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''Those who say “giff” think they have logic on their side but they really don’t. “It’s a hard G because it stands for Graphic,” they insist. “It’s not Jraphics Interchange Format!”
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 “scuba,” which stands for “self-contained underwater breathing apparatus.” You’ll notice that, even though “underwater” is pronounced with a short U (“uh”), “scuba” is pronounced with a long U (“oo,” i.e., “skooba”). To my knowledge, nobody goes around saying it should be pronounced “skubba.” The same is true with “laser.” It’s short for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.” “Amplification” has a short A (as in cat) but we say “leizer” with a long A and not “lasser.”
It’s not only the case with vowels. Consider the American Society of Photographers (ASP). The P stands for “Photographers” but it’s not pronounced “Asf.” And what about Content Integrated Research in Creative-User Systems (CIRCUS)? The first C stands for “Content” but the acronym is pronounced “circus,” not “kirkus.”''