The image format GIFan acronym meaning Graphics Interchange Formatwas invented by Steve Wilhite In the 1987 while working from CompuServe with the aim of facilitating the downloading of color images via the Internet. It is a format that still boasts great success today, especially in the field of instant messaging. However, 37 years after its invention, a linguistic controversy has arisen over the years around the name of this format, in particular on its pronounce: it is pronounced “jif” (dʒɪf) or “ghif” (ɡɪf)? Generally, both pronunciations are accepted: the first (with the soft “g”) is the one “decided” by the company when the format was presented to the world, while the second (with the hard “g”) seems to be the more correct from a linguistic point of view.
For example, the article Computer Users Choose GIF published by CompuServe in October 1987 (present in the database of Internet Archive) explains the pronunciation with the soft “g” chosen for the GIF format:
Now, with the introduction of the Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) — pronounced “jif” — a universal exchange format for high-resolution graphic images (…)
However, linguists tend to prefer the pronunciation “ghif” (ɡɪf), with a hard “g”, as also confirmed by the authoritative Cambridge Dictionary which indicates it as the only pronunciation for both British English and American English. Other authoritative dictionaries, such as Oxford Dictionaryinstead accept both pronunciations mainly because “jif” (dʒɪf) has entered widely into common usage.
One of the reasons why, from a linguistic point of view, the pronunciation with a hard “g” tends to be preferred is that GIF is an acronym for Graphics Interchange FormatAnd the word “graphics” should be pronounced with a hard “g”. Even some famous people, including Barack Obamahave sided in favor of the pronunciation “ghif” (ɡɪf).