Gif, Pee en gee, jay peg, bitmap, oh em gee

How do you pronounce "gift"?

How do you pronounce "giant"?

Exactly how it is spelled. The G here clearly follows the G of gnu, gnat, and gnome. Giant is obviously pronounced “Iant”.

Ping is just dumb. If you want set pronunciation, put a vowel in there you cheapass, and stick to the unambiguous consonants. .BIF or . SEK or something.

At least someone gets jets it.


L. Spiro

How do you pronounce "gift"?

How do you pronounce "giant"?

Exactly how it is spelled. The G here clearly follows the G of gnu, gnat, and gnome. Giant is obviously pronounced “Iant”.

You mean you don't say gnu as "g-noo"?

How do you pronounce "gift"?

How do you pronounce "giant"?

Exactly how it is spelled. The G here clearly follows the G of gnu, gnat, and gnome. Giant is obviously pronounced “Iant”.

You mean you don't say gnu as "g-noo"?

yeah, those ones use hard-G as well:

g'nuu;

g'nat;

g'nome;

...

"giant" isn't so much a strict 'j' sound, so much as it is closer to a 'zh' sound, like "zhai'ant" or "zhai'unt", but probably "close enough" to being 'j'.

guy-ant

"giant" isn't so much a strict 'j' sound, so much as it is closer to a 'zh' sound, like "zhai'ant" or "zhai'unt", but probably "close enough" to being 'j'.

I can't say I've ever heard anyone pronounce it that way. How about "gin" or "giraffe"?

I can't say I've ever heard anyone pronounce it that way. How about "gin" or "giraffe"?

I always thought "gin" was pronounced "mothers ruin".

"giant" isn't so much a strict 'j' sound, so much as it is closer to a 'zh' sound, like "zhai'ant" or "zhai'unt", but probably "close enough" to being 'j'.

I can't say I've ever heard anyone pronounce it that way. How about "gin" or "giraffe"?

"jin" or "jyin".

probably one of: "juraff" or "jeraff" or "zhuraff" or "zheraff" or similar.

they are different I think because in "gin" the 'i' is actually pronounced (with an 'i' like in "it" or "in"), whereas in "giraffe" the 'i' is more likely shifted to a schwa or an 'e' sound (like in "get" or "pen").

Both "gin" and "giraffe" are pronounced with a "dj" sound as far as I know. But I could be wrong..

Not a file format, but related - is it S C S I, or Scuzzy?

I first encountered JPEGs on the Amiga, where there was no three letter extension limit (nor was it used to determine filetype), so they weren't JPGs to me. Though having said that, I do think of BMP rather than bitmap, but more because the latter has a more general meaning.

I happened to read about the "ping" pronunciation years ago, and it stuck with me - I like it because it's quick. "P, N, G" just seems clumsy. I don't care that it's official, it's just quicker and better. Same reason I use Scuzzy.

Someone mentioned Qt - I sometimes say "cute", but have more of a problem with people understanding it. I think "cute" is more of a problem because people think "cute" rather than "qute", which is far more removed from Qt, with only 1 letter in common - "ping" at least has all 3 letters of PNG. Plus people usually talk of "a ping file" or "ping format" helping to narrow down the scope, where as for Qt you'd be saying just "cute" which could be anything (unless you say "cute application toolkit", which defeats the point of a shorter way of saying it). I guess if you only say something like "send me a ping", it's unclear, but I think that's far poorer grammar than the idea that abbreviations can have special case pronunciations (which as others have said, is what acronyms are).

PNG is not an acronym. It’s an abbreviation and the company who made it wants to be cute and try to give it some special pronunciation by suggesting an implicit I is hidden somewhere inside it.

It is an acronym if it's pronounced. The thing is, there really aren't clear rules about acronyms, but there are many different types and examples. True, the language isn't dictated by a company who created the word, but nor is it dictated by you. This is one of those areas where both pronunciations are in use, and both are correct, in my opinion. I think it's also worth noting that people's spoken English is often less strict on rules than written (e.g., many different spoken dialects, more so than written variations).

Do you never use any terms until they're accepted into the Dictionary?

A 4 letter file extension would have limited it's exposure to Macs, and the handful of brand new PCs already running Windows 95.

And all the other platforms except DOS; though I don't think that's a reason, as it's possible to have a name distinct from the extension (see JPEG). Especially since one of the prime targets IIRC was the use of images on the web, where we already had ".html". They might have chosen three because of the common convention (which now seems to have become commonplace with few exceptions, even though it's not a restriction on any platforms today), but I don't think it would have limited it.