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all of the words you listed that use a soft g are loanwords from other languages (pretty sure they’re all french) soooo…yeah. no wonder those have different pronunciation.
when you look at anglo-saxon words the difference becomes clear:
- gift
- graveyard
- ground
- gay
all hard g’s.
mixing up languages is the common denominator here.
the G in GIF stands for graphical, neither english nor french in origin, hence the confusion about pronunciation.
alternatively; English is a terrible mess, and the only “correct” pronunciation is reached through general consensus. if the majority pronounces something a certain way, that’s how it should be pronounced.
aber “DU”, da geht noch was!