Andrew wrote:Mentally, I pronounce "char" like the word "char", but never say it in any case and would probably say "character" if I did. GIF is said with a hard G (like "gift") in my world, to distinguish it from lemon juice (and so the phrase "beware of geeks bearing gifs" is a better pun). I don't see any sense in pronouncing that one any other way. The name "C" is pronounced "see" regardless of what other words or vowels might be nearby. Everyone else is crazy.
If you mean "char" like "character," I guess this is the English Geek in me, but I say "care," like "I char about you," because that's how the first syllable of "character" is pronounced, and this is an abbreviation.
Like ".org" is "dot org."
I do, however, feel mightily embarrassed about "GIF," as I had been pronouncing it like "gift" without the "t." You know, like Southern/Gullah (Gullah is what is sometimes erroneously called "black" or "African-American" speech/pronunciation. Gullah Island is where that sort of speech began,and it is at least as much "invented" by Acadian Frenchmen as it is by overworked enslaved Africans.)