As if Obama’s week couldn’t get any worse, it turns out the White House got the pronunciation of “gif” wrong.
In a brief NYT profile of Steve Wilhite, creator of the GIF image format, who receive a lifetime achievement award at this year’s Webby Awards. Wilhite has this to say of the raging debate over how to express those three letters with one’s mouth:
“The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations,” Mr. Wilhite said. “They are wrong. It is a soft ‘G,’ pronounced ‘jif.’ End of story.”
Only a few weeks ago, the White House Tumblr page put out an infographic wherein it claimed “gif” has a “hard ‘G'” sound.
I’m glad we can finally put this contentious issue to rest. Many godless Philistines on Twitter have vowed to resist the truth, but the rest of us–the righteous Neologism Aestheticists, devoted to the ideal of words rolling off the tongue without sticking spears in your gums–have found our vindication. Our conquest will now be swift and merciless.
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