Why do you brits say "Zed" instead of just Z

Dalamari

Dalamari

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Granted it sounds better than ZEEEE but, why say Zed?

and before someone says it "Zed's dead baby"
 
Axyon shields are up captain. Ready to deflect British pride.
 
Deflected! British pride hits KagePrototype for 11 points of damage!

Oh noes!
 
Haha, I wondered this as well, as I watched countless eps of Top Gear. I think zed sounds better, and it just might simply by archaic.
 
WTF?

British people say Zed?

Why? I didn't even know that. I thought every English speaking nation pronounced the letter "Z" as "Zee"
 
Canadians say "zed" too. However I have alreays refused it, saying "zee' instead.

Ever heard of a zed-bra or added a zed-ro to the end of a number?

This also applies to other letters, words or pronunciations (which I use incorrectly :( )
 
I know for a fact that "zed" is the pronunciation of the French letter "z". You Brits claim to be France's arch rival, but I must say we Americans are much better at the hate. We even stick it to them in our alphabet.
 
It's the Brits. They even drive on the wrong side of the road. :p
 
DrDevin said:
Canadians say "zed" too. However I have alreays refused it, saying "zee' instead.

Ever heard of a zed-bra or added a zed-ro to the end of a number?

This also applies to other letters, words or pronunciations (which I use incorrectly :( )
Click to expand...

Zeh-bra. That's how I say it.

It sounds less whiny to say zed instead of zee :p
 
Narcolepsy said:
I know for a fact that "zed" is the pronunciation of the French letter "z". You Brits claim to be France's arch rival, but I must say we Americans are much better at the hate. We even stick it to them in our alphabet.
Click to expand...
Brits and the French have similar heritage. Remember that in 1066 when the Normans (French guys from Normandy) invaded and pwned the English, the sort of took over, thus heavily influencing the English.
The Norman conquest of England...changed the English language and culture, and set the stage for a long future of English-French conflict.
Click to expand...
From Wikipedia Edit: Note that, this is more of an assumption based on my research and does not nessesarily refrect the truth.
Zed for the win though. I think I'm gonna go watch some "Dragon Ball Zed":thumbs:
 
Because some difference between the pronounciation of C and Z is good, mkay?
 
I say it zed (Canada), but when I say the alphabet I say zee, it sounds better in the alphabet, instead of t, u, v, w, x, y, zed (sounds stupid), I say it like t, u, v, w, x, y, zee - it sounds better because zee rhymes with t.
 
I say Zed and Zee, it just depends on the situation.
 
Interesting. Whenever I'm talking about coordinate planes, I say x-y-zee. But in every other instance of the letter, I say zed.
 
Hmm. I've actually only heard it referred to as "zed" on these forums :p
 
Brits and the French have similar heritage. Remember that in 1066 when the Normans (French guys from Normandy) invaded and pwned the English, the sort of took over, thus heavily influencing the English.
Click to expand...
Yes! And America was a British colony once (sharing their linguistic origins and such) - but not for long. We wouldn't PUT UP with talking like those French bastards, so we made our alphabet sound even DUMBER. Thought you were the biggest poopy heads around, eh, France? Well take an aural gander at THIS: "Zeeeeee". Like a ZEEBWA. BIG HAPPY ZEBWA!1!
 
Narcolepsy said:
I know for a fact that "zed" is the pronunciation of the French letter "z". You Brits claim to be France's arch rival, but I must say we Americans are much better at the hate. We even stick it to them in our alphabet.
Click to expand...

Really?? Zee sounds a lot more french.

mmm, zee wine is exquisite!
 
Brits are sexier. Mmm.

Normans were originally Vikings weren't they? So they didn't bring French to Britain at that time just yet, I think that was a little later. But in any case, most French words 'invaded' English when they started to print/scribble the first books in order to create written English.
 
DrDevin said:
Ever heard of a zed-bra or added a zed-ro to the end of a number?
Click to expand...

So when you've got a serious illness, you go to the Haitch-oh-ess-pee-eye-tee-ay-el. I shouldn't have to tell you that we don't actually pronounce words that way.

