this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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Just a few examples that come to mind. Additionally, the pronunciation of the individual words included in an acronym DOES NOT determine the pronunciation of that acronym. See SCUBA as an example.
Good and very informative, thank you.
I'm still gonna pronounce it (G)IF though.
This, and Gig Git Girl Gibbon Gift Gill Giddy Gigahertz Gimmick Gizzard
As long as you don't shame others with reasons that don't make sense, you can pronounce it gif for all I care
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iafa959JvY - Literally this but with any example either way depending on what side you're on.
It's GIF. Just because you create something doesn't mean you aren't fucking dumb. Eventually, it's no longer yours anyway lol.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=9iafa959JvY
https://piped.video/watch?v=9iafa959JvY
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
Counterpoint: Gift
Literally has gif in it and is pronounced with a hard 'g'.
We don’t pronounced words by what other words they contain. “Americano” is not “American+o.” “Fare” is not “far+e.”
~~For some reason, the hard G advocates for “gif” seem to make up fake language rules to justify pronouncing it wrong.~~
Do you have any examples of words changed by adding a consonant? Additional vowels in words, such as your examples, usually change how a word is pronounced
Also, your attack in the second paragraph is unneeded and contributes nothing to the debate. If an argument cannot be based on logic alone, I ask that you do not make it.
Tom and tomb
And I agree, I’ll remove it.
I acknowledge that you fulfilled my request but personally remain unconvinced using those examples. Tom is generally a nickname for Thomas and borrows pronunciation from that.
However I did remember the words kin and kind but there's also tin and tint. So I'm just going to declare English overall as highly inconsistent and silly, will still pronounce gif with a hard g, but recognize that you have a different point of view. 🙂
Tom is a name for a male animal.
“Bot” and “both” may be more your style. Or, to stick with g, “gin” has a soft g while “gink” has a hard g.
LOL, arguing about English pronunciation based on spelling? Really?
Friend this is the internet, if you're seriously expecting 0 trash-talk with your discussions then you're in the wrong place.
Counter counter point. The inventor of the gif said it’s pronounced like the peanut butter. It’s already been settled.
Just because somebody who made a word wants to pronounce it a certain way doesn't mean that's others will pronounce it.
Heck, look at the at history of the word tomato. Came from the native Nahuatl word tomatl, which was changed to tomate for Spanish and then tomato for English. The British are closer to both the native Nahuatl and Spanish pronunciations of the word but few Americans will say it as "tuh-maa-tow".
I mean that’s literally how it works. You pronounced the peanut butter with a soft J. You probably pronounce Lyft as Lift and JoS A Bank as Joseph A Bank. What a company chooses to name its product (gif was a product trying to be sold to software devs) they can choose however they want it to be pronounced. If you stop thinking of gif as a normal word and more as a product that was and continues to be sold then it makes a lot more sense why they literally gave it a catchphrase; “choosy developers choose gif”
JPEG is the best direct example. Who pronounces the F sound?
For your SCUBA example, is it the U you're talking about?
Underwater vs oonderwater?
Scuhba vs Scooba?
Scuhba has me laughing.
Also, the A stands for Apparatus, so it should be scuhbah since it's Apparatus, not uhpparatus
Yep the U. Scubba dubba doo!
OBJECTION!!
First and foremost, pronounced Gif there
Graphics Interchange Format. Not Jraphics. Unless you spell it out as Jee-Ai-Eff
Also, git isn't spelled "jit", it's not "jit gud", nor "jit hub". Other examples that would be wrong: jirl, jirth, jiddy, jirder, jingko
Most of the 'ji' sounding words are rooted from other languages, mostly French (some of them brought over from Latin). Finally, languages where 'ge' and 'gi' sound like 'je' and 'ji' say 'Gif'
By that logic, "scuba" should be pronounced scuh-ba, and "laser" should be pronounced lah-seer.
Also "jee" is also how you say the letter "G".
Gin, Germany, giraffe, gypsy, gib, giblet. Raising examples of words that start with hard and soft Gs is absolutely pointless when both exist and are equally valid.
Why are people arguing about how an acronym is pronounced in the English language anyways? Who gives a shit? When you point out a "rule" in English, there will always be exceptions, many exceptions, to that rule. Even English doesn't even agree with English: "entree" means appetizer in Europe but main course in the US.
So why do you care so much?