Re: nah mate

"Well, if you wanted to pronounce it lynux, you should have spelt it lynux, or had a vowel-lengthening 'e' somewhere, linux is a short 'i'."

Like 'pilot'?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: nah mate

"too lazy to squeeze lemons"?

Jif ( "h-iff" for the Spanish? ) tends to last a little longer than having the real thing left about, not get used and start turning that nasty brown colour fruit loves to go when it's bored and feels unloved!

[Justice]

Re: nah mate

Bizarrely, it's now called CIF not JIF.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cif

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: nah mate

And in Turkey CIF is pronounced JIF.

[dajames]

Re: nah mate

And in Turkey CIF is pronounced JIF.

While in Italy CIF is pronounced CHIF.

[Anonymous Coward]

Gif with a hard G it is then.

Now, how the shuddering hell is one supposed to pronounce 'Wilhite'? Will-height? Will-hitty? Whhil-hityay?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Gif with a hard G it is then.

Indeed. Why should we take any notice of someone who can't spell his name righit?

[Richard 120]

Not the first time

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/15/gif_is_pronounced_jif/

Popular opinion generally drives language though, it's hard to change the status quo once it's in general use.

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the Internet is unanimously in agreement that Steve Wilhite is a Jit.

[DavCrav]

That's a bit harsh. He's just wronj.

[graeme leggett]

Wouldn't worry - it's not as if anyone's going to gaol over it....

[Elmer Phud]

re: Wouldn't worry - it's not as if anyone's going to gaol over it...

Bugger -- I just LOLed

[Intractable Potsherd]

Re: re: Wouldn't worry - it's not as if anyone's going to gaol over it...

That should be "Bujjer".

[Anonymous Coward]

> I think the Internet is unanimously in agreement that Steve Wilhite is a Jit.

I think you'll find that he's a gerk

[Shrimpling]

Does anybody use jif's any more?

I thought people used p'nungs instead these days because they can be higher resolutions than jifs and still have the transparent backgrounds?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Does anybody use jif's any more?

I see your p'nungs, and raise you a ping.

[Tom Wood]

Re: Does anybody use jif's any more?

PNGs (pinjs?) can't be animated. Jifs can.

cf. tumblr.

[Charlie Clark]

Re: Does anybody use jif's any more?

PNGs can't be animated. Jifs can.

er, yes, they can But support amongst browsers is sporadic.

[Tom Wood]

Re: Does anybody use jif's any more?

er, not really. As the page you linked to states:

The Animated Portable Network Graphics (APNG) file format is a non-standard extension to the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) specification

It's not really PNG, but a separate extension of the format.

[Steve the Cynic]

Re: Does anybody use jif's any more?

"I thought people used p'nungs instead these days"

I see a lot of PENGs on the Internet myself. Or maybe pee-enjees, depending on how whimsical I'm feeling.

[Fibbles]

Re: Does anybody use jif's any more?

P'nungs are used for transparency these days because they allow for a per-pixel percentage based opacity. Jif allows you to pick one colour that is entirely transparent which means it doesn't support anti-aliasing effects.

Jif is mostly used for animation these days because you can pretty much guarantee support across every device. There are other ways of course, such as using JavaScript, Flash or Canvas.

[Anonymous Coward]

Apologies to Izzard

Ah, you Americans ... we say "Toe-mar-to", you say "toe-may-to" ... you say "erb", we say "herb" ... because it's got a fucking "H" in it ...

Having recently seen the great man, I couldn't resist :)

[Stevie]

Re: Apologies to Izzard

Alnwick. Leicester. Bicester.

Having read the road signs I couldn't resist. 8oP

[Frankee Llonnygog]

Re: Apologies to Izzard

Quite right. In England, although it is spelt GIF, we pronounce it Chumly-Marchbanks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Apologies to Izzard

Reminds me of the time in Sheffield when a Septic came to me with a map, wanting directions to "Loo-gah-bah-roo-gah". Oh, he meant "Luf'bra".

[J.G.Harston]

Re: Apologies to Izzard

Did he want to go via Beau Chef or via Beecheef?

[Intractable Potsherd]

Re: Apologies to Izzard

Just as well he didn't want to go to the place near Huddersfield spelled "Slaithwaite", and pronounced "Slawit".

[Magister]

Re: Apologies to Izzard

How about Woolfardisworthy?

