Gimpdome

How do you exactly pronounce GIMP?? When I first saw it, I thought it was GIMP(jimp) but recently a friend told me it was pronouces as GIMP(gimp). I'm confused...

I think it's commonly pronounced with a hard 'G'.

G stands for GNU, how do you pronounce GNU?

GIMP itself is an acronym... GNU Image Manipulation Program

So... doesn't that just complicate things further for ya?! 

I don't think it really matters...
I prefer to hard 'G' it because in our English linguistics, it makes sense and a soft 'G' doesn't sound as nice IMO, even though it'd be perfectly acceptable as well.

Also, gimp as a word is commonly pronounced with a hard 'G' according to dictionary pronunciations, but in elementary school grammar, the following is taught:

... when followed by e, i, or y, the g is usually soft and when followed by a, o, or u, the g is usually hard

You could go to Gimp.org and ask them their thoughts 

(the above considers that even though GNU itself would be pronounced as 'NEW', the acronym GIMP does not have an 'N'  rendering the 'G' silent)



Posted on: June 14, 2009, 15:25:15

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And just to further scramble your gray matter:

The name “GNU” is a recursive acronym for “GNU's Not Unix”; it is pronounced g-noo, as one syllable with no vowel sound between the g and the n.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU for proper pronunciation.

So, I was wrong with my assumption that GNU should be pronounced as 'NEW'... although I still don't think it has a direct affect on how GIMP should be pronounced!

I guess just ask yourself this... Do you like your eggs hard or soft? 

(Oh, and if a hard 'G' is good enough for GNU, it should be good enough for GIMP)

Yes, which would support my assumption that GNU as the acronym would be pronounced as gnu (the animal) and other 'gn' words... but we're not talking about some wildebeest here