It’s an acronym. There’s no linguistic requirement for any of the letters to match any part of the pronunciation. NASA, scuba, I can list a hundred acronyms that have absolutely no connection to their expanded pronunciation.
And no, it wasn’t just the dude who invented it. It was the entire company, CompuServe, because they were trying to sell a product. “Choosy developers choose gif”. It’s literally got a tagline that tells you how it’s pronounced.
There’s no linguistic requirement for any of the letters to match any part of the pronunciation.
I made no statements to the contrary, not sure why you directed any of that first paragraph at me and not the person I responded to. Regardless, the only “correct” pronunciations of any words are the ones that find purchase in the cultural lexicon. The fact that the soft g pronunciation was chosen by a corporation trying to cash in on the success of a different corporation is even less convincing of an argument. Fuck those soulless money-grubbers, they can take their advertising slogan-based neoligisms and shove them in their arse, but pronounced like “ass” because language evolves. You have to evolve with it or you won’t understand it.
You’re absolutely correct, regardless of who defined the sound, it’s how it’s generally pronounced in public that becomes the status quo and therefore “correct” way.
I’ve never heard anyone in real life use the soft G. Doesn’t mean people don’t, but regionally it’s “JIF” for me.
The funny thing is, regardless of how it’s said people who know anything about computers understand what you’re talking about, so the argument is really a useless one. Maybe if .jif was used more then it would matter, but I can’t say I’ve seen a .jif file in the wild myself.
I mean, the pronunciation of proper nouns doesn’t follow other rules of language. If the creator is still alive and is telling you the correct pronunciation then that’s the pronunciation. It’s a product, a proper noun, not a simple word.
It’s not a proper noun any more than granola is. Even if that point stood, when you get down to it, there simply are no “rules of language,” there is just making noises that other people understand or making ones that they don’t. You think proper nouns can’t have multiple pronunciations, well what do you call those little yellow, orange, and brown peanut butter candies? How do you say the capital of South Dakota? Speaking of SD, did you know there’s a town there called Sinai, pronounced “sigh-knee-eye” by its residents? I legitimately know a guy named Jurgen, one of his parents pronounces it with the J sound and the other pronounces it with the Y sound! It may be infuriating at times but that’s just how spoken language works. I urge you to embrace it as fighting it is fruitless. It’s also easier to get used to cringey new slang when you realize it’s a universal constant.
It’s an acronym. There’s no linguistic requirement for any of the letters to match any part of the pronunciation. NASA, scuba, I can list a hundred acronyms that have absolutely no connection to their expanded pronunciation.
And no, it wasn’t just the dude who invented it. It was the entire company, CompuServe, because they were trying to sell a product. “Choosy developers choose gif”. It’s literally got a tagline that tells you how it’s pronounced.
I made no statements to the contrary, not sure why you directed any of that first paragraph at me and not the person I responded to. Regardless, the only “correct” pronunciations of any words are the ones that find purchase in the cultural lexicon. The fact that the soft g pronunciation was chosen by a corporation trying to cash in on the success of a different corporation is even less convincing of an argument. Fuck those soulless money-grubbers, they can take their advertising slogan-based neoligisms and shove them in their arse, but pronounced like “ass” because language evolves. You have to evolve with it or you won’t understand it.
You’re absolutely correct, regardless of who defined the sound, it’s how it’s generally pronounced in public that becomes the status quo and therefore “correct” way.
I’ve never heard anyone in real life use the soft G. Doesn’t mean people don’t, but regionally it’s “JIF” for me.
The funny thing is, regardless of how it’s said people who know anything about computers understand what you’re talking about, so the argument is really a useless one. Maybe if .jif was used more then it would matter, but I can’t say I’ve seen a .jif file in the wild myself.
Right? If the creator of jpeg came and said “It’s actually pronounced ‘Jay-pej’,” people would just laugh at them.
I mean, the pronunciation of proper nouns doesn’t follow other rules of language. If the creator is still alive and is telling you the correct pronunciation then that’s the pronunciation. It’s a product, a proper noun, not a simple word.
It’s not a proper noun any more than granola is. Even if that point stood, when you get down to it, there simply are no “rules of language,” there is just making noises that other people understand or making ones that they don’t. You think proper nouns can’t have multiple pronunciations, well what do you call those little yellow, orange, and brown peanut butter candies? How do you say the capital of South Dakota? Speaking of SD, did you know there’s a town there called Sinai, pronounced “sigh-knee-eye” by its residents? I legitimately know a guy named Jurgen, one of his parents pronounces it with the J sound and the other pronounces it with the Y sound! It may be infuriating at times but that’s just how spoken language works. I urge you to embrace it as fighting it is fruitless. It’s also easier to get used to cringey new slang when you realize it’s a universal constant.