When the GIF’s creator Steve Wilhite, won a lifetime achievement award at the Webby Awards on Tuesday night, he finally put the issue to rest by accepting his award with a GIF that said “IT’S PRONOUNCED ‘JIF’ NOT ‘GIF.'” Well, he tried to put the issue to rest, but his announcement actually just sparked more heated internet debate. How do you pronounce it? Is it “gif” or “jif?”
There’s a pretty good debate going on over at REDDIT: JIF vs. GIF
Senior Lecturer on Computer Science at Harvard College for the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, David J. Malan, pronounces it ‘jiff’ – That’s good enough for me.
How do you pronounce GIF? With a soft G as in “Gin”, or with a hard G as in “Gift”? Some people have very strong opinions on the matter.
The debate rages on over at the GIF Pronunciation Page. and Reddit.
Oh, incidentally, we prefer to say “JIF” —with the soft G— as the developers of the format intended.