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolfardisworthy,_Torridge)

[JimmyPage]

@Stevie

I saw that and had this brief flicker in minds ear ...

"Kettle, Klutch, Kings Bollege Bambridge. Ah, silly bunt !"

proving that Monty Python were the inspiration for KDE

[Fibbles]

Re: Apologies to Izzard

Having lived in Leicester for a number of years I can assure you that most of the population both pronounces and (sadly,) spells it 'Lesta'.

[Disturbikus]

Re: Apologies to Izzard

Ahhhhhh .... Bicester

[jay margo]

Re: Apologies to Izzard

Ah you Brits, you say "toe-mar-to" ...even though it doesn't have a fucking R in it. (and don't you mean "toe-mar-toe"?)

[pr783]

Re: Apologies to Izzard

The American pronunciation is more like "toe-may-do".

The "herb"/"erb" thing is funny, though doesn't really make a lot of sense because it's not like we pronounce the "h" in "honour"... and I think "erb" was the original pronunciation (taken from French), although if you go back enough centuries, all the "h"s in French were originally pronounced, so in that sense, "herb" with "h" is original.

[Kubla Cant]

Re: Apologies to Izzard

And we also say ghoti.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Apologies to Izzard

> The "herb"/"erb" thing is funny,

Strange thing is that when I hear an American pronounce 'erb it's like they're making some kind of pronunciation statement. It seems usually very overdone.

A particularly noxious example is Dr Crusher from ST:TNG who has to say the word on a number of occasions.

I suspect that it is correct pronunciation (like 'otel) but it sounds kinda wrong.

[Duffy Moon]

Re: Apologies to Izzard

Not to mention pronouncing buoy as "boo-ee". I fell about the first time I heard that.

Herb I can sort of understand, but the American pronunciation of human as "you-man" is puzzling.

[Steve Brooks]

And here I thought I only had trouble pronouncing Asus, or is that Asoos, jrrrrr jive me back my jee.

[Someone Else]

And if yer from Wisconsin,

...it's "Cheese Is Christ".

[Stevie]

Bah!

Apparently he invented the Jraphic Interchange Format then. I don't suppose he mentioned that he lifted the encoding algorithm from Unisys without asking? Thought not.

Daft twat.

[Anonymous Coward]

You guys are just gealous!

Simply because you couldn't come up with this brilliant business strategy which will put the .gif format right back on the map:

• Change pronouncement of product.
• ???
• Profit!

[Lunatik]

Hard G, Mr Wilhite (what sort of name is that anyway?)

And I'll fight anyone who says otherwise.

Same for folk who say "led" instead of Ell-Eee-Dee.

And folk who say "Snezz" instead of Super Nintendo.

If that's wrong I don't want to be right.

[Sorry, "Sorry that handle is already taken" is already taken.]

Re: Hard G, Mr Wilhite (what sort of name is that anyway?)

Folk who say "Snezz" are surely pronouncing the acronym SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System.)

Would it be OK to say "Sness"?

[SuperTim]

Re: Hard G, Mr Wilhite (what sort of name is that anyway?)

What's your take on people who say "LCD Display" then?

[Richard 120]

Re: Hard G, Mr Wilhite (what sort of name is that anyway?)

Re: LCD Display

That's different they're just suffering from RAS Syndrome

[Kubla Cant]

Re: Hard G, Mr Wilhite (what sort of name is that anyway?)

When there's an LCD display it makes it easier to enter your PIN number.

[Someone Else]

Re: Hard G, Mr Wilhite (what sort of name is that anyway?)

They must work for the Dept. of Redundancy Dept.

[MJI]

Re: LCD Display

No it is LCD Panel or LCD Monitor or LCD TV

[Anonymous Coward]

Irrelevant, in a relevant sort of way

What, you mean.....spell 'bolour' with a K?

Yes.

Kolour. Oh thank you, I never thought of that. What a silly bunt.

[Omgwtfbbqtime]

Re: Irrelevant, in a relevant sort of way

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S87mKwgYR6A

Seems appropriate for some reason....

[Richard 120]

Re: Irrelevant, in a relevant sort of way

Thanks, now I'm giggling maniacally to myself.

Khaki, Kettle, Kings Bollege Bambridge

[Laie Techie]

JIFF?

I pronounce GIF with a hard-g to distinguish it from that other graphics format, the JIFF.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: JIFF?

You mean JFIF?

