FTA: “A GIF, pronounced jif …”
Immediate and unquenchable rage. It’s gif, and any other pronunciation is unacceptable.
That they have to steer people away from the natural pronunciation says it all.
Wait, doesn’t the G stand for Giraffics?
For one, it doesn’t matter that the g comes from graphics. For example, the u in SCUBA comes from underwater, but no one pronounces it scuh-bah.
Just pretend gif is like a short version of giraffe, it’ll make your head hurt less.
Or pretend it’s like a short version of gift.
You could, but you’d be wrong. I get that language changes according to usage, but this doesn’t seem to have any basis in cultural shift. It is simply a bunch of people that read a word online and never heard it spoken and made an incorrect assumption about its pronunciation. That’s fine, just recognize your mistake.
My head does not hurt, and henceforth all gifs of giraffes shall be pronounced with a soft G. Otherwise, normal linguistic rules apply. So let it be written - so let it be done.
He sounds like he has a wonderful wife and an awful life:
Burke sits here alone in the dark day after day, for about 100 hours a week… When she met Burke at a party about six years ago, he was 50 pounds lighter; a professor of communications and speech who lectured on media theory; and was working on his dissertation on feminist theory and poker, which he has not finished.
And now he’s a famous GIF maker. There is a lesson here about work, culture, and the good life.
He makes sure his three Mason jars are filled with water so he will not have to leave the room on the account of thirst.
Later, they will not be filled with water.
This post is incomplete without a link to the other Tim Burke, the academic blogger from Swarthmore who is one one the original (pre-9-11) bloggers who works in (brilliiant) prose.
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