GIFs are the increasingly ubiquitous animated images that have become the "aesthetic calling card of modern internet culture," as Amy O'Leary at The New York Times puts it. You know, something like this:
But as prevalent as GIFs are, the acronym's pronunciation remains one of those ongoing internet debates that, for whatever reason, simply refuses to die. And the argument has returned to center stage once again, this time thanks to someone who should know a thing or two about how to pronounce it: GIF's father.
Steve Wilhite created the Graphics Interchange Format in 1987 while working at CompuServe. Yesterday, he was honored at the Webby Awards for his sometimes-animated, sometimes-funny creation, which the Timesnotes is "a triumph of speed and compression," able to "move as fast as Internet culture itself." (For the record, Wilhite says the "dancing baby" GIF is his all-time favorite.)
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But is it GIF with a soft "G" or a hard "G"? Here's where things get controversial. Per The New York Times:
"The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations," Mr. Wilhite said. "They are wrong. It is a soft 'G,' pronounced 'jif.' End of story."
As expected, bloggers bolted out of their chairs.
"He is wrong," says Casey Chan at Gizmodo, "If GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format, does the 'Graphics' portion of the phrase point toward a hard-G in the acronym?"
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Others, like Memeburn's Stuart Thomas, were more receptive to Wilhite's version of the truth. At least it "clears up a hell of a lot confusion," Thomas says.
Rebecca Greenfield at The Atlantic Wire succinctly argues that the whole debate is rather pointless: "Fighting over how to say the word is like arguing over the NEEther, NIther pronunciation," writes Greenfield, "which is just a really silly thing to spend our time doing."
TV writer Brendan Hay's take was more divisive:
The New York Times' international business editor Damon Darlin tweeted that "this should settle the GIF-JIF divide once and for all":
So: How do we pronounce GIF? As the latest spat illustrates, the answer should be clear: Let us never say it out loud again.
Chris Gayomali is the science and technology editor for TheWeek.com. Previously, he was a tech reporter at TIME. His work has also appeared in Men's Journal, Esquire, and The Atlantic, among other places. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