[Jim Carter]

I'm suddenly reminded

Of Mr Doovde from Fonejacker...

[Richard 31]

Cleaning products

gif-jif-cif

Does this mean that over time its name will change to CIF to be in line with European cleaning products?

[Tom_]

Right then

From now on, I'm going to pronounce it "kjife".

And by "from now on" I mean "until about four o'clock".

[Parax]

I think this is all some sort of Gif-Gaff

[mark l 2]

What do you expect, he is an American, they invented the English langauge.

[User McUser]

The correct pronunciation is "P N G"

[This space left intentionally non-blank.]

[Battsman]

I don't give a ---- what Steve says...

If the acronym stands for Graphics Interchange Format, you'd have to be a complete twat to pronounce it with a "J" and I don't give a ---- what twats say or think.

ergo Steve is a twat and I don't give a ---- what he says.

[Tommy Pock]

Inventors shouldn't get to name their own inventions.

"Because it's SUBmerged in a MARINE environment, I've called it my going-under-the-water-safely-device." - Leonard of Quirm.

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's not get everyone started on 'Sequel' either...oh wait I just did.

[Code Monkey]

"Sequel" every time - unless referring to "Microsoft Squeal Server".

[Kubla Cant]

I believe "sequel" reflects the fact that it was originally Structured English Query Language.

But in my experience, Oracle users say "sequel" because it's easier to say "sequel-plus" and "P-L-sequel". Sybase and Microsoft users say "S-Q-L" because it's easier after "Transact".

[Justin Pasher]

Pronouncing acronyms

I'm more confused by the people that feel that an acronym has to be pronounced using the same hard/soft letters as the words it stands for. Using that logic, take these examples:

ASCII - Do you pronounce it uh-ski, since "A" stands for American?

ICANN - Do you call them ih-can, since "I" stands for International?

... just to name a few

[Tom Wood]

Umerican?

I spose Amercians can't even pronounce American properly.

[Piro]

Re: Pronouncing acronyms

"ah"-merican is how I'd say American anyway. But I'm British, what do I know?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Pronouncing acronyms

So, how would you pronounce Colorado?

[Greg D]

This explains...

...why they changed the name of Jif cleaning cream to Cif.

Sorry.

[Anonymous Coward]

folk who say "Snezz" instead of Super Nintendo.

I always pronounced it as "What do you mean we can't play Sonic?"

[Mr. EMan]

It's Pronounced Pittsburra, Pennsylvania

If you invent it, you can decide how it's pronounced. If it's spelled G-I-F and pronounced ba-na-na, so be it. I can't seem to pronounce Edinburgh (or even Edinburjh), so what does it matter?

[PassingStrange]

Re: It's Pronounced Pittsburra, Pennsylvania

You can decide, but you're very lucky if anyone takes any notice. Mostly the larger community ignores you and forms its own consensus through usage and repetition. If the result doesn't happen to match what you wanted - tough.

I'm afraid that's how language works, Mr Wilhite - if the world says "ghif", "ghif" it is. Your opinion simply doesn't count.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: It's Pronounced Pittsburra, Pennsylvania

What about "Hen3ry"? I seem to recall Mr. Lehrer saying that the "3" was silent.

[Anonymous Coward]

No Eadon?

Let me help with this animated Windows jif:

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/2927/examplesz1.gif

[chiller]

My "what a dick" detector went off the scale when I read this article.

[J.G.Harston]

Jaffics Interchange Format?

[VinceH]

Now that just made me think of Jaffa Cakes.

There's probably a good joke to be made out of the idea of a Jaffa-cake Interchange Format, but I've no idea what it is. Although it probably has a smashing orangey bit in the middle.

[M Gale]

Jaffa-cake Interchange Format

I'm sure that's a long rectangular prism shape. Usually made out of cardboard.

There's an extension to the format that allows the transfer of up to a yard of jaffa cakes at once, but it's usually only available around Christmas and Easter.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Jaffa-cake Interchange Format"

Teal'c is not amused.

[Sargs]

And we were supposed to pronounce SCSI as "Sexy"

... but that didn't happen either.

[Anonymous Coward]

However, due to pronunciation problems...

They're changing the extension to .cif soon.

Mine's the raincoat.

[Lee D]

It's a GIF, with a "ger". Anything else is just breaking the most used rules of English.

