Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/02/26/gif-peanut-butter-available-ma.html
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It’s too late for Gif lemon though, we needed that for yesterday
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I choose to pronounce it “ʒɑɪf”, thanks to PBS Idea Channel (RIP).
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Typo - it is “Graphics Interchange Format”
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Funny thing about JIF peanut butter suggesting it be called (soft G)IF is that there exists a JIF file format and hard G differentiates (hard G)IF from JIF.
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Do I not understand hard vs. soft consonants, or are the “Hard g Pronunciation” and “Soft g Pronunciation” labels actually asserting that “gif” and “Jif” are pronounced differently, not the same?
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Many people use a hard G because
GIF stands for Graphics Exchange Format,they are ignorant cretins, too barbaric to be admitted into society, too irredeemable to be called properly human even, occupying, as they do, a branch on the tree of life somewhere below the branching of the eukaryotes from the prokaryotes away from the rest of us.
Fixed that for ya!
But I kid: of course those using a soft ‘g’ in gif cannot even be said to be truly alive.
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The same difference between the hard ‘g’ of gift and the soft ‘g’ of gymnasium. If you cannot distinguish these in either speech or hearing, then yes: you are operating with slightly less functional discrimination than most native English speakers with respect to these sounds.
Edit: I suspect I may have misinterpreted your question. No offense meant.
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Yes, the labels say exactly the opposite of what the CNN write up is claiming they say.
Edit: the lid makes it even more explicit that they’re coming down on the hard G side.
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Hard G
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Welcome, to Jraphic Park. 
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Ugh, this is one of the internet’s stupidest debates. Not only did the creator explicitly state that it’s a soft-g “jif”, but the only argument I hear to the contrary, that the g in Graphics is hard, just totally ignores how acronyms work. To wit:
SIM: Subscriber Identification Module has a hard “I”, yet people pronounce it with a soft I.
Same with WASP, BASE jumping, LASER and tons of others.
Alright. End of pointless rant
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None taken. I’m fine with the sounds—it’s my understanding of the terminology I was doubting, as the CNN report and this article seemed to be reaching the opposite conclusion from mine based on the labels.
So it’s someone at CNN, or possibly Jif itself based on the article quotes, who doesn’t understand. I feel validated, but also still mildly baffled.
(Insert proposal that we revert to the Old English g pronunciation and start using “yif” here.)
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Indeed, as it’s plainly hard-g. 
More seriously:
I really don’t see that as relevant. It’s in the world now - the creator’s opinion has no more weight than, say, mine.
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If you want it pronounced jif then spell it jif. FFS. How hard can it be?
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They are going to sell every last Gar of that peanut butter.
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So if someone had a child they named Gary and everyone decided to not just mispronounce it as “Jerry”, but insist that they’re wrong for pronouncing it “Gary” in the first place that’s cool?
Apply the same idea to Google. If someone went around saying “Joogle” all the time they’d be corrected constantly.
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Oh great, now people will start arguing it should be pronounced “Jeff.”
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