People are incapable of agreeing on how to pronounce gif

As a species mankind can help a paralysed man walk again, grow an organ from stem cells and play the American national anthem using a gun - but we still cannot agree on how to pronounce the word gif.

That's according to a new poll of 30,000 people from 191 countries by Mashable and Column Five.

While Steve Wilhite, the inventor of the format, announced last year it was "jiff" rather than "giff", 70 per cent of the those polled disagree, pronouncing it with a hard g.

The remaining 30 per cent stayed loyal to Wilhite, announcing it was pronounced "jiff".

The poll also asked how people pronounced meme, data, Linux, cache and Wi-Fi.

Eighty-two per cent went with "meme" over "me me", and 66 per cent of people pronounce "data" as "day-tuh", compared to 34 per cent prefer "dat-uh".

For Linux, 21 per cent of people say "lie-nux" as opposed to 79 per cent of people who say "linn-ux". 80 per cent of people choose "cash" to mean "cache", but 20 per cent say "cash-ay".

Finally five per cent of (presumably very) confused people pronounce "wifi" as "wee-fee".

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