.gif or .gif?

[John Galt]

if you people think that GIF should be hard G because of "graphics"

do you say JPhEGs? you better. you f**k better. and if you don't now you f**k better start, jfegs.

the fact of the matter is when it was invented they called it with the soft g. however, it wasn't trademarked even though it was pronounced "jiff" so you can pronounce it however you like i suppose. still, you are wrong if you do it that way

also gin is pronounced jin, and gin > all. three letter word with a G and an I and it's pronounced JI_?????

[JDHURF]

I do, however, appreciate the gin argument.

[Medius]

Man, a lot of venom around gif. I wonder how you all would take the sordid pronunciation history of Gigawatt?

[exploited]

Jijawatt

[NAB]

[exploited]

For more excellent sprites, visit www.gsarchives.net, a website my best friend started in early high school that somehow survives to this day.

[JDHURF]

[Medius]

[JDHURF]

The word gist is as irrelevant in the specific context you quoted as is the word giraffe. John Galt seemed to imply that perhaps three letter words with a g and an i were pronounced ji, gist is not a three letter word though is it? I was simply observing that we cannot accept Galt's implied proposal as a general rule because the word gig negates it. Gist remains neither here nor there.

[Spider]

What's irrelevant are actual words, period, because .gif is not a real word at all, but an acronym people starting sounding out as though it were a word. What matters is the phonetics, simply because thats the only thing that determines how its sounded out. How other words are sounded out is not meaningful in discussion about an acronym.

Phonetically, a soft G followed by an I is perfectly valid and normal. In English, it can go either way.

The dictionary has already said so, anyways...unless of course we are to start ignoring the dictionaries? Which is common enough on the interwebs when convenient, but still silly.

The creators of the format pronounced GIF with a soft "G" /ˈdʒɪf/ as in "gin". An alternative pronunciation with a hard "G" /ˈɡɪf/ as in "graphics", reflecting the expanded acronym, is in widespread usage.[5] Both pronunciations are acknowledged by the Oxford English Dictionary[6] and the American Heritage Dictionary.[7]
According to Steve Wilhite, the creator of the GIF format, the intended pronunciation deliberately echoes the American peanut butter brand, Jif, and CompuServe employees would often say "Choosy developers choose GIF", spoofing this brand's television commercials.[8] As of 2013, Wilhite remains annoyed that there is debate over the pronunciation.[9][5]

Meh. This isn't the first time nor the last that the majority has been incorrect about something.