It is how the word was originally said and intended to be used. Evidence: the literal first advertisement for the format: “choosy developers choose GIF”, a pun on the advertisement for JIF peanut butter.
the pronunciation of g before a vowel is not always hard. Giraffe. Gin.
the pronunciation of the individual words in an acronym don’t define its pronunciation. NASA - Aeronautic, Association - do you pronounce it NÆSÂ? ASAP - do you say ÂSÂP or AySAP?
It’s fine to say it however you want, but to act like one way is definitively correct, for the reasons you cite anyway, is bad
I didn’t cite any reasons and I didn’t say that there is a correct and incorrect way to pronounce it now, just that the way they chose to pronounce it originally was arbitrary and unintuitive. Add a “t” to the end, what does that spell? The pronunciations of giraffe and gin are equally unintuitive to modern American English speakers, they’re just old words that have been well-established in the lexicon so no one thinks about that. If someone came up with the word gin today, we’d probably be having the same argument about it.
And when I said it’s the only argument, I meant it’s the only one that holds any water. It’s still leaking all over the place.
They’re not unintuitive. Just because you think that doesn’t make it true. Tom Scott has a whole video on the topic, essentially however you first associate that word is how you think it should be pronounced. That doesn’t make it unintuitive, as would be evidenced by the pretty much 50/50 split of usage for soft g vs hard g for years. I had huge arguments about this back in like 2016/7 and it literally was a 50/50 split. Might have changed since then, but that doesn’t mean jack shit about intuitiveness.
Both pronunciations already had solid handholds in the zeitgeist by 2016, it was named 30 years before that. I’d argue the 50/50 split you provide nothing but hearsay for is proof that the hard g pronunciation is more intuitive as it was originally marketed and advertised with the soft g (and a pronunciation guide for the slogan as folks have helpfully pointed out). By your and Tom Scott’s reasoning, everyone exposed to it then would use the soft g, but people in the decades after who knew nothing of the cheap marketing stunt would inevitably pronounce it however made the most sense to them. Thus the hard g pronunciation.
Now for my own personal hearsay, it’s never been anywhere close to 50/50 and it’s gotten more and more unbalanced towards the hard g over time. In 2011 it was maybe 70/30 hard g/soft g, now it feels like 95/5 🤷♂️. But again, that’s all obviously irrelevant due to it’s subjectivity.
By your and Tom Scott’s reasoning, everyone exposed to it then would use the soft g,
No by Tom Scott’s explanation (not reasoning, he was stating actual science and scientific studies) exactly what has happened would have happened. People hear the word with a hard g and they forever associate it that way, even if it isn’t correct. It has nothing to do with how people think it should be pronounced or even the way that makes most sense to them. It’s about former associations with other words grabbing your mind at that moment and clicking. Doesn’t matter if you look back at it later and think (oh soft g makes sense cause it’s the peanut butter). You’ll already have the hard g stuck.
Nope that is far from the only argument.
It is how the word was originally said and intended to be used. Evidence: the literal first advertisement for the format: “choosy developers choose GIF”, a pun on the advertisement for JIF peanut butter.
the pronunciation of g before a vowel is not always hard. Giraffe. Gin.
the pronunciation of the individual words in an acronym don’t define its pronunciation. NASA - Aeronautic, Association - do you pronounce it NÆSÂ? ASAP - do you say ÂSÂP or AySAP?
It’s fine to say it however you want, but to act like one way is definitively correct, for the reasons you cite anyway, is bad
I didn’t cite any reasons and I didn’t say that there is a correct and incorrect way to pronounce it now, just that the way they chose to pronounce it originally was arbitrary and unintuitive. Add a “t” to the end, what does that spell? The pronunciations of giraffe and gin are equally unintuitive to modern American English speakers, they’re just old words that have been well-established in the lexicon so no one thinks about that. If someone came up with the word gin today, we’d probably be having the same argument about it.
And when I said it’s the only argument, I meant it’s the only one that holds any water. It’s still leaking all over the place.
They’re not unintuitive. Just because you think that doesn’t make it true. Tom Scott has a whole video on the topic, essentially however you first associate that word is how you think it should be pronounced. That doesn’t make it unintuitive, as would be evidenced by the pretty much 50/50 split of usage for soft g vs hard g for years. I had huge arguments about this back in like 2016/7 and it literally was a 50/50 split. Might have changed since then, but that doesn’t mean jack shit about intuitiveness.
Both pronunciations already had solid handholds in the zeitgeist by 2016, it was named 30 years before that. I’d argue the 50/50 split you provide nothing but hearsay for is proof that the hard g pronunciation is more intuitive as it was originally marketed and advertised with the soft g (and a pronunciation guide for the slogan as folks have helpfully pointed out). By your and Tom Scott’s reasoning, everyone exposed to it then would use the soft g, but people in the decades after who knew nothing of the cheap marketing stunt would inevitably pronounce it however made the most sense to them. Thus the hard g pronunciation.
Now for my own personal hearsay, it’s never been anywhere close to 50/50 and it’s gotten more and more unbalanced towards the hard g over time. In 2011 it was maybe 70/30 hard g/soft g, now it feels like 95/5 🤷♂️. But again, that’s all obviously irrelevant due to it’s subjectivity.
No by Tom Scott’s explanation (not reasoning, he was stating actual science and scientific studies) exactly what has happened would have happened. People hear the word with a hard g and they forever associate it that way, even if it isn’t correct. It has nothing to do with how people think it should be pronounced or even the way that makes most sense to them. It’s about former associations with other words grabbing your mind at that moment and clicking. Doesn’t matter if you look back at it later and think (oh soft g makes sense cause it’s the peanut butter). You’ll already have the hard g stuck.