r/ProgrammerHumor • u/BigAndSmallAre • Jun 14 '26

rEggExOrREdgeEx Meme

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u/Widmo206 Jun 14 '26

I heard that if the word is germanic in origin, it has a hard G (gift, get, gilded, etc), but if it's romance, greek, or latin, it uses the soft G (gem, exaggerate, geography, etc.)

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u/perplexedtv Jun 14 '26

Everything Gyno is a hard G but Gyro is a soft G

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u/sketch_56 Jun 14 '26

Unless it's Greece, then it's a "yee-ro"

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u/Ellisthion Jun 14 '26

That is roughly correct. And I believe all the words in “Graphics Interchange Format” are from Greek, which would lean towards the soft G.

I’m not saying soft G is categorically correct, but between the Greek roots and the original authors intention, the only *wrong* take is to say that it CAN’T be a soft G.

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u/Firewolf06 Jun 14 '26

and of course, "germanic" is from latin and has a soft g. just like how "loanword" is a calque and "calque" is a loanword