Git

Gift

Gin

Gilded

Giddy

Gigabyte

Gimbal

Giggle

Girl

I'm hard pressed to think of an English word beginning with "gi" that is pronounced "ji". About the only one I can find is "gibbet" or "ginger", which seem to have come either from French, or which aren't consistent with their etymological pronunciations / spellings of old. 99% of the time, it's "ger".

And, sorry, but "jif" just sounds stupid, even if you aren't used to that being a cleaning product. Particularly when the G is for Graphics. Instruct someone to drop down a list of file format... "GIF" and they'll go to G. "JIF" and they'll go to J (and end up on JPEG!). JFIF, now that I grant you is a J. But it's also pretty unpronouncable (Jay-Fifth).

I don't really care what he thinks. It's about 20 years too late and "GIF" now means "animated image I see on Tumblr because it's allowed and is smaller for short clips in 8-bit that have been converted from MPEG", and not much else. And there hasn't been a change or an extension to the GIF format since 1989, PNG basically knocked it out of the ballpark and surpassed it in everything but animation (and APNG is technically superior, because GIF animation is a MESS, but unused because GIF is "good enough").

Every time someone gets pedantic over the pronunciation of a made-up word, I feel it's my duty to take the opposing position.

SCSI being "scuzzy" still annoys me.

PXE being "pixie" I hate (but it does allow jokes about "pixie UNDI's").

SATA is still, definitely, "Sarter" (not "Satter").

And FLV is a "floov" in my opinion.

You have to have a way to pronounce these things, and if you've never seen them before, you will pronounce them simply. And thus, NOBODY who speaks native English will naturally try to pronounce GIF as JIF without having heard that from some idiot first.

[pewpie]

Is that a who gottle of gin? Or gust a jlass?

[Darryl]

RE: SATA is still, definitely, "Sarter" (not "Satter").

Where'd all those R's come from?

[graeme leggett]

Re: RE: SATA is still, definitely, "Sarter" (not "Satter").

all the Rs

Think of the differences between "castle" and "bath" north and south across the UK.

[Ben Norris]

The next thing that will blow your mind is that Gigabyte is also meant to be pronounced Jigabyte. Hence the 1.21 Gigawatts quote from Doc Brown.

giant

ginger

giraffes

gin

gigahertz/byte/watt/etc

gibberish

gipsy

ginseng

giblets

gibe

[M Gale]

Funnily enough, I look at "ger" and think "geranium", "germanium", "German" and "Geronimo".

Or Gerald.

In fact "Gertrude" is about the only "ger" word I can think of that pronounces things in the same way as gif.

Yes, gif. Jif is what goes in pancakes. Especially on Jif Lemon Day.

[Disturbikus]

Ah but your forgetting Tony the tiger's famous quote "Theyyyyy're gerrrrrrrrrraphically interchangeable"

[Anonymous Coward]

Gilbert, Gifford, Gordon, Girton

girth, girl, gizzard, giggle, gird

but not Giacomo, Gironde, gipsy or gin.

[Stevie]

SATA is still, definitely, "Sarter" (not "Satter").

Round here it is pronounced "SAY ta". Rules of English. First vowel says its name. (Mrs Shuttleworth, Parkgate Infants Indoctrination Centre and Internment Facility).

[khjohansen]

Re: SATA is still, definitely, "Sarter" (not "Satter").

... As in "water", "father" and "famous"?

A few vowels short of a full set.

Ar'll git mei kööt!

[jay margo]

There's another reason we don't say "jif"

Over here in the Untied States we have a very popular (and very crappy) peanut butter called Jif, which existed long before GIF files ever occurred to Mr Wilhite. If you say "jif file" to me you might as well be saying "peanut butter file".

[Disturbikus]

Cue Graham Chapman:

"Lucky we didn't say anything about the dirty JPEG"

[Anonymous Coward]

guh-pehj?

[davidp231]

Sounds Klingon....

"guh-pehj?"

Qapla'!

[Tom 7]

Throat Warbler Mangrove

or is that another bloody programming paraglider?

[Anonymous Coward]

Gigi

So, tell me everyone...if you pronounce GIF with a hard G, how do pronounce Gigi? Hard G as well?

It's a soft G because there's a I after it, and GIF is pronounced phonetically (not based on the meaning of the abbreviation).

[Richard 120]

Re: Gigi

Are you some kind of cheese eating surrender monkey?

It's a hard G because it's English.