Actually, from doing a bit of reading, turns out that you changed it for the same reason you spell colour without a 'u'. To be different from the British.

The American name zee, pronounced "zee,"has more mysterious origins. Etymologists, to the extent that they are willing to speculate at all, point to the analogy with our pronunciation of other consonants: "bee," "see," "dee," "jee," etc. But it is also true that Noah Webster--lexicographer, spelling reformer, and advocate for a unique, distinctive American English--must have exerted considerable influence. The pronunciation of Z in his great two-volume American Dictionary of the English Language (1828) was unequivocal: "Z . . . It is pronounced zee.
Click to expand...
 
Feath said:
The American name zee, pronounced "zee,"has more mysterious origins. Etymologists, to the extent that they are willing to speculate at all, point to the analogy with our pronunciation of other consonants: "bee," "see," "dee," "jee," etc. But it is also true that Noah Webster--lexicographer, spelling reformer, and advocate for a unique, distinctive American English--must have exerted considerable influence. The pronunciation of Z in his great two-volume American Dictionary of the English Language (1828) was unequivocal: "Z . . . It is pronounced zee.
Click to expand...
Interesting. So basically the biggest reason we say "zee" is simply because Webster felt the need for the American language to be distinct from all other English-speaking countries?

I'm quite happy he did though. I suppose it's just where you're raised, but "zed" sounds strange to me, just like "zee" sounding strange to Shippi. It just strikes me as a weird pronounciation because it's like...all other letters are making their singular sounds, the shortest sound you can make with that one letter. "Ay," "be," "cee," etc. It follows that z should be "zee," but instead it's "zed." It's like, "D out of friggin' NOWHERE!" What's it doing in there, y'know?
 
Darkside55 said:
Interesting. So basically the biggest reason we say "zee" is simply because Webster felt the need for the American language to be distinct from all other English-speaking countries?

I'm quite happy he did though. I suppose it's just where you're raised, but "zed" sounds strange to me, just like "zee" sounding strange to Shippi. It just strikes me as a weird pronounciation because it's like...all other letters are making their singular sounds, the shortest sound you can make with that one letter. "Ay," "be," "cee," etc. It follows that z should be "zee," but instead it's "zed." It's like, "D out of friggin' NOWHERE!" What's it doing in there, y'know?
Click to expand...

Well, I think it just sounds weird because it's what you were brought up with.

Also quoting from that source (http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20000707)

Actually, the names zee and zed are only half the story. Older names can be found in the literature and in most dictionaries. From Johnson's 1755 dictionary, for example, we have: "Z . . . [Name] zed, more commonly izzard or uzzard, that is, shard. [Feath edit: I think that means s hard (as in, a hard s sound).]" These names, which sound so bizarre to our modern ear, had not entirely vanished by the mid- to late-twentieth century. A 1947 opinion from the Court of Appeals of Kentucky included the following sentence: "If this contract is valid, its provisions are all binding and effective from A to Izzard," and a more recent "On Language" column by William Safire read, ". . . inventive native speakers also express their disdain for the dopes for not knowing the time of day, night from day, A from izzard, enough to come in out of the rain . . ." (1983). But these terms are now rare or dialectal.
Click to expand...
 
Shippi said:
I refuse to pronounce it 'zee'. Sounds so damned stupid.

I don't suppose it really matters. We don't talk like they are pronounced seperately.

Can someone go get me a glass of double-yew-ater
Click to expand...

Weird. To me Zed sounds utterly retarded. But I imagine Zee does to you for the same reasons. Just waht you were raised with. Didn't know about Zed thing until this thread.
 
What's even funnier is when I was young, I used to have some software called
"EZ CD ROM" (or something like that).

I used to think: "E-Zed CD ROM? WTF?"
 
Well, if American's pronounce it "Zee" then they are saying it wrong :)

We own the English language you know.
 
Lets call it American English...oh wait..

Americanese?
 
We learn English english in school but I mix it up with American english all the time. However, I do pronounce it like Zed.
 
Zed is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of, what the hell. X, Y, Zed? o_O

I'm gonna catch some zees, not zeds.
 
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