> they're getting all their information through textual means When I was very young, I had a friend who pronounced "modem" as "mod-DEEM" because he knew that t

> they're getting all their information through textual means When I was very young, I had a friend who pronounced "modem" as "mod-DEEM" because he knew that the word is a portmanteau of "MOdulator-DEModulator". His first exposure to "modem" was in print (computer magazines or BBSes), and it was some years before he heard the word spoken. Many years later (but still many years ago!), I was pulled into a disagreement among a fledgling group of web designers: Is "GIF" pronounced with a hard G or a soft G ("jif")? I realized that I'd never spoken the word aloud, and chose the hard G, because the word is an acronym for Graphics Interchange Format. Needless to say, I did not resolve that argument with my appeal to originalism. In the intervening years, I've spoken the word countless times, and settled on the soft G because it flows better in speech. As far as I know, the correctness debate is still ongoing today.