The ultimate digital arts argument.

[ConCrete]

The mighty Wacom tablet has many names, here I plan to fianlly put to rest this ancient disagreement and end the violence it has wrought.

Is it pronounced:

WAY-cahm ---as in "Way Com"puter.

--or--

Wahcum ---as in "Wa"lrus "Come"

[Justin.]

i smell a battel

this issue is importance

[Elwell]

Whack 'em.

[john.red]

A friend of mine actually called Wacom customer service to solve this mystery...Elwell is right, it's Wack 'em.

If I may add another pronunciation question to the mix...the file extension .GIF--is it a J sound like the peanut butter Jif, or a hard G as in "Gargamel"?

[dustbomb]

wrong.

Sales asociates at conventions have personally confirmed:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wacom

[ConCrete]

Way Com sounds so much more techie and aggressive, wahcum sounds so flimsy and passive. I am disappointed in the mightiness of the reality of this. And I have no idea about whack um.

I say .gif and a G not J.

[dose]

If I may add another pronunciation question to the mix...the file extension .GIF--is it a J sound like the peanut butter Jif, or a hard G as in "Gargamel"?

I haven't run across anything officially conclusive on this one, but I'll argue for the hard "G" as in Gargamel, for two reasons:

1) GIF stands for "Graphics Interchange Format", which has the hard G.

2) To differentiate from the soft "J" in JPEG. I've had some situations where much confusion occurred between me and a client who said "JIF" and "JPEG" on the phone, and wasn't clear on the difference between the two.

[DavePalumbo]

I agree on hard "g" for .gif and Way-com for Wacom. Come on, wack-um just sounds silly. Like whack-a-mole. And to be honest it sounds a little bit masturbatory. I'm not sure that's a word, but I think you know what I mean.

[Favila]

In spain we call it wack-om, there's only one sound for each vowel so it's not an issue. Also, for most people it's gif with G as in guitar. I don't know shit about phonetics language, sorry about the lousy explanation

[HunterKiller_]

I am for 'G' and 'Way'.

[Crush]

wah - com (as in com-puter)

.gif is pronounced jif

[Flake]

Wah- Com.

.Gif is a hard G.

[Grief]

people who pronounce gif as "jif" are so gay they're "jay"

[ConCrete]

Its so intolerant its funny.

[thinairart]

The good 'ole GIF argument.. one of my favorites! This debate certainly has legs- I first had this argument back in '89.

From Wikipedia(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gif):


However, the creators of the format pronounced GIF with a soft "g", /ˈdʒɪf/, as in "George". According to the creator of the GIF format, Steve Wilhite, the pronunciation deliberately echoes that of an American peanut butter brand, Jif, and the employees of CompuServe would often say "Choosy developers choose GIF", spoofing this brand's television commercials.

[Elwell]

So..
SCSI: scuzzy or sexy?
(Damn, do I feel old.)

[Earendil]

Scuzzy.

[ConCrete]

Scuzzy. Sexy....thats funny.

The phonetics of mmorpg. Try it.

[Thanasimos]

Way-Com

Jif

Jay-Peg

Anything else means you disagree with me, which clearly places you in the ever-growing pool of Chumps. That's right: If you disagree with me, you are a chump.

[resonanteye]

waw com (as in dot com, long aw sound both syllables)

gif, as in gift

jaypeg, or in the south, jaypig

em morp gee

skizzy

anyone wanna jump on C# ?

[Thanasimos]

MM-O-Arr-Pee-Gee

C-Sharp. I played instruments long before I used computers--some things just stick with ya'.

[worxe]

people who pronounce gif as "jif" are so gay they're "jay"

Haaay



(way-com, .'G'if)

[Justin.]

meh-mo-purger

[Rabid]

Way com....

Wacom Co., Ltd. (株式会社ワコム, Kabushiki-gaisha Wakomu? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Japanese)) (TYO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Stock_Exchange): 6727 (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=6727:JP)) (pronounced in English with a short a)- Reference Wikipedia

As for the Graphics Interchange debate...

Many people pronounce GIF with a hard "G", IPA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Pronunciation): /ˈɡɪf/, reflecting the way it is pronounced in its own acronym (Graphics Interchange Format) [2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gif#_note-1). However, the creators of the format pronounced GIF with a soft "g (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G)", /ˈdʒɪf/, as in "George". According to the creator of the GIF format, Steve Wilhite (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Wilhite), the pronunciation deliberately echoes that of an American peanut butter brand, Jif (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jif_%28peanut_butter%29), and the employees of CompuServe would often say "Choosy developers choose GIF", spoofing this brand's television commercials.[citation needed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)] This pronunciation was also identified by CompuServe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompuServe) in their documentation of a graphics display program called CompuShow.[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gif#_note-2). Both pronunciations are given as correct by the Oxford English Dictionary (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_English_Dictionary)[4] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gif#_note-3) and the American Heritage Dictionary (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Heritage_Dictionary).[5] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gif#_note-4) -Reference Wikipedia

[ConCrete]

Rabid. New rule, no copy pastes. Its no fun.

[Cepro]

Way com....

Wacom Co., Ltd. (株式会社ワコム, Kabushiki-gaisha Wakomu


Then it should be pronounced Wa-ko-mu. With avery short u at the end :P

[thinairart]

C-Pound! I prefer that instead of C#.. sounds much more macho when I tell people that "I pound C all day."

Many years ago I was behind a lady in the video store that asked for "Alien cubed".

[ConCrete]

C-Sharp all the way.

IGDA - "Ig"gy "Duh".

[Jason Ross]

Simple...Wacom is japanese "ワコム" so it should be pronounced "ワ"Wah (what) "コ"Ko (co-sign) "ム"Mu (Moo sound that cows make but very short and fast). "ワコム" is katakana, the writing format used to write foriegn words. My Few years of japanese is finally paying off. But for us americans its Wah (what) Kum (Come here). or as my friend calls it...wack off tablet.

[ConCrete]

I am forming a guerrilla band Way Cahm. We are moving to the mountains and beginning military actions against the establishment.

[nonie]

I just spent a week at MacWorld demoing a Modbook, which is made by Axiotron in conjunction with Wacom. So there was a Wacom employee there and he corrected everyone every time they pronounced it wrong. It's Walk Um.

But then, this guy was from Louisiana so that may also just be the Cajun way to say it. And I like Way Com better so I'll probably still say it that way :P

[Kek]

wackcome

[ConCrete]

Under proper English spelling the 'a' would be made long by the 'o'. Where was Wacom founded. That should tell us.

[Elwell]

It's a Japanese company.

[enrigo]

It's a Japanese company.

D'oh ! that explains all the wacky pronunciation.

[ConCrete]

So we picket them to change the pronunciation or the spelling. Problem solved.

[Rune Rask]

Not to disturb the soup but :

WACOM :

Wa = Should be pronounced Wha (like what but with with a bolder "a".
its for "harmony" - so Harmony-com

com = Com as in .com or computer, and reffers to computer.

so harmonycomputer, its a name that utilizes the vision of wacom, to harmonize the user interaction with the computer, by creating HID's that eases the use (at least for some tasks) of a computer.

also, its just a word... who cares. tomato/tomardo
its just an abstraction of the idea, in which wacom exists. we all know what it stands for, so pronunciation discussion is rather tideous. hehe

Rune