War.gif

2046 · Post by **2046** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 2:58 am

It was a time of war . . .

(cue music)

Unbeknownst to me, there was/is/has been/do bes controversy over how to pronounce the extension ".gif", ye olde CompuServe Graphical Information Format.

For instance, when you see someone talk about an animated gif . . . what is the sound in your head for the G? Is it a J like jiffy, or a G like goofy?

Me, I go G. Always have . . . it wasn't until I saw some uppity person insisting it was a J sound that I even considered there might be conflict on the matter. Thus I looked it up.

I concur with the website's appraisal that (though it runs contrary to standard usage) the guy who made the format intended on "jiff". But I say to hell with "jiff" . . . win one for the Giffer!

What's your take?

GStone · Post by **GStone** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 4:03 am

It's G, yo. J-I-F goes on a sandwich.

Mr. Oragahn · Post by **Mr. Oragahn** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 9:21 am

It's pronounced like "jif". Period. The end. That's final. End of story.

Incidentally, where I live, all people pronounce it JIF, while it could have easily been pronounced GIF as well.
I have never heard once a person pronounce it like "GIFT".

Kazeite · Post by **Kazeite** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:01 am

Well that Berry guy obviously doesn't know what he's talking about, so I say we giffers ignore him! No crazy jiffer is going to force his unssuported ideas (without any shred of the evidence) on us! ;] ;)

2046 · Post by **2046** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 1:32 pm

Mr. Oragahn wrote:It's pronounced like "jif". Period. The end. That's final. End of story.

Incidentally, where I live, all people pronounce it JIF, while it could have easily been pronounced GIF as well.
I have never heard once a person pronounce it like "GIFT".

In matters of language I'm a populist, for the most part *, ergo it is "jif" where you are.

(* It still isn't "nucular", no matter if some populistic dictionaries include it as a used variant or not.)

Narsil · Post by **Narsil** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 4:03 pm

If it's an acronym, it's pronounced with the first letter of the original word, I'm afraid to say. And it's not pronounced jraphical interchange format.

Roondar · Post by **Roondar** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 6:32 pm

Mr. Oragahn wrote:It's pronounced like "jif". Period. The end. That's final. End of story.

Incidentally, where I live, all people pronounce it JIF, while it could have easily been pronounced GIF as well.
I have never heard once a person pronounce it like "GIFT".

Ahh, but the reverse of that goes where I live. I hadn't even heard of this 'jif' pronunciation till today.

As to who is correct, I myself believe firmly that language is decided by those who speak it and not by a few wise men who set forth rules. And lo and behold, I've already seen dozens if not hundreds of new words enter my language during my life. I've also seen 'correct' spellings and pronunciations be forced into being false ones.

All due to the power of the people (who steadfastly refused to use the 'correct' from until the form actually used was chosen as correct in the end). One can only pray that SMS/net language doesn't catch on!

KILL YOUR PARENTS · Post by **KILL YOUR PARENTS** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 1:27 pm

what the hell is a jiggawatt

Praeothmin · Post by **Praeothmin** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 5:32 pm

what the hell is a jiggawatt

It's a Watt that jiggles... :)

GStone · Post by **GStone** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 8:18 pm

An engine that's powered by jell-o.