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Zed or Zee?

Started by boki, June 07, 2007, 01:43:15 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

So how do you say it, then?

"Zed", old chap
50 (79.4%)
"Zee", dude
2 (3.2%)
Ban boki from polls
4 (6.3%)
Ban boki
7 (11.1%)

Total Members Voted: 63

boki

Let's hopefully have a pointless fight.  It occurs to me that "zee" is a much better way of saying the letter Z, and I don't often go for Americanised versions of spellings/pronunciations.  "Zed" is unwieldly, especially if you have to say something else afterwards, 'cos it creates a pause.  Let's ask the audience.

Shoulders?-Stomach!


Saygone

But the song works better with Zed.

Kazuo Kiriyama

Zed does not rhyme when singing the alphabet song, but despite this, British people who use Zee are on a par with those who say 'ass' instead of 'arse'.

The 'ass' there <--- is a quote from an American, I didn't personally do the whooping.

It's "zed," obviously, because i'm British. It would be "zee" if I was American. Some ignorant (British) people argue that it's zee because it rhymes with B, C, D, E, G, P, T and V, thus making for a neater alphabet song. But they're wrong of course, because F, H, L, M, N, O, R, S and X don't rhyme with anything either. I think the solidity, irregularity and finality of "zed" makes a nicer full-stop to the alphabet song anyway.

The band All Saints put forward both sides of the argument in their chart-topping hit Never Ever, with the following couple of couplets:

QuoteFlexing vocabulary runs right through me
The alphabet runs right from A to Z

QuoteSometimes vocabulary runs right through my head,
The alphabet runs right from A to Z

But they were a half-American and half-British band so you can understand why. If you're British and you pronounce it "zee," then basically you're a cunt. I vote BAN BOKI.

Fry

I like Zed, I like the definate ending.

boki

Excellent.  This piece of shit thread is probably already my most popular ever!

The Mumbler

One of my earliest memories is (when I was probably about three) being corrected by my nursery school teacher for using the pronunciation 'zee'. My excuse was that I had been on a strong diet of Sesame Street*, and I don't remember any other children's programme on television taught the alphabet, so that's probably why that happened.

*HTV was the first region in the UK to transmit Sesame Street, beginning in 1971. It was a controversial move at the time, as the BBC had turned it down, and a lot of educationalists in Britain deplored the programme's borrowing of techniques used in advertising, but using it to 'sell' not products, but letters and numbers. (Hence, "Sesame Street has been brought to you today by the letters...and by the number..."). To be honest, I think it was the Muppet sketches (which I found hilarious even then) that drew me in.


Murdo

My dogs middle name is Z. We pronounce it Zee. So it's Zee.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

It's pronounced zed.

The more pressing issue is the that of the letter H. It's pronounced aitch, not haich.

Yes, but there's no debate about that, is there?

Small Man Big Horse

Peter Greenaway wouldn't lie to us all, would he?



That said, he does seem to have problems spelling zoo properly...

VegaLA

I pronounce it 'Zed' but get blank stares here in the office. I then look them in the eye and claim "It's Zed, you know, for Zee, like Zed's dead babay, Zed's dead !", which furthers the confusion but thats OK because "He's from London" much in the same way that 'Manuel is from Barcelona'.

Peking O

Despite living in America for over five years (wha...? where the fuck did all that time go?) I've clung on to zed. In fact, my grip on the word is as tight as that of a man who only has some weeds to cling onto as he perilously dangles from a cliff, facing certain death if he were to let go. I've actually gotten into arguments with people who object to zed because "it doesn't rhyme." It's an alphabet, not poetry you stupid, filthy, cretinous fucking yank scumbag!

(sorry, as you might have guessed, I'm having some "issues" with my chosen place of residence at the moment. Britain is so lovely. I want to come home, etc.)

Pie Pie Eater

"Zed" is one more point than "Zee" in Scrabble. They are both very useful words though, so I wouldn't like to lose either.

This is my sole criterion for determining how much i like words.

