惹爭議，GIF這個詞究竟要怎麼讀？

There’s no denying it: This age-old question has turned into a heated—and relationship-ending!—debate. And no, it has nothing to do with politics or religion. The real query is actually much more contentious. How do you pronounce GIF?

不可否認，這個有些年頭的話題已經成爲熱火朝天、吵到做不成朋友的爭議話題。不，這與政治或宗教無關。實際上，對這個話題本身的質疑引起了很多爭議。這個話題就是：你如何讀“GIF”這個詞？

Some say it with a hard g (like gum), while others use soft one (like George). But in the end, only one pronunciation can rule the day. For years, the debate over what to call these looped image files, also called Graphics Interchange Format, seemed unresolvable—until now. According to Still, when all is said and done, GIF creator Steve Wilhite did say that he uses the soft g. So who is the real winner here? (Don’t worry; even smart people mispronounce these words.) the answer might simply come down to where you’re from.

有些人將g讀成生硬的/g/（如gum的發音），而其他人將它讀作輕柔的/dʒ/（如George的發音）。但是最後只能有一個標準讀音。這些年來，關於如何讀這些環繞圖像文件或圖像互換格式（即GIF）的爭議看似無法解決。直到最近，根據Still網站的報道，GIF發明者Steve Wilhite讀的是輕柔的/dʒ/，爭議到此結束。所以誰纔是真正的贏家呢？（別擔心，即使是聰明人也會讀錯這些詞）你的回答很可能暴露你來自哪裏。

The computer-programming forum Stack Overflow recently ran the question by 50,000 people in 200 countries. Their results? The hard g took home the victory, with 65 percent of survey respondents using the pronunciation. Meanwhile, only 26 percent went for the soft g.

計算機編程論壇Stack Overflow最近向50,000個來自200個不同國家的人發送了民意調查。調查的結果如何? 生硬的/g/音獲勝，有65%的受訪者讀這個音。與此同時，只有26%的受訪者讀輕柔的/dʒ/音。

Debate solved, right? Well, not necessarily. The data analysts noted that the question had “built-in linguistic biases.” A hard g doesn’t exist in some languages, so those speakers probably use a soft g to pronounce GIF. Vice-versa for those who don’t have a soft g in their native tongues. Unfortunately, the survey was a bit misrepresentative; although languages that favor the hard g sound make up just 45 percent of the world’s population, almost 80 percent of the poll’s respondents came from those language backgrounds.

爭議已經解決了，對吧？其實未必。數據分析師指出，這個問題有“內在的語言偏差”。有的語言裏沒有/g/這個發音，所以說這些語言的人用/dʒ/讀GIF。對於母語裏沒有/dʒ/讀音的人反之亦然。不幸的是，這個調查與事實有所偏差。雖然傾向/g/發音的語言的人口只佔全世界的45%，但參與此次民意調查的人中卻有80%有這樣的語言背景。

On top of that, participants from Asian countries took a third—and often-forgotten—stance: pronouncing each individual letter. According to the poll, enunciating it as gee-eye-eff is common among the Chinese and South Koreans. While around half of respondents from China opted for that choice, 70 percent of South Korean respondents did, too.

除此之外，來自亞洲國家的受訪者則站在第三個常被忽略的立場：將每個字母逐一讀出。根據此次民意調查，中國人和韓國人習慣將GIF讀成 gee-eye-eff 。中國受訪者中有一半人如此發音，而韓國受訪者中也有70%的人這麼讀。

Still, when all is said and done, GIF creator Steve Wilhite did say that he uses the soft g. So who is the real winner here? (Don’t worry; even smart people mispronounce these words.)

歸根結底，GIF發明者Steve Wilhite確實說他發/ dʒ/這個音。所以，誰纔是真正的贏家呢？（別擔心，即使是聰明人也會讀錯這些詞）