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How do you pronounce Git? Because I don't live in a country that uses English, I haven't heard it yet.
In my country, some people use [ɡɪt] and others use [d͡ʒɪt]. Which is the one that most people use?

törzsmókus
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Benjamin
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    The pronunciation is [ɡít] – yoozer8 Nov 08 '11 at 02:26
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    In fact git (from one of its early senses of bastard) is cognate to beget. So it's not surprising (though such things aren't always necessary) that it's pronounced with the same consonants as in get. – ShreevatsaR Nov 08 '11 at 12:33
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    I note that some of the replies have assumed that the question is about the Source management system git and others have not made this assumption. It doesn't affect the question, but those who have not heard of the system may find some of the replies rather strange. – Colin Fine Nov 08 '11 at 13:58
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    The original question made it somewhat more clear, by capitalizing the G in "Git," but it was later edited to its present state. – Brendon Nov 08 '11 at 14:20
  • @ColinFine: The version control system is also named after the colloquial (British) English word for stupid or annoying person. In the words of Linus Torvalds: "I'm an egotistical bastard, and I name all my projects after myself. First Linux, now git." – ShreevatsaR Nov 08 '11 at 18:08
  • @ShreevatsaR: just because he said it, doesn't necessarily make it true. That comment sounds like a self-deprecatory joke: "git" is not the first epithet that would occur to an English speaker to use on themselves (no, I know he's not English). It seems much more likely that he chose it from "git" = "get", perhaps with that joke in mind from the first. – Colin Fine Nov 09 '11 at 12:54
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    @ColinFine: Of course it's a self-deprecatory joke. :-) Isn't that obvious? And yes, as I said, I was just pointing out that get, git and Git are all cognates, which does not necessarily mean that they are pronounced with the same consonants, but which does make it unsurprising that they are. (The quote was to show that Linus was aware of the common word, and intended the name of his vcs to be the same.) – ShreevatsaR Nov 09 '11 at 13:28
  • @ShreevatsaR: Oh, right. To demonstrate the pronunuciation that's fine. I thought you were taking his comment at face value. – Colin Fine Nov 10 '11 at 11:41
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    IPA has no [í]. It’s simply [gɪt]. – tchrist May 13 '12 at 00:39
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    It's (roughly) 깆. – Michael Lorton Oct 24 '12 at 04:48
  • @tchrist IPA does have [í], but it's not the sound in git: it's [i] in a high-level tone. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Aug 15 '15 at 09:23
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    In India most people pronounce it as jit. It is git not jit. Reference : From github official video from here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3jLJU7DT5E – Rajamohan S Sep 04 '17 at 03:59

3 Answers3

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If you need to know for sure, go to the source!

Video presentation about Git by Linus Torvalds

This confirms that [gɪt] is the expected pronunciation.

xDaizu
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Matt E. Эллен
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The word is pronounced [ɡɪt]. This is a homophone for the verb get, which is an intentional reference to its role in retrieving a source from a repository.

herisson
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Brendon
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    For (most?) American speakers, it isn't a homophone; /gɛt/, not /ɡít/, is a common pronunciation of get, as your reference shows. – James Waldby - jwpat7 Nov 08 '11 at 05:34
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    Somewhat true, but check out the pronunciation note from my source: The pronunciation  [git] for get has existed since the 16th century. The same change is exhibited in  [kin] for can and  [yit] for yet. The pronunciation [git] is not regional and occurs in all parts of the country. – Brendon Nov 08 '11 at 12:17
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    @Brendon: I would say that git has to be regional. In 1893, someone describing the Mississippi accent specifically remarked that they used git instead of get, so it was certainly regional back then. The pronunciation git has probably diffused somewhat since, and you might be able to find speakers using it in all areas of the U.S., but my impression is that it is much more common in the South. – Peter Shor Nov 08 '11 at 13:36
  • I can only go by what the source says. And, for what it's worth, I live in the Northeast and my pronunciation tends toward git, along with most people in my county. – Brendon Nov 08 '11 at 14:17
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    Where I live (middle of the USA) the only time they would be pronounced the same is when telling a stray animal (or child) to leave. In that case get would be pronounced with a short i sound instead of a short e. Get in this case is an imperative verb, roughly short for "Get yourself out of here". I've seen some people attempt to alleviate the confusion in this one instance by spelling this particular meaning of "get" as "git". – T.E.D. Nov 08 '11 at 18:44
  • @T.E.D. So do you live in Lebanon, Kansas or in Belle Fourche, South Dakota? :) – tchrist May 13 '12 at 02:26
  • @tchrist - Close: http://onlyinoklahoma.wordpress.com/2008/01/03/journey-to-the-center-of-the-universe-in-oklahoma/ :-). That's about 300 miles SSE of the geographic center, and 250 miles SW of the population median. – T.E.D. May 15 '12 at 12:18
  • Source for "intentional reference" please! –  Jun 19 '15 at 07:25
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It never occurred to me to even think of saying it with anything other than a hard G and a short I, so [ɡɪt].

herisson
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Hellion
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  • Well you know, it would also never occur to most people that gif (which stands for Graphics Interchange Format) was supposed pronounced jif but that's that its creator says. I checked some gif files into git. PS: I use a hard G on both but just saying it's certainly a valid question given other gi? names :P – gman Nov 03 '21 at 18:33