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While browsing the internet I found several cases in which people argue what the correct way to pronounce .gif is. There are two sides in this argument:

  1. People pronouncing it with a hard g as in gift. Argument for this is that since it is an acronym for Graphics Interchange Format it should be spelled as g in the word graphic.
  2. People pronouncing it with g as in giraffe. Apparently the creators themselves stated in the documentation for the file that it should be pronounced as JIF, as quoted from Graphic File Formats FAQ:

    Choosy programmers choose "gif" or "jif"?

    The pronunciation of "GIF" is specified in the GIF specification to be "jif", as in "jiffy", rather than "gif", which most people seem to prefer.

The question is which side is right?

Mohit Bhardwaj
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Mateusz Andrzejewski
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    Oxford English suggests [ɡɪf], see here: http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/gif The reason may be that the g stands for graphic. – painfulenglish Oct 29 '14 at 12:55
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    I've been working with websites and web graphics in the UK for 15 years and cannot recall hearing it pronounced as 'jif'. I had no idea that is what the creators intended. Perhaps the pronunciation differs between countries? – Alo Oct 29 '14 at 12:58
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    The question makes the false assumption that there is one side that is "right". The whole of the answer is what you said: some people say one and some say the other. – Colin Fine Oct 29 '14 at 13:10
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    OP's cited "[hard G] which most people seem to prefer" is from a document dated 20Jan97. Firstly, usage may have changed over almost two decades, and secondly that writer may have been unduly influenced by limited local knowledge. I rarely hear the hard G form, and I think there's an argument for saying that if the soft G was endorsed by the creators and it's the most common version anyway, that's the "correct" version. But it's basically a matter of opinion - POB. – FumbleFingers Oct 29 '14 at 13:23
  • This is a classic case of pronouncing it toe-may-toe vs. toe-mah-toe. – Alex W Oct 29 '14 at 13:24
  • Ah, yes. The gif that keeps on giving. – Robusto Oct 29 '14 at 13:35
  • Perhaps one reason nobody says "jiff" is that "jiffy" is a silly word. – Fattie Oct 29 '14 at 13:38
  • @Joe: Perhaps Unilever also think "jif" is a "silly word" (I've no doubt for some people it has sexual connotations). But maybe they changed it to *cif* rather than *gif* because they thought most people wouldn't recognise that as implying a change in pronunciation anyway. – FumbleFingers Oct 29 '14 at 14:09
  • Funny, I actually worked for those dudes! The Jif/Cif thing was just a regional spelling thing. They tossed a coin and have decided on "cif" everywhere. (It's extremely difficult handling brand names on a worldwide basis!) You know, I don't really get the sexual connotation?? Do you mean like "jism" (I think people use that for "ejaculatory fluid") {Ladies, avert your eyes from this conversation please!} – Fattie Oct 29 '14 at 14:45
  • The two versions must fight it out in the dog-eat-dog world to see who wins. Some FAQ page isn't going to shift the balance. From what I hear the jiffy fellows are being routed. – Oldcat Oct 29 '14 at 18:06
  • changing it to cif would just change it to a fight over hard C and soft C – Oldcat Oct 29 '14 at 18:08
  • @JoeBlow the letter J in Italian is usually pronounced like the letter Y in English, however CIF is pronounced chif in Italian, which sounds a lot more like the English pronunciation JIF. I seriously doubt that a multinational corporation would toss a coin over something so important as a product name. But after all you did say You often see stunning stupidity on the internet :) :) – Mari-Lou A Jun 26 '16 at 04:58
  • @JoeBlow It is you who are wrong here. It is "required" that a brand's usage be controlled in order to defend patent and copyright rights. Respecting this action is not stupid. Regarding product pronunciations as right and wrong is the only reasonable conclusion. Ask Mike Rowe, the guy who lost the right to use his own name for his own company. Pronunciation matters. "Microsoft saw the name as trademark infringement because of its phonetic resemblance to their trademarked corporate name and demanded that he give up the domain." Linky – Phil Sweet Jun 26 '16 at 13:15

1 Answers1

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Wikipedia says:

The Graphics Interchange Format (better known by its acronym GIF; /ˈdʒɪf/ or /ˈɡɪf/) is a bitmap image format that was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and has since come into widespread usage on the World Wide Web due to its wide support and portability.

Based on the English pronunciation rule, whenever the letter g is follower by one of these vowels, e, i , or y, it'll have a /dʒ/ sound, otherwise, it'll sound like /g/. As every other rule, there might be exceptions to this, but in my opinion, if one wants to pronounce this word correctly, /ˈdʒɪf/ will be the correct pronunciation (I myself say /ˈɡɪf/ most of the time!).

P.S. The "hard g sound" that you mentioned above, is called palatalization in linguistics, which is not that known to most English speakers.

Neeku
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    re "...whenever the letter g is follower by one of these vowels, e, i , or y, it'll have a /dʒ/ sound" this is true of words that have come from a Romance language, not words of Germanic origin (get, gift, etc) Even so, there are exceptions. – Centaurus Oct 29 '14 at 13:24
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    Thanks for pointing the Germanic originated words out @Centaurus. I mentioned there are exceptions to the rule. (: – Neeku Oct 29 '14 at 13:44