We speak the language and pronounce new words based on the past words of the language. There are exceptions but they don’t negate the defaults.
Nearly every single word in English that starts with a g followed by a soft ih/eh vowel is pronounced as a soft g, just a few:
gin gypsy general gerund Gerald gel gem gyp Geronimo gesture
In fact, there are something like 20,000 words in the dictionary that start with G and the number of them that are pronounced with a hard G where this rule otherwise dictates a soft G is such a small fraction of them that it has its own wiki page.
This video is a tad harsh for comedic effort, but otherwise entirely fact based and sourced:
Bottom line: you’re free to use a hard G, but it’s not the default pronunciation based on either all other English words or the creator’s intentions, and if you’re confused why others pronounce it with a soft G, they would seem to be simply more familiar with the English language 🤷♂️
Nearly every single word in English that starts with a g followed by a soft ih/eh vowel is pronounced as a soft g, just a few:
That is patently not true and blatant cherry picking, e.g. already contradicted by the lexically matching word “gift” (and there are “giggle”, “gild”, “girl”, “git”, “give”, “gizmo”, etc.). See Wikipedia, which referenced linguists studying this:
An analysis of 269 words by linguist Michael Dow found near-tied results on whether a hard or soft g was more appropriate based on other English words; the results varied somewhat depending on what parameters were used.[11] Of the 105 words that contained gi somewhere in the word, 68 used the soft g while only 37 employed its counterpart. However, the hard g words were found to be significantly more common in everyday English; […]
All you basically said is “nuh uh because my feelings” and then an appeal to authority who disregarded the following vowel sound. “But he’s a professor” proves nothing, let alone backs any sort of assertion that you or he are familiar with squat 🤷♂️
Everyone in the comments pointing out inconsistencies in the English language, but there’s lots of people who speak other languages, that do very interesting things to such consonants.
Can we get some input from the likes of the Danish and the Dutch regarding how to read this?
This is actually an issue that should be solved at the English level. All words starting with a ‘g’ that are pronounced ‘j’ should be written with a ‘j’.
English has been the total outlier among (originally) European language with no body of authority over its spelling. Even the “reform” by Noah Webster never really caught on outside North America, nearly 100 years later. And even more curious, the somewhat authoritative Oxford English Dictionary disagrees in their spelling with everybody (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_spelling).
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It’s pronounced however the fuck you want to pronounce it.
I like to pronounce it “jif” because gin, gentle, Germany, gypsy. Others like to pronounce it “gif” because gift, good, game, girl.
Don’t pull any bullshit reasons like “it’s not pronounced jraphics”, because if that argument holds any water, JPEG is jay-feg, scuba is scuh-ba, and laser is lah-seer.
The creator calls it “jif” and wants others to call it “jif”. I don’t give a shit; if some people want to call it “gif”, that’s up to them and I’m not stopping them. English is not a prescriptive language; pronunciations will always differ according to origins and regions and accents and generations. I will not misunderstand you if you pronounce it “gif”, and you will not misunderstand me if I say “jif”.
By calling it “jif” I think the creator was referencing “jiffy,” as in “fast.” It’s like a video, but it loads in a jiffy. Or: it’s a short looping video - it’s over in a jiffy then restarts again.
I think people that call it “gif” don’t intuitively get this, even at the subconscious level. If they did, I think they’d prefer “jif.” It’s much more fun IMO. Not to mention that it’s less likely to be mistaken for an existing word (gift). So it’s both more fun and more practical. What else do we have to do to convince you people :(
Some arguments that people keep bringing up that are all wrong and carry zero weight in this discussion:
The creator says it’s JIF
It’s like Gift, but without the T
It’s like Giraffe, but without the raffe
It stands for “Graphics Interchange Format” so it’s GIF
My dictionary says it’s GIF
My dictionary says it’s JIF
Obama says it’s GIF
Giphy says it’s GIF
Ultimately, language is very dynamic and changes all the time. Words change their spelling, their meaning and their pronunciation too. Dictionaries tend to lag behind a little bit, but the fact that they publish a new version every year signifies how much languages change. The creator of a word can coin a pronunciation, but ultimately has zero control over whether it will be adopted or not.
So therefore whichever way most people actually pronounce it is by definition the correct pronunciation. And the polls done on this subject are pretty clear, showing that GIF is the preferred pronunciation, chosen by up to 70% in North America and over 80% in Australia and the UK. This depends on which poll you use, but in general the split is at least 2:1 in favour of GIF, and over time the usage of GIF tends to trend up over time.
So ultimately, the one true pronunciation is GIF, as decided by the people as a whole. However, most dictionaries do list JIF as an accepted alternative pronunciation, due to the not insignificant minority pronouncing it that way.
In other words, just choose which pronunciation you prefer, and use that. And try to avoid the pointless debates people like to have on the subject, filled with arguments that don’t carry any weight whatsoever.
I wouldn’t say the arguments are all wrong and carry zero weight. How are you so sure that these arguments haven’t swayed the majority towards one side or the other? These arguments are happening between actual people (I’ve heard normal people discuss this outside of online communities), possibly shaping their opinions, and could be what’s shaping those 70/80% numbers.
I used to say JIF. Seemed intuitive and the argument about the creator made sense to me.
But I changed my pronunciation because another intuitive thing is that language does change and it’s rather democratic.
This person is exactly correct. All those other arguments are just quips. They’ve all got a counterpoint and as you use them, you damn well know the counterpoint exists. But the argument is fun so you keep at it.
Some of us just want a resolution. My view lost. It’s over.
No view lost lol what are you talking about, both ways are correct, but it’s fun to give the others shit about it, it’s just like rooting for your basketball team
We lost bruh. The election was rigged though. Everywhere I go, people are saying it. They say “hey, this was clearly rigged”. And they’re very upset they want me to do something about it. I want to, but, you know, the GIF campaign has deep roots. Nobody can get to the bottom of them. They’re yhuge.
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