• Skvlp@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      5 months ago

      Isn’t there a video/gif asking if it’s pronounced “birthday jift”, “jolden retriever”, etc?

    • Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      5 months ago

      It’s an acronym standing for graphic interchange format. Not that I care all that much tbh. Reminds me of parents naming their kid cVIIItlyn. Sure you can pronounce it whatever you want, doesn’t make you any less stupid. Also, iirc it was invented by a team, what do the rest of them say?

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        5 months ago

        It’s an acronym standing for graphic interchange format.

        That doesn’t affect how it’s pronounced.

        LASER stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. If you were going to pronounce it based on how those words are pronounced it would be “Lahseer”.

        The best reason to pronounce “gif” with a hard g is that the closest word we have is “gift” and that uses a hard g.

        • Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          5 months ago

          Just wanna say I didn’t downvote you.

          I get your argument, maybe we SHOULD pronounce it lahseer, sounds cool.

          • merc@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            5 months ago

            Lahseer does sound cool, but I’m in favor of words being spelled as fonetikuhly as possible in English.

            • Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              5 months ago

              In order to do that, we have to clean up what each letter does first. The whole reason the gif fight started is because G and J overlap in sound values a lot. And don’t get me started on S, C, K, & Q.

              • merc@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                0
                ·
                5 months ago

                And O.

                But, still, there are letters that have fairly consistent pronunciations. Where possible we should try to stick with those.

                • Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  ·
                  5 months ago

                  I’ve given up on vowels. Mercedes, Echinacea, Manoeuvre, shield, beige, just throw them around until it looks right.