How do you pronounce “GIF”?

Just received an email from The Economist: nice research!

Internet culture: The oldest debate

The GIF, a file type, is nearly as old as the internet itself. Debates over whether it begins with a hard “g”, as in “gift”, or a soft one, as in “giraffe”, can make discussions about politics look civil by comparison. A recent survey asked over 50,000 users in nearly 200 countries what they thought; 65% of respondents opted for the hard “g”. But not all languages have both sounds. The “correct” answer may be a matter of geography