[Darryl]

Re: Gigi

"It's a soft G because there's a I after it" - Just like in Git, Give, Gift, Gimp, Gig

[cheveron]

Giraffe or Jiraffe?

There is no "correct" pronunciation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation

[pr783]

Acronyms' pronunciations are not based on the original words

Why does everyone think that? It's never worked that way.

ROM isn't "Rome". WYSYWIG isn't unpronounceable. CUNY isn't pronounced with an "s", even though it's the City University of New York.

Normally, a C before E, I, Y, or a G before E, I, Y, is pronounced soft - like S or J respectively. That said, there are so many exceptions (to the G rule especially) - "get" and "give", for instance - that it's difficult for Team Jif to rely on the rules of the English language to support their case.

But all these people saying that "Jif" means we have to say "Jraphics" are lunatics.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Acronyms' pronunciations are not based on the original words

....and that is why Asdic is pronounced "Sonar"

[Stevie]

But all these people saying that "Jif" means we have to say "Jraphics" are lunatics.

Says the commentator with a serial number for a name. Wubble, sir (or madam), wubble!

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm saddened

where is Eadon having a go at windows in a completly unrealted post? C'mon boy, your slacking....

WINDOZE GIF MEMORY HUNGRY VIRUS FAIL.

Nah, just not quite right...

[Anonymous Coward]

And we're to take the word of someone whose own surname appears to be incorrect?

[Miffo]

Logic and opinions don't control pronunciation ...

...just like spelling.

The one that is "correct" is the one that people use. A dictionary will change if enough people spell something a certain way. This normally upsets certain types of people. :-)

[Steve I]

I didn't know there was a debate...

...I've always pronounced it 'jif'.

[scruncher]

Jigger my giblets

I've never heard so much gibberish. I've always pronounced it Jif and I'm Brijish. I'm just pleased to see the word 'acronym' being used rightfully for once!

[Mostly_Harmless]

it's Gif I tell you

When I select File->Open in my copy of PaintShop Pro, it offers me a variety of file formats, including...

CompuServe Graphics Interchane (.gif)

JPEG - JFIF Compliant (*.jpg, *.jif, *.jpeg)

...so I'd take that as meaning JIF is a different type of file format to a GIF.

Also Graphics (that being what the G stands for" is pronounced as a hard G, and not as a j)

[ecofeco]

Dammit!

So I was right all along!

[Piro]

Honestly, I don't care if the inventor calls it "jif"

The G means Graphics, hard G is a more comfortable way to say it, language evolves, deal with it.

[Alasdair Russell]

Say what you see

At the Webbies this guy puts up his 5 word message as:

It's pronounced "JIF" not "GIF"

surely the sane response is

Then why's it spelt "GIF"?

[A A]

As a former CompuServe employee...

I can tell you that everyone that I worked with at CompuServe pronounced it with a soft G.

[Stevie]

Re: As a former CompuServe employee...

Compuserve? Didn't that have valves in it when it was relevant?

[jake]

@Stevie (was: Re: As a former CompuServe employee...)

The word you were looking for is "tubes". As in "vacuum tubes". Named after the lack of air pressure therein. "Valves" shunt fluids about.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: @Stevie (was: As a former CompuServe employee...)

@jake

valves shunt flows

and thermionic valves shunt electrons.

[jake]

@AC:10:11 (was: Re: @Stevie (was: As a former CompuServe employee...))

They are still vacuum tubes, no matter how you squint at it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: @AC:10:11 (was: @Stevie (was: As a former CompuServe employee...))

Generally:

Tubes = US

Valve = UK

Try travelling out of your back water and learn how the rest of the world speaks

[Herby]

Choosy mothers chose JIF

Sorry, its an American ad for peanut butter, and the brand is 'JIF'.

Me? hard G for me!

[Daniel B.]

Re: Choosy mothers chose JIF

So my memory *wasn't* off track! JIF immediately made me think about peanut butter, even though I haven't seen JIF since 2001...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Choosy mothers chose JIF

Lucky you, Daniel. My GF and her kids like JIF.

[Someone Else]

Tumblr's DOOMED (more so than they think...)

On this side of the pond, where no corporate entity ever met a lawsuit they didn't like, we may now be submitted to the spectacle of Tumblr being sued by a peanut-butter company.

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: Tumblr's DOOMED (more so than they think...)

Tumblr haven't even got a pronounceable name. And should be sued for cruelty to consonants or not paying for their allotted number of vowels first.

