Word wonks insist GIFs are really JIFs
Not content with somehow managing to proclaim ‘GIF’ the USA’s word of the year for 2012, the lexicographers at Oxford Dictionaries now insist that the correct pronunciation of the word does not use a hard g, as in golf. The dictionary chose GIF as its word of the year because the USA has gone GIF-crazy. Making satirical GIFs of …
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Is this *actual* news - as in currently happening in2012?
Who uses Gifs nowadays and what happened to bring them to the attention of the OED?
*Animated* GIFs
MNGs haven't really taken off so this crappy format is still all over the place.
Observe: https://plus.google.com/s/%23gif
Pronouncing thing that begin with a G as a J???
Your avin a Jiraffe!
I always pronounced "jif" because g before i has a j sound. Giraffe, gin, give. Oh wait, ignore that last one.
Maybe we should just say GEE-EYE-EFF and be done with it.
Huh?
I always pronounced it 'jiff' - if anyone uses a hard 'g', I've not met them.
Re: Huh?
Funny that... I've never met anyone who pronounces it as jiff. Regional variations perhaps?
Re: Huh?
Where in the world do you live where you've only ever heard it pronounced that way?
Re: Huh?
Been using GIF since at least 1990..
Never heard jiff until the mid-2000's.
Re: Huh?
You know the "g" stands for "graphics"? Or do you pronounce that as "jraphics"?
Re: "g" for "graphics"
Q: Or do you pronounce that as "jraphics"?
A: I do if I've just created an amusing picture of a rather tall even-toed ungulate mammal of African origin.
Re: "g" for "graphics"
Here here. GIF. Hard G. If it was a soft G, it would be a .jif file.
Anyway, someone needs a huj.
Re: Huh?
This. Exactly. Hard G. G for Golf.
Graphics Interchange Format.
Re: Huh?
I used to say 'jif' when I first encountered it but then I heard everyone else saying 'GIF' and it seemed to make more sense that way (NW England).
Jif to us is either a lemon juice in a squeezy bottle or a kitchen cleaner (although that now goes by the name of Cif)...
jraphics?
Wasn't there a movie (or three) about a load of these living in a park on an isolated island somewhere?
Re: Huh?
"I always pronounced it 'jiff' - if anyone uses a hard 'g', I've not met them."
Have you met anyone who pronounces it either way? No one really talks file types in general conversation.
Re: Huh?
Not general, "fancy a pint down the pub?" conversation maybe, but for me, as a former tech in an arts and print college, we'd come across it all the time. Like in conversations with DTP lecturers, web designers, students, commercial print clients...
Re: Huh?
Jif to us is either a lemon juice in a squeezy bottle or a kitchen cleaner (although that now goes by the name of Cif)...
Is that pronounced Kif or Sif? :)
Re: Huh?
Jif to us is either a lemon juice in a squeezy bottle or a kitchen cleaner (although that now goes by the name of Cif)...
Is that pronounced Kif or Sif? :)
No - but if we started calling it .JIF, we would soon have to change it to .CIF to keep the Germans happy.
Re: Huh?
"Is that pronounced Kif or Sif? :)"
I'm now open to the possibility that the thing I've sprayed coffee all over is pronounced "seyboard".
Re: Huh?
> although that now goes by the name of Cif
Pronounced with a hard 'C' of course :D
Re: Huh?
"Jif to us is either a lemon juice in a squeezy bottle or a kitchen cleaner (although that now goes by the name of Cif)..."
Ah yeah Cif. Sounds like one particular STD (STI for the younger generation I believe) - A disease - that's what GIFs will be to the web if their poxy 256 colours make a comeback, except for misplaced nostalgia of course.
Re: STD.
You speak for yourself & your new generation. STD stands for that number you dial to telephone someone in another area. :)
One could always ask Doc Brown
He pronounced giga-watts as jigawatts which is the wrong way as well. Of course I sometimes call then giggle watts, or speeds of current processors as giggle hertz.
Re: One could always ask Doc Brown
giggle watts is how much energy you put out when you're tickled.
