Because the whole idea that acronyms are pronounced based on how their words are pronounced is dumb. And I say that even though I have and will always use a hard G.
My reasoning has to do with how neologisms and acronyms are usually pronounced (i.e. with the base pronunciation of the letter unless it spells an actual word or near-word), and that there is actually a lesser known JIF file format (an extension of the JPEG format that allows other image types). I see no reason not to use the pronunciation that is less ambiguous. It’s not like people don’t trouble understanding me.
It’s also how I said it when I first saw the word, and I don’t really see any pressing need to change it. The only argument I’ve ever heard that I “should” say “jiff” is an appeal to the creator, but I’ve never believed the coiner of a word dictates how it is pronounced–it always evolves with the people.
I agree that there’s no reason to care either way. No, not even for the pun–I actually tend to prefer puns where the pronunciation is slightly different.
Agreed, but those two examples are technically considered different things:
Acronyms are pronounced as words: SCUBA, LASER, GIF, etc…
Initialisms are pronounced letter by letter: USA, FBI, CIA, etc…
Dictionaries are starting to include initialisms as part of the definition of acronyms, but right at this moment it is still more correct to consider them different things.
Came across this tidbit from a page for chrx (a firmware update thing):
Right. Just because you invented something doesn’t mean you get to come up with a out-there pronunciation. For me, soft-g gif falls into the same category.
How the heck is the soft-g pronunciation “out there”? It’s a perfectly natural way to pronounce it based on how you analyze the word. Like I said, when I first came across it, “jiff” seemed the obvious pronunciation to me (and apparently to about a third of other Americans, according to the surveys I linked to above. I am a little surprised that it is that high. I would have guessed more like 20%). Others, clearly, think “ghiff” is the more natural one, which is why I tend to use it now. The “marshmallow” for “chrx” pronunciation is nowhere near an apt analogy to this.
As the old joke goes:
I’ll say it with a hard G, and if the Good Lord himself comes down and corrects me, I’ll say “Back off, Jod!”
On the topic of inventors deciding the pronunciation, in high school we invented the word Psnornge (to rhyme with orange). We proclaimed that there are 12 ways to spell it… all of them wrong.
What is a soft o? Like a short o like in”con”? I don’t think I’ve ever heard BIOS pronunounced as anything but “bio” with an “s” at the end of it. Like the plural of “bio(graphy)” but with an unvoiced “s” sound instead of a voiced “z” sound like you’d get in “bios.”
Similarly, I refuse to pronounce “TeX” (TeX - Wikipedia) as anything other than an exact homophone of “Tex.” Fortunately, I have little need to use the word.
