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minnmess Posted Thu 06 Nov, 2008 5:58 PM |
English speakers of the world, how do you pronounce the letter "Z" ?
I'm casting the Canadian vote:
ZED! |
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Turtleneck Posted Thu 06 Nov, 2008 5:58 PM |
| USA - Zee |
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Typing to Reach You Posted Thu 06 Nov, 2008 6:04 PM |
| Zed. Although watching Sesame Street when I was a kid corrupted me into saying 'Zee'. :( Damn you Big Bird! |
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Joe Posted Thu 06 Nov, 2008 6:10 PM |
| U.K.: Zed, same as in French. The alphabet (or Alpha, Beta, etc.) obviously come from or via ancient Greece, thus the European countries are more likely to say it correctly. I'm curious to know where the American pronuncition comes from, as these things don't appear out of thin air. |
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minnmess Posted Thu 06 Nov, 2008 6:14 PM |
Joe wrote: Zed, same as in French. The alphabet (or Alpha, Beta, etc.) obviously come from or via ancient Greece, thus the European countries are more likely to say it correctly. I'm curious to know where the American pronuncition comes from, as these things don't appear out of thin air.
Clearly from Big Bird. See above. lol |
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Nikki Posted Thu 06 Nov, 2008 6:16 PM |
Zee. (edit: and I'm from the US, lol)
Moray: For the letter J I say "Jay"..."Jiy" is the letter G.
Who says J like "Jiy"...and if you say "Jiy" for J, how do you say G? LOL. |
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SamuraiSandy Posted Thu 06 Nov, 2008 6:16 PM |
| USA - Zee |
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minnmess Posted Thu 06 Nov, 2008 6:21 PM |
| identify your country please (yes, i know where you 2 are from) for future scientic study purposes. |
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Moray Posted Thu 06 Nov, 2008 6:33 PM |
Zed.
Now this leads into another one - J: Jay or Jiy? |
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minnmess Posted Thu 06 Nov, 2008 7:07 PM |
Moray wrote: Zed.
Now this leads into another one - J: Jay or Jiy?
what? jiy? What is that? Maybe "jay" and a British accent sounds like "jiy" ?? (i'm trying to do an accent in my head, but it just sounds like me doing a ridiculous accent, so thats no real help)
G= gee |
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Moray Posted Thu 06 Nov, 2008 7:20 PM |
| it's a glaswegian thing, maybe i didn't type it best - it's like how you would pronounce the start of the word 'giant'. |
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Meridith Posted Thu 06 Nov, 2008 7:22 PM |
Zee and I'm from the US. I had no idea about the whole Zed thing. I learn something new every time I come here!
J is pronounced Jay and G is pronounced Jee. (Kristy I'm guessing it's the same is gee, but in my head I want to say the g with the hard sound like in guitar.) |
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Typing to Reach You Posted Thu 06 Nov, 2008 7:27 PM |
J = Jay. Maybe certain accents would imply J as being pronounced 'Jiy' but I can't really think of any offhand.
Edit: Ah ok, Glasgow would be one lol. |
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minnmess Posted Thu 06 Nov, 2008 7:36 PM |
Meridith wrote: Zee and I'm from the US. I had no idea about the whole Zed thing. I learn something new every time I come here!
J is pronounced Jay and G is pronounced Jee. (Kristy I'm guessing it's the same is gee, but in my head I want to say the g with the hard sound like in guitar.)
I realized after i wrote it that it might seem like Guy (not guy,as in a dude, but the name Guy in French...if you are still with me. Or sure, like the g from guitar). But my uni mascot is the Gee-Gees, so that was my immediate reference. JEE! |
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weirdmom Posted Thu 06 Nov, 2008 7:56 PM |
According to this article in Wikipedia:
In many dialects of English, the letter's name is zed, reflecting its derivation from the Greek zeta (see below). In American English dialects, its name is zee, deriving from a late 17th-century English dialectal form. Another English dialectal form is izzard or izzed, which dates from the mid-18th century and probably derives from the French et zède "and z". This is the predominant form in anglophone South Asia.
So technically the zee pronunciation is from England.
(I deleted some parts that were showing the pronunciation because it was showing as gibberish) |
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