Re: One could always ask Doc Brown
Jodie Foster ruined the movie 'Contact' when she mispronounced "primer" as "primmer".
Re: One could always ask Doc Brown
And Stephen Rea ruins "V for Vendetta" by inexplicably pronouncing "lever" as "levver". After all that effort trying to get Natalie Portman to talk proper like what we does.
Re: One could always ask Doc Brown
And I always pronounced fsck as "fuck suck"
Re: One could always ask Doc Brown
"jiggawatts" is an archaic pronunciation so is entirely plausible for a aged mad inventor such as Doc Brown.
Re: One could always ask Doc Brown
I doubt Stephen Rae could have ruined V for Vendetta any more than it was already ruined.
I read in CU Amiga Magazine yeeears ago
... that it was pronounced 'jiff'.
Come on, it's always been that way. Are you for real?? :/
"Jiffs" is the norm 'round here. Also: "jay-peg" for JPEG/JPGs.
ditto by me don't think I ever heard anyone say it with a hard g
I hear "Jif" said even less often than people pronounce linux properly, like I don't.
But what's the alternative way to say jay-peg?
"gay-peg"
Though that brings to mind something completely different.
Was the vulture logo created by a jiffics artist on jiff paper?
I'll pronounce it "jif" when people start talking about jifics artists and paper with squares on it is pronounced "jiff" paper.
"The GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), pronounced "JIF", was designed by CompuServe and the official specification released in June of 1987."
By using an acronym the creators gave up the right to dictate pronunciation.
A bit of IBM trivia here: In Canada CICS is pronounced "kicks" whereas the rest of the world pronounces it C.I.C.S.
Re: Was the vulture logo created by a jiffics artist on jiff paper?
My real scientist friends pronounce PNAS as "P.N.A.S."
I pronounce it "P-NAS" because I'm an immature jit.
Re: Was the vulture logo created by a jiffics artist on jiff paper?
Actually the CICS thing is probably more of an age thing. People who worked with it when it was developed in the US tend to still say C I C S whereas once it moved to Hursley the pronunciation changed.
Re: Was the vulture logo created by a jiffics artist on jiff paper?
No, Giraffic Artists on Giraffe paper.
In Giraffic Park.
Re: Was the vulture logo created by a jiffics artist on jiff paper?
CICS was definitely pronounced 'kicks' when I went for a job at Hursley in the 90's. Although, as I sat waiting for my interview, I witnessed a large high-level meeting where they were trying to decide whether to put 'cubes' or 'rings' in the urinals... so I'm quite glad I didn't get the job ;-). Nice house tho.
Oh, and for the record I have only ever heard/used the hard G GIF pronunciation.
Hmm, time for a google map to work out the patterns methinks :-)
Re: Was the vulture logo created by a jiffics artist on jiff paper?
And the Noble British pronounced DOS as Doss, whereas Americans said D O S...
Re: Was the vulture logo created by a jiffics artist on jiff paper?
We call it "kicks" here in Scotland too
Re: Was the vulture logo created by a jiffics artist on jiff paper?
Here in the UK we also pronounce it 'kicks'
Re: Was the vulture logo created by a jiffics artist on jiff paper?
I wonder how those who insist the correct pronunciation is with a hard 'g' pronounce PIN and pebkac.
I'm willing to bet it isn't 'pine' and 'pebkat'.
CICS vs C.I.C.S.?
"A bit of IBM trivia here: In Canada CICS is pronounced "kicks" whereas the rest of the world pronounces it C.I.C.S."
It's been a long time since I used the product, but my memory of its pronunciation in the UK was "kicks".
Re: Was the vulture logo created by a jiffics artist on jiff paper?
Same here to your east..
Re: Was the vulture logo created by a jiffics artist on jiff paper?
When I was teaching this stuff, I told my students it could be pronounced either way, depending on whether you thought GIF stood for Graphic Interchange Format or General Interchange Format.
Re: Was the vulture logo created by a jiffics artist on jiff paper?
I know several mainframe CICS people in the US that also say "kicks".
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