{"id":62341,"date":"2019-09-18T09:32:09","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T14:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=62341"},"modified":"2019-09-19T14:23:53","modified_gmt":"2019-09-19T19:23:53","slug":"its-pronounced-jif-not-giff-and-why-that-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/its-pronounced-jif-not-giff-and-why-that-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Pronounced \u201cJif,\u201d Not \u201cGiff\u201d (And Why That Matters)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I usually write about matters of Jewish thought but, given my background in linguistics, my pedantic personality and my tendency to use words like \u201cpedantic,\u201d I occasionally write about things like grammar, spelling and punctuation. I must not be alone in such interests because my column on the Oxford comma<\/strong><\/a> was surprisingly popular. When I write about such things, however, I still try to have a point. (Well, two points. The first point is \u201cThe way I do things is right and if you do them differently then you\u2019re necessarily wrong.\u201d But I like to have a moral or lesson aside from that.) Which brings us to the way we pronounce (or mispronounce) the word \u201cGIF.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGIF\u201d is an acronym. It stands for \u201cGraphics Interchange Format\u201d and it is a popular bitmap image format. But there has been some heated debate as to its proper pronunciation: \u201cjif\u201d with a soft G (like giant, giraffe and Ginger Rogers) or \u201cgiff\u201d with a hard G (like gryphon, gargoyle and Cary Grant). I am unabashedly in the \u201cjif\u201d camp for two reasons: logic and authority.<\/p>\n

Those who say \u201cgiff\u201d think they have logic on their side but they really don\u2019t. \u201cIt\u2019s a hard G because it stands for Graphic,\u201d they insist. \u201cIt\u2019s not Jraphics Interchange Format!\u201d<\/p>\n

That may be so but the argument is irrelevant. The whole point of an acronym is to create a pronounceable word; the pronunciation of the letters in their original contexts is irrelevant. Consider the acronym \u201cscuba,\u201d which stands for \u201cself-contained underwater breathing apparatus.\u201d You\u2019ll notice that, even though \u201cunderwater\u201d is pronounced with a short U (\u201cuh\u201d), \u201cscuba\u201d is pronounced with a long U (\u201coo,\u201d i.e., \u201cskooba\u201d). To my knowledge, nobody goes around saying it should be pronounced \u201cskubba.\u201d The same is true with \u201claser.\u201d It\u2019s short for \u201clight amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.\u201d \u201cAmplification\u201d has a short A (as in cat) but we say \u201cleizer\u201d with a long A and not \u201classer.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not only the case with vowels. Consider the American Society of Photographers (ASP). The P stands for \u201cPhotographers\u201d but it\u2019s not pronounced \u201cAsf.\u201d And what about Content Integrated Research in Creative-User Systems (CIRCUS)? The first C stands for \u201cContent\u201d but the acronym is pronounced \u201ccircus,\u201d not \u201ckirkus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, as far as I\u2019m concerned, this demolishes the \u201cit\u2019s spelled with a hard G\u201d position but I\u2019m open to the possibility of counter examples. Seriously, if you know of any examples in which we pronounce an acronym counterintuitively because of its base words, I would love to hear them!<\/p>\n

My second basis for favoring \u201cjif\u201d is based on a concept called \u201cWord of God.\u201d Despite the name, this is not a religious thing. In this context, \u201cWord of God\u201d refers to information that comes straight from the ultimate authority. For example, when J. K. Rowling reveals information about the Harry Potter<\/em> franchise on her Pottermore website, that\u2019s \u201cWord of God,\u201d i.e., it\u2019s considered canonical even though it doesn\u2019t appear in any of the books.<\/p>\n

You know J. Jonah Jameson from Spider-Man<\/em>? Wikipedia says that his first name is John but in 2010, Stan Lee tweeted, \u201cI herewith proclaim, for the world to see, that J. Jonah Jameson\u2019s first name is \u2014 Jeremiah!\u201d Lee created both Spider-Man and J. Jonah Jameson, so he should know.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the mysterious woman in the Doctor Who<\/em> episode \u201cThe End of Time\u201d is never identified on screen but she is canonically the Doctor\u2019s mother because showrunner Russell T. Davies says she is.<\/p>\n

So what does this have do with the pronunciation of the word \u201cGIF?\u201d Well, GIFs were developed by a team at CompuServe led by a computer scientist named Steve Wilhite and they say it\u2019s pronounced \u201cjif!\u201d According to Wilhite, they intentionally chose to pronounce GIF as a homophone for the peanut butter brand Jif, saying \u201cChoosy developers choose GIF,\u201d a play on Jif\u2019s television commercials about what choosy moms choose. (In the interest of full disclosure, Jif peanut butter is OU-certified kosher. Neither Jif nor OU Kosher had any input into this article.)<\/p>\n