[Ben Norris]

It was always 'jif'

It is amazing that even in the face of irrefutable evidence of the way it should be pronounced, people still prefer to stubbornly defend their incorrect way rather than admit that they were mistaken.

Yes there are words like giant and gifts that could lead you to pronounce it either way, but as soon as you find out the way it is supposed to be said then you are a fool to continue saying it incorrectly.

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: It was always 'jif'

Just tell that to the French who still will insist on saying le weekend. Just because they're too lazy to say fin de la semaine like good little boys like they're supposed to.

Although I was a fan of the officially approved click for online. Many websites label their buttons with cliquez, which is a bit icky. Whereas the non-stolen-from-english option is tirez. Which means fire/shoot (as in gun).

[Stevie]

Re: It was always 'jif'

If it annoys Ben Norris, I'm for it. Gif gifgifgifgfifgifgifgifgifgfifgifgifgifgifgfifgifgifgifgifgfifgifgifgifgifgfifgifgifgifgifgfifgif

[David Glasgow]

chronosynclastic infundibulum?

I read the same story months ago. Did it result in anyone changing pronunciation?

He might as well write an anti glacier book instead..... (or a pro-jlacier book).

[davidp231]

Wasn't JIF....

...a popular cleaning product now known as CIF? (because it's called that elsewhere (most of Europe I believe) - us in the UK had to follow suit). How long before we see animated CIFs?

On another note.. jiddejey jiddejey joo.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Wasn't JIF....

Bring back Marathon bars and Dime bars. Snickers and Daim are just wrong.

[heyrick]

“They are wrong. It is a soft ‘G,’ pronounced ‘jif.’ End of story.”

Want it said with a J? Then spell it with a J, twat.

It is completely logical to say GIF - hard G, like Google or gotcha or perhaps even the word it is supposed to represent, Graphics.

You say the acronym in full, Graphics Interchange Format, there is nothing in there that implies a soft-G pronunciation other than pretentiousness. Wiki expands on the reasoning: something to do with a peanut butter brand/advert (it, itself, spelled with a 'J', note) which would mean bugger-all to anybody not from America.

[Ben Norris]

Re: “They are wrong. It is a soft ‘G,’ pronounced ‘jif.’ End of story.”

Your logic is incorrect. You don't say JFEG instead of JPEG do you?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: “They are wrong. It is a soft ‘G,’ pronounced ‘jif.’ End of story.”

How do you say the word Giraffe then?

There are plenty of instances where words and names starting with GI are said JI.

[heyrick]

Re: “They are wrong. It is a soft ‘G,’ pronounced ‘jif.’ End of story.”

Yes, there are words with a soft G. However to take an acronym from a hard G word, pronounce it 'differently' because of an in-joke, then complain when those of us that pronounce it logically...

Still, it is a non-issue for me, .PNG FTW. ;-)

[Henry Wertz 1]

I always pronounced it "jif"

I always pronounced it "jif". The thing is, though, I used them back on the '80s on Compuserve, and so did not actually talk to anyone (as opposed to reading text) who knew what a GIF was for like 10 years. They of course pronounced it "gif" (like "gift" without the "t"). I didn't realize there was a single developer who had a definitive pronounciation. Welp, I guess I was right then hahaha.

[graeme leggett]

thanks be to my local library's subscription to the OED

I can reveal that the pronounciation is recorded in the lexicographer's literature as

Brit. /dʒɪf/ , /ɡɪf/ , U.S. /ɡɪf/ , /dʒɪf/

which I understand to mean that it thinks we Brits say "jif" rather than "gif" and our north American cousins say "gif" rather than "jif". (which I doubt)

Apparently there's also a conjunction "gif" last heard somewhere in Yorkshire meaning "if".

and theres "Giffgaff - the mobile network run by you" (damn those adverts in the middle of The Big Bang Theory.

[Dave 62]

erm..

am I the only one who distinctly remembers this being reported in the past?

[Ben Norris]

Re: erm..

In the past the register did an inconclusive story to stir up an argument like the trolls they are :) This time the author of the standard is definitively telling you the right way to say it.

[David Glasgow]

Re: erm..

You are correct ( as I posted above) that this story has been run before. Not just the debate, but the allegedly authoritative declaration of how GIF should be said. It made bugger all difference the first time round, and it won't be any different this time.

