How to pronounce GIF properly

»A letter represents a sound. Most of the time, anyway. G can be hard, as in “Greifswald”, or soft, as in “Gin”. It was only after the GIF became popular in social media that the debate about how to pronounce the acronym for “Graphics Interchange Format” flared up. As a rule, it's read first before it's heard. At first glance, the brain matches the three letters with already familiar word patterns and decides on a preferred pronunciation. A global survey showed that /ɡɪf/ is the more common pronunciation at 70 percent. The creator of the infinite loop image format, like the other 30 percent, takes a stand for /ʤɪf/. However, even the inventor of a word has no say in its pronunciation.

Modern linguistics describes and analyzes without judgment how people actually speak and write. The “Oxford English Dictionary” therefore recognizes both pronunciations.«

How the Article Came About

This anniversary issue of KATAPULT Magazine (issue 20) marks a small milestone for me as well. I have been working for KATAPULT for one year now. That means I've had the chance to experience four production cycles – as a developer, more on the sidelines than in the middle of the action. It's been a joy to write an idea in the form of a short article (fragment) for the third time. Even illustrated by Manel Fontdevila!

It takes about a month of intensive work to produce a KATAPULT issue. The articles to be published are determined at the beginning, after the editors have presented their ideas to Benni and discussed them. As editor-in-chief, he maintains the magazine's consistency, so he decides on their inclusion. Unlike articles, fragments are often written towards the end of production, although each new run attempts to finalize them earlier. Whether you are a project manager or a developer, anyone with a good idea is welcome to write a fragment. I appreciate that.

Writing doesn't come easily to me, so the brevity of a fragment is good practice for me. Before I submitted the fragment, I asked my brother to review it. He was my editor of sorts and gave me good advice on sentence structure. That was great. The final text remained unchanged by the editing and was printed in that version. A wonderful feeling.

That concludes the article. If you spot any typo or would like to share your thoughts on this article, please feel free to get in touch. 🙆‍♂️