• dreadedsemi@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    81
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    The author calls it JIF. He intended it as Jif because he has butter fingers and like butter brand JIF.

    I’m used to hard G though.

    • Nora@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      50
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      And British people made English, but they don’t say anything right either.

    • mookulator@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      32
      arrow-down
      10
      ·
      1 year ago

      I know he says it’s pronounced “jif”, but I just don’t care. It’s like “gift” without the t

      • EmoDuck@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        29
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Let’s be honest here, English does not have that level of consistency. “Women” is pronounced with an “i” for christ sake

        • tryptaminev 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺@feddit.de
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          6
          ·
          1 year ago

          Because the a in woman is pronounced the same way the e in women is pronounced…

          Probably that was originally introduced by some medieval swinger society, so they could say that they are faithful to their women and technically not be lying about it. When the church figured out they introduced the o as an i thing.

          • Pyro@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            Because the a in woman is pronounced the same way the e in women is pronounced…

            woman = wum-en
            women = wim-in

            Yeah I’m gonna have to disagree with you there, chief.

      • Raiden11X@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        18
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Say the word “though” in your head. Then add a “t” to it. Would you really argue that “though” and “thought” are pronounced the same simply because they’re the same spelling save for a final “t”?

        The easiest “rule” is that the creator can decide how to pronounce and spell it lol. Taking English rules that don’t even apply 100% of the time to its own words and trying to hold made-up words to the same standards just sounds silly to me haha

        • penguin@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          There are no rules to how new words come into being or how old ones change.

          If everyone says a word a certain way with certain meaning, then that’s what it is. One person doesn’t get to decide.

    • nothing@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, I always read it as “Jif” then came the correctness police of Reddit and I was bullied into “Gif” by guilt.

      And now some 8-40 years later, I feel anything but “Gif” is wrong. Help!

      • zefiax@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        1 year ago

        Ya and in English, we pronounce things like giant, giraffe, gin, etc. with a “j” sound.

          • zefiax@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            1 year ago

            English doesn’t work that way. Man is the closest work to woman. Doesn’t mean you pronounce the “m” “a” “n” in the two words the same way.

            • penguin@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              0
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              English works like all languages. It’s organic and full of exceptions. New words pop up, old ones die, pronunciations change and differ between similar words.

              Most people chose to say gif like gift. One person doesn’t get to change it just because of who they are. Otherwise celebrities can start changing things.

              This is all like the Mean Girls scene where the girl was trying to make “fetch” happen and the other girl shot her down.

      • tryptaminev 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺@feddit.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        1 year ago

        Nobody made english, nor is a language static. It is an everchanging result of millions of people using and evolving it.

        A language that doesn’t change is dead, like latin is. So any rule of how something is supposed to be in a language is subject to time and place, but never absolute.

        • penguin@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          7
          ·
          1 year ago

          That’s my point. If everyone pronounces a word a certain way, THAT is its correct pronunciation. The first person to say a thing doesn’t get to tell everyone else they’re wrong.

          Everyone started using the word “literally” to mean figuratively, so the official definition changed to mean either or.

          Everyone says GIF similar to gift, then that’s the proper pronunciation. Creator has no say.

    • QuadratureSurfer@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’m sorry, but he waited 26 years to tell everyone how it’s pronounced… at this point you can go with the majority, or stick with however you want to pronounce it.

    • MisterFrog@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      17
      ·
      1 year ago

      This makes no sense. It stands for “Graphics Interchange Format”, do they pronounce it jraphics too?

      • Raiden11X@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        21
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        There are so many examples in this thread alone as to why this rule doesn’t work.

        SCUBA: the U is for “underwater” and the A is for “apparatus”. We don’t pronounce it “SC-uh-B-ahhh”.
        JPEG: The P is for “photographic”. We don’t pronounce it “JayFeg”.
        LASER: The E is for “emission”. We don’t pronounce it “Lay-See-R”.
        RADAR: The second A is for “And” (lol). We don’t pronounce it “Ray-Day-R”.

        The easiest “rule” is just the guy who made it up can dictate how they want it spelled and to pronounce. The word is made up anyway, and isn’t subject to rules that actual English words have been subjected to for however long the language evolved.

        • omega_x3@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          The guy that came up with with the acronym for unidentified flying object also wrote that it should pronounced you-fo but everyone spells it out because that is less confusing. So there is an example of the creator being ignored.

        • MisterFrog@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Yep, I take your point

          Seems an odd choice in gif’s case still, as you can use the starting letter sounds from each word and it doesn’t sound weird.

          Not the same for jpeg. P by itself doesn’t make a ph sound.

    • MilitantAtheist@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      14
      ·
      1 year ago

      I don’t really give a fuck what he intended. If he wanted it to be pronounced JIF he should have named it that.