So 95% say it wrong, do we? <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=.jif%20alert> . Sadly for the JUH crew, it's all way too late. That kind of majority current pronunciation condemns the JUH usage to an interesting historical footnote. Logic and authority don't come into it.

[Ben Norris]

Re: erm..

the hard g crew are still the minority. They just make so much fuss that it seems the other way. Most people know how to say it correctly

[Mitoo Bobsworth]

Jet real

The g in 'graphic' is a hard g, so I will continue to say Gif - I'm not goking.

[MarkM]

While we're at it ...

I thought this was settled years ago, but I still hear the unwashed masses, er, "other people", say "LIE nucks" instead of the officially mandated "LIN ucks".

To those of you saying it wrong; please stop.

There. I said it. That's my pedantry out of the way for the next 10 years.

Hole.Crawl("MarkM");

[Cameron Colley]

Re: While we're at it ...

Actually, it's pronounced Lee-nuks to sound like the name of its creator. There's a sound file out there and everything.

[Not That Andrew]

Re: While we're at it ...

Actually, Linus Torvarlds doesn't give a damn how you pronounce Linux .

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: While we're at it ...

That's because Linux was created by a guy called Linus. Which you tend to pronounce Lie-nus.

[Gene Cash]

Jiffy Girls!

Does anybody remember the Jiffy Girls from USENET, especially Jenny? Phwoar... they taught me the right way to say it.

[LordHighFixer]

Bow to the creator

He made it, he can call it what he wants, just like your child (for those of you who have manufactured one, or at least made the attempt). I still call him little Johnny Tables even though there is some funny punctuation in his name. Also, when did Sean (seen) become and acceptable spelling of Shaun or Shawn. If I invent something and spell it hjuqob and insist it is pronounced Bob, suck it up and live with it.

[M Gale]

Re: Bow to the creator

Because Seán is Irish, not English, and the pronunciation rules are different?

Of course you can use the lightly-anglicised "Sean" or the heavily-anglicised variants such as "Shaun" and "Shawn" if you want.

[Dave 62]

Re: Bow to the creator

OHEMEFGEE.

I just came back here to see if anyone had said anything about the other thing when I saw this "Shaun" thing.

Lolwat?

also:

>hurr look at me XKCD joke xDxDxD

¬_¬

[NomNomNom]

shit can't believe I just waded through four pages of IT nerds trying to force written and pronounced english to conform to the same rules.

"If machines can't understand it, it can't make sense!"

[Anonymous Coward]

Shurely you mean four pajes?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm Australian

and I'll pronounce it any damn way I like. Usually by sticking an "o" on the end.

[Cameron Colley]

Surely it's pronounced "yiff"?

Like gift?

[M Gale]

Re: Surely it's pronounced "yiff"?

Only in the fuzzier parts of the Interwebs.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not Jif it's Cif now, they rebadged it.

Pretty sure I used to say JIF until a friend corrected me and said it's GIF.

[Mako]

This reminds me of the whole "SCSI" pronounciation debacle.

The inventors wanted it to be pronounced "sexy". Inevitably, anyone who came across the acronym in print pronounced it "scuzzy", (unless they were management, in which case they called it "Ess Cee Ess Eye").

I admire the effort, but there are some fights you just can't win, Mr. Wilhite.

[jake]

Would you PLEASE remove that fucking blinking icon!

GAWD/ESS, that is annoying ...

And it's been "gif", not "jif" all over SillyConValley, for as long as I can remember.

Not that I give a rat's ass, it's a horrible file format that I avoid wherever possible. I can't remember the last time I vocalized it ... probably 1996-ish, or thereabouts.

[CrashM]

Does this mean in the rest of europe they are called CIFs?

[ChazEgli]

People with a lot of time on their hands

So that gives us Jeorge, jenerate, jeneral, etc, etc. It's too dam ridiculous to even be discussing The guy invented .gif and pronounced it jif so what's the prob.

I do, however, wonder why some people pronounce species as speshies. Must be an invisible h in there somewhere. According to 'The Oxford' both pronunciations are correct. Beets me.

[Irony Deficient]

species

ChazEgli, in my case, I pronounce species as speshies rather than spesies because I pronounce special as speshal rather than spesial.

[ChazEgli]

Re: species

Too true mate

[Rob Crawford]

Since when does anybody

take pronunciation lessons from Americans ?

From the country who pronounces Colin as of it's part of the intestines.

