Pronunciation of GIF

The pronunciation of GIF in the English language has been perennially disputed. GIF, an acronym that stands for Graphics Interchange Format, is popularly pronounced as a one-syllable word. The two competing pronunciations are /dʒɪf/, with a soft g as in 'gin', and /ɡɪf/, with a hard g as in 'gift'. Many public figures and institutions have taken sides in the debate.

Steve Wilhite's slide at the 2013 Webby Awards
The White House's account on Tumblr posted a humorous infographic that indicated that GIF was to be pronounced with a hard g.

Background

The Graphics Interchange Format, or GIF, is an image file format developed in 1987 by Steve Wilhite at the American online service provider CompuServe. GIFs are popularly used to display short, looped animations.[1]

The acronym GIF, which is commonly pronounced with a single syllable, has a disputed pronunciation. Some pronounce the word with a hard g (i.e. /ɡɪf/), sometimes justifying it on the basis that the word for which the letter stands, graphics, also uses a hard g.[2] Others pronounce it with a soft g (i.e. /dʒɪf/). Wilhite and the team that developed the file format included in the specifications that it was to be pronounced with a soft g, writing that "choosy programmers choose ... 'jif'", in a homage to the peanut butter company Jif's advertising slogan of "choosy moms choose Jif".[3] The controversy stems partly from the fact that there is no general rule for how gi is pronounced, with the hard g prevailing in words such as 'gift', and the soft g being used in others such as 'gin'. In Old English, g would make the soft g sound as well as y's consonant sound, and when the hard g was added, both its hard and soft variations persisted when followed by i.[3]

An informal poll on Stack Overflow showed that respondents in the United States slightly favored the hard g pronunciation. Respondents in countries such as Russia, Sweden, and Germany more heavily favored the hard g, while those in France, Egypt, and India generally used the soft g.[4] The debate was described by The New York Times in 2013 as "decades old".[1]

History

In May 2013, Wilhite was presented with a lifetime achievement award at the annual Webby Awards ceremony. Wilhite's speech upon winning was a five-word slide that read "It's pronounced 'jif' not 'gif'".[1] The audience reacted positively to this short speech, but it generated much more attention on the Internet, where some pushed back against Wilhite's pronunciation of his file format. Over 17,000 tweets were made in the aftermath of the speech, and over 50 news articles were written on it,[1] including an article from Casey Chan, writing for Gizmodo, outright arguing that Wilhite was wrong because soft-g words followed by "if" already existed, spelled with the letter "j".[5] The New York Times faced some light criticism later that year for an article that began with the words "A GIF, pronounced jif, is a compressed image file format invented in 1987".[6]

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. Trebek read out the responses of contestants using a soft g when the word "GIF" appeared in the correct responses of all three contestants.[7]

In June 2014, Barack Obama, then-president of the United States, opined that the word was pronounced with a hard g when prompted to in a chat with David Karp, the founder of Tumblr. The Daily Dot highlighted a Tumblr post from the White House's blog in April of the same year, which contained an infographic with the text "Animated GIFs (hard 'g')", and quipped that "it's a hard 'g', as in 'government oversight'".[8]

After Wilhite's speech in 2013, the peanut butter company Jif responded to a tweet asking how they were feeling by replying "We're nuts about him today".[1] In February 2020, Jif performed a publicity stunt with GIF hosting platform Giphy. The two companies released a joint statement, arguing that the correct pronunciation employs a hard g and releasing limited-time jars of peanut butter labeled "GIF" instead of "JIF".[9]

Dictionaries

Dictionary.com[10] lists both the hard and soft g, indicating the latter as the primary pronunciation, while Cambridge Dictionary of American English[11] offers only the hard-g pronunciation. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary[12] and Oxford Dictionaries list both pronunciations.[13][14][15][16] The New Oxford American Dictionary gave only the soft-g pronunciation in its 2nd edition[17] but added the other pronunciation in the next edition, listing the soft-g pronunciation first.[18]

See also

References
  1. O'Leary, Amy (May 23, 2013). "Battle Over 'GIF' Pronunciation Erupts". The New York Times. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  2. Rodruiguez, Salvador (June 15, 2012). "GIF's 25th birthday: Is it pronounced 'gif' or 'jif'? [Poll]". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  3. Greenfield, Rebecca (February 1, 2011). "Tech Etymology: Animated GIF". The Atlantic. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  4. "How do you pronounce "GIF"?". The Economist. June 29, 2017. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  5. Chan, Casey (May 21, 2013). "The Creator of the GIF Says It's Pronounced JIF. He Is Wrong". Gizmodo. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  6. Bump, Philip (October 22, 2013). "If You Pronounce GIF with a Hard G, You Must Be New to the Internet". The Wire. Archived from the original on June 16, 2014. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  7. Rothberg, Daniel (December 4, 2013). "'Jeopardy' wades into 'GIF' pronunciation battle". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  8. Klee, Miles (June 13, 2014). "Obama to America: Pronounce 'GIF' with a hard 'G'". The Daily Dot. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  9. Ritzen, Stacey (February 25, 2020). "Jif peanut butter and Giphy have joined forces on how to pronounce 'GIF'". The Daily Dot. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  10. "GIF". Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  11. "GIF". The Cambridge Dictionary of American English. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved February 19, 2014.
  12. "Gif – Definition from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. Retrieved June 6, 2013.
  13. "GIF". Oxford Dictionaries Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved October 7, 2014.
  14. "gif noun – Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary". Oxford Learner's Dictionaries. Retrieved February 6, 2021.
  15. "GIF | Definition of GIF by Oxford Dictionary". Lexico. Retrieved February 6, 2021.
  16. Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010). Oxford Dictionary of English (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199571123. OCLC 729551189.
  17. The New Oxford American Dictionary (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. 2005. p. 711.
  18. The New Oxford American Dictionary (3rd ed.). 2012. (part of the Macintosh built-in dictionaries).
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