So, (1) logically, acronyms follow the pronunciation of the words they spell rather than the words they come from, and (2) authoritatively, the guy who invented the thing tells us how it\u2019s pronounced. So what basis is there to say that it\u2019s \u201cgiff?\u201d (I acknowledge that dictionaries are split on this matter but that just reflects the existing debate.)<\/p>\n

Okay, so let\u2019s look for a moral here. The mishna in Avos (5:7)<\/strong><\/a> tells us:<\/p>\n

A boorish person possesses seven character traits and a wise person possesses seven character traits. A wise person doesn\u2019t speak before one who is even wiser, he doesn\u2019t interrupt, he isn\u2019t hasty in his response, he asks relevant questions and answers in accordance with the law, he addresses first things first and last things last, he acknowledges when he hasn\u2019t learned something and he admits the truth. A boorish person behaves in the opposite fashion.<\/em><\/p>\n

The phrase I\u2019d like to focus on here is that a wise person admits the truth, while a boorish person does the opposite. The Bartinuro illustrates this principle through the incident outlined in Leviticus chapter 10 and expanded upon in tractate Zevachim (101a). Moshe criticized a bereaved Aharon for burning his sin offering rather than eating it, as a kohein normally would. As the Talmud elaborates, Aharon said to Moshe, \u201cIf you have learned this law in the case of occasional sacrifices, that doesn\u2019t mean that it also applies in the case of generational sacrifices.\u201d As the Torah tells us, \u201cWhen Moshe heard this, he approved\u201d (v. 20).<\/p>\n

This is not to say that Moshe was \u201cdefeated\u201d or that he couldn\u2019t have argued his position. Rather, as the Bartinuro on our mishna defines things, a wise person concedes to the truth when he hears it even though he possesses the ability to keep the debate going.<\/p>\n

Similar to this mishna, as part of our daily morning service, we recite:<\/p>\n

A person should always have fear of Heaven \u2013 both in private and in public \u2013 he should admit the truth and speak the truth in his heart\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAdmit to the truth\u201d \u2013 unlike Korach, who led the rebellion against Moshe. As the Midrash explains (in both Tanchuma and Bemidbar Rabbah), Korach prepared particular questions of Jewish law to ask Moshe so that whatever Moshe answered, Korach would be able to argue the opposite position. He had no interest in the truth, just in defeating Moshe.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpeak the truth in his heart\u201d \u2013 like Rav Safra. The Talmud in Makkos (24a) describes how Rav Safra was offered a certain amount of money for some merchandise and he intended to accept the offer. Before he was able to answer, however, the prospective buyer upped the offer. Nevertheless, Rav Safra sold the merchandise for the lower price. Even though the buyer had no way of knowing that Rav Safra had mentally agreed to his initial offer, Rav Safra knew the truth and acted accordingly.<\/p>\n

If when it comes to something silly, like how to pronounce the name of a file format, we dig in our heels and refuse to budge, how do we react on the really big issues? I\u2019m not telling anyone how to think about climate change, gun control or the Middle East \u2013 or on matters of halacha for that matter \u2013 but whatever our opinions, do we believe them because it\u2019s what our analysis of all the facts tells us is true? Or have we already chosen a side and we only accept whatever sources support our preconceived decision? (See: every conversation on Facebook.)<\/p>\n

My earlier faux seriousness aside, I really couldn\u2019t care that much how people pronounce \u201cGIF.\u201d But if we insist on doing something, we should ask ourselves why we do it. If we determine that our choices are not supported by the truth, we should not be afraid to concede. This would be a good trait to cultivate because there are areas where it matters far more than in how we \u201cchoose GIF.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Rabbi Jack Abramowitz is Torah Content Editor at the Orthodox Union. He is the author of six books, including\u00a0The Tzniyus Book<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0The Taryag Companion<\/a>. His latest work,\u00a0The God Book<\/a>, is available from\u00a0OU Press<\/a>\u00a0as well as on\u00a0Amazon<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I usually write about matters of Jewish thought but, given my background in linguistics, my pedantic personality and my tendency to use words like \u201cpedantic,\u201d I occasionally write about things like grammar, spelling and punctuation. I must not be alone in such interests because my column on the Oxford comma was surprisingly popular. When I<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":384,"featured_media":62342,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"\nIt\u2019s Pronounced \u201cJif,\u201d Not \u201cGiff\u201d (And Why That Matters) - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/its-pronounced-jif-not-giff-and-why-that-matters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It\u2019s Pronounced \u201cJif,\u201d Not \u201cGiff\u201d (And Why That Matters) - OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I usually write about matters of Jewish thought but, given my background in linguistics, my pedantic personality and my tendency to use words like \u201cpedantic,\u201d I occasionally write about things like grammar, spelling and punctuation. 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