No doubt they have semicolins too

What next spelling lessons?

[jake]

Re: Since when does anybody

"take pronunciation lessons from Americans ?"

Well ... quite frankly, 90% of the technical lingo involved with your computing needs probably was invented in the USofA's North East or Silly Con Valley ... We invented it, we get to name it, and spec the pronunciation (it's called a "rowter" not a "rooter", for example).

Don't like that fact? Invent better product.

Carry on, all :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Since when does anybody

Utter bollocks.

In proper English (i.e. British English), if you say "rowter" you're talking about a power tool that carves shapes out of wood. The pronunciation for a network routing device is "rooter".

[Medical Cynic]

Clean-up

I though JIF was now called CIF !

But as it's a contraction of 'Graphics', surely it should retain the hard G in the abbreviation? Or should graphics have a soft G [danger of confusion with reticulated-skinned creatures with long necks!

[Anonymous Coward]

I have nothing significant to add to this discussion, except that at present the comment count is 255, making this number 256.

Which seemed appropriate.

Oh and it's GIF (as in GIFT) by the way!

[MayorBoris]

Déja-vu

Thank goodness, I though I was losing my mind. This whole thread, almost verbatim, seems to have happend already 6 months ago. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/15/gif_is_pronounced_jif/

[Captain Scarlet]

Gif pronounced Jif

So we have Gif as Jif and Jif renamed to Cif.

THIS MADNESS MUST STOP!

[Jerky Jerk face]

If it was JIF it would be called .jif

as title.

simples!

[Glenn Booth]

'twas ever thus

Been saying 'jif' for years (and not for the kitchen cleaner). If I ever really wanted to shine people on, I'd call it 'Compuserve Jif' (spelling changed for clarity). If I remember correctly the pronunciation was the subject of a Compuserve FAQ once upon a time.

[JLV]

storm in a teacup?

Given the number of exceptions to pronunciation in English (US or implied-Brit version), surely the inventor could be forgiven if he prefers to have it one way rather than the other?

FWIW, on the Canadian side of the pond, I've only ever heard it as JIF.

Useless trivia: in Dutch, GIF means poison. Pronounced with the typical Dutch "g" sound that makes German sound melodious in comparison ;-)

[Ben Rosenthal]

Yeah sure guy, we'll all call it whatever you say.................................................lol jk, not really, GIF GIF GIF GIF GIF GIF

[stuartnz]

The last word

Will never be spoke, but Stan Carey is, as always, excellent on this very issue

http://stancarey.wordpress.com/2013/05/24/you-can-pronounce-gif-any-way-you-like/

[Onid]

it's neither..

The G originates from Graphic. - Graphic originates from a greek word. in Greek it's written γραφικό the first letter is a gamma - but there is no such sound in the english language the closest would be the beginning sound of the word Yiddish

So if we go with the ancient origin of the word it would be closer to go for (but still inaccurate).

yif

fyi in greece everyone calls it gif ...though not saying they invented it but it's their word.

[Tilman Ahr]

Gott IM Himmel. Soviel Zeit muss sein...

[cortland]

Da zdravitz!

[cortland]

And at least on THIS gig

... it's "jigaHertz" and "jigaByte" too. Per Tektronix, anyway. Jo to it!

More honored in the breach, etc.

[Emacs The Viking]

erbs and alfwits

I think Americans def. take great pride in being "not English" and maybe it all goes back to the tea thing. Regardless of why they do it, I can no longer listen to Americans on television, in fact I barely watch it anyway.

No longer can my English ear stand to hear things like: "erbs" instead of herbs. Of late, one of the absolute worst offenders IMHIWMFAA (IMHO which means f* all anyway) is Ina Gartner, aka The Barefoot Contessa. She comes out with some real classics, "erb" and "origenno" being the two most oft heard utterances but also we have "p-cans (pecan nuts)", "feelay" (fillet), "soss (sauce)" and the best one yet, "rizzodo" (risotto) pronounced with a heavy D like it's special.

What really irks me is that I know she knows how to pronounce them really because sometimes she slips up and says the words "properly" and the reverts to some kind of TV speak. TV has ruined us. Mary Whitehouse must be constantly turning in her grave wearing her "I told you so" T.

Some of it is down to dialect I know but there are times when you just know she's doing it to be different. That's not bad in itself but I personally have to leave the room, don't ask me why. Maybe I am the one with the problem. Maybe I need closure?