this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2023
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gif. With a hard g, because there is also .jiff and you could not distinguish otherwise.
The fact that this conversation exists is proof that the word is intuitively pronounced with a hard G.
The only reason to pronounce it like a J if because the creator liked it - and the reason he liked it was literally because of the (copyright-infringing) similarity to the peanut butter.
He made a huge contribution to the Internet by creating the format, and he deserves it gratitude. Mispronouncing gif is not the best approach to that.
Its actually a rule of the English language that g followed by i is a soft g.
Give? Gift? Gills? Girl? Giddy?
Every rule in English has exceptions, but when we make a new word should it follow the rule, or be an exception?
Except in gift which is the linguistically closest word to gif
Also, don't misunderstand English: as the hybrid of two very different language sources (Germanic and Latin - among many others since), there are basically no rules that don't have exceptions.
gin
Gin is closer to gif than gift?
gitLike giraffe, gist, and magic