{"id":846,"date":"2013-06-05T01:51:50","date_gmt":"2013-06-04T23:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/?p=846"},"modified":"2015-04-27T21:21:22","modified_gmt":"2015-04-27T19:21:22","slug":"you-say-graphics-he-says-giraffics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/you-say-graphics-he-says-giraffics\/","title":{"rendered":"You say graphics, he says giraffics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Internet has come a long way in the last 25 years. Once the exclusive domain<\/span> of scientists and the military, it’s now in the offices, living rooms and phones of almost everyone on the planet.<\/p>\n

One thing, however, has not changed: the propensity<\/span> of users with inadequate social skills<\/span> to torment<\/span> one another in nitpicky<\/span> arguments.<\/p>\n

This became more than apparent recently when one of the pioneers of the Internet, Steve Wilhite of CompuServe, was given a Webby Award for lifetime achievement<\/span>. Wilhite developed a popular image format in 1987. He called it GIF<\/b> \u2014 short for Graphics Interchange<\/span> Format. But he’s insisted<\/span> since the beginning that people pronounce it “jiff”<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Hard or soft?<\/h2>\n

Wilhite arrived at this<\/span> because the compression<\/span> in GIFs allows them to be transmitted<\/span> across the Internet “in a jiffy”. Perhaps he had to have G as part of the name because of the word “graphics”. But he should have known what was going to happen.<\/p>\n

Programmers who worked with him spread the news<\/a> to other programmers that GIF was pronounced “jiff”, while regular people, who only saw the word GIF in print, read it as “gift” without the “t”.<\/p>\n

English pronunciation rules allow both. We have gin, gist<\/span> and gibberish<\/span> with a “j” sound \u2014 but also gill<\/span>, giddy<\/span> and girl with a hard “g” sound. Because GIF is an acronym<\/span>, it is irrelevant that the G stands for “graphics” and not “giraffe” (which has a “j” sound in English).<\/p>\n

A similar debate concerns the word “gigabyte”<\/b>. \u201cGiga-\u201d, say the purists, comes from the word “gigantic”, and should be pronounced “jigga” \u2014 but hardly anyone does this.<\/p>\n

Things came to a head<\/span> two weeks ago, when Wilhite was given his award. His five-word acceptance speech was: “It’s pronounced ‘JIF’, not ‘GIF’.”<\/b> (Actually, he forgot the comma, which I should fault him for<\/span> in true Internet fashion<\/span>.)<\/p>\n