Edited for spelling.

jutl

A lot of Dr Seuss requires the Zee pronunciation. If I ever have to read it out loud I have to put on an American accent to make it work (he also doing things like rhyming 'lance' and 'pants', which for an RP speaker like me presents problems).

Godzilla Bankrolls

Quote from: Lookalike Mark Chapman on June 07, 2007, 01:56:43 PMSome ignorant (British) people argue that it's zee because it rhymes with B, C, D, E, G, P, T and V, thus making for a neater alphabet song. But they're wrong of course, because F, H, L, M, N, O, R, S and X don't rhyme with anything either.

No! They don't need to rhyme, that would fuck up the scansion of the Alphabet Song.


Morrisfan82

Quote from: jutl on June 07, 2007, 04:01:51 PMA lot of Dr Seuss requires the Zee pronunciation. If I ever have to read it out loud I have to put on an American accent to make it work (he also doing things like rhyming 'lance' and 'pants', which for an RP speaker like me presents problems).
Ha ha.

"... With a glorious swish of his sword and his lahhnce; and a glorious clank of his tin-plated... uh, pahhnce."

<Assembled kids look confused>

Lady Beaner

Quote from: gigolo aunts aren't gentlemen on June 07, 2007, 04:10:14 PM
Zod

^ this ^

Zod is the master. So from now on it is neither 'zee' nor 'zed'.

SetToStun

My former boss and several colleagues refer to the DMZs at work as "Dee Em Zees" which winds me up far more than it should. I mean, I'm a perfectly reasonable bloke and all, but that really grates my gonads. It's Zed, and that's all there is to it.

Jemble Fred

"Thou whoreson zed, thou unnecessary letter..."

It's always better to go for the more interesting option – if it was the other way round, and only 'zee' in the UK, I'd still prefer 'zed'. 'Zee' is just boring.

Is the distinction the same as 'zeeebra' and 'zeh-bra'? Always the latter for me.

Zod

Quote from: Lady Beaner on June 07, 2007, 04:28:07 PM
^ this ^

Zod is the master. So from now on it is neither 'zee' nor 'zed'.


Good looking guy.

El Unicornio, mang

American English usually makes more logical sense but in this case I prefer 'Zed' because 'Zee' sounds too much like 'c'.

boki

I just think "zee" sounds better in acronyms, really, unless the 'Z' is at the very end - "zed" would work then, but in the middle of one it just interrupts the flow.  I'm sort-of half-and-half in truth, maybe I should've made that a poll option.

Paranormalhandy

There's also "jay" or "j-aye".  For some reason, the 10th letter of the alphabet is pronounced "j-aye" (as in "och aye") by people in an around Glasgow.  And yet "k" is still "kay".  Mrs Paranormalhandy claims this is something to do with Strathclyde Region Education making sure kiddywinks in the 70s/80s didn't get their J's and G's mixed up.  But the main upshot I can see is that my strong but sexy Aberdeen brogue causes confusion when it tries to spell "John" (to pick my real first name at random) down the phone.

Is "J" pronounced "j-aye" anywhere else?

chocky909


Dark Sky

#27
I also hate it when British people pronounce "schedule" the American way (i.e., "skeh-dyool", rather than the British way of "sheh-dyool".

Have some sense of patriotism in your pronunciation!

chocky909

Even though I hate it, I find I'm becoming more American in the way I speak. I quite often find myself pronouncing 'cigarettes' with the emphasis on CIGarettes rather than the way we usually say it with the emphasis on cigarETTEs. I also say 'Hey' instead of 'Hi' or 'Hello' quite a lot now.

El Unicornio, mang

Quote from: chocky909 on June 07, 2007, 10:25:32 PM
Even though I hate it, I find I'm becoming more American in the way I speak. I quite often find myself pronouncing 'cigarettes' with the emphasis on CIGarettes rather than the way we usually say it with the emphasis on cigarETTEs. I also say 'Hey' instead of 'Hi' or 'Hello' quite a lot now.

I say "hey" too. I stopped saying "alright?" a long time ago because I just got blank stares. I sometimes say hello but it makes me sound like some kind of old British gent, and "hi" just sounds like a plummy English girl. I think.