![]() This wasn't meant as an attack on anybody or their culture, by the way. Can't find any evidence pertaining to that though so I think that might be fabricated. Never heard of the Nissan 350 Zed, although, again, I've heard from some people that that's how the Japanese intended it to be said. I've heard everyone refer to it as the 350 Zee, too (for the Nissan 350Z, of course). Needless to say, he learned from his mistake. I remember a British friend who once said Dragon Ball Zed. ![]() Only Kiefer Sutherland says noo-kyoo-lar (if you watch 24, you'll know that for some reason he went from saying noo-klee-er in season 2 through to 5, and then he started saying noo-kyoo-lar). Noo-klee-er is what most people say, and is accepted as the correct pronunciation. :) I've never heard anybody say noo-clear. Of course, one can avoid all this nonsense (theoretically) by using the phonetic alphabet - but people will probably look at you funny if you spell your name like “Tango Hotel India Sierra.I like how you took that joke seriously. The difference is especially noticeable over the phone or with someone who is not a native English speaker. When you say “zee,” it sounds pretty much just like B, C, D, E… you get the point. One could argue that using “zed” makes for less confusion when spelling words, especially as Z is not a hugely common letter. In the late 17th century (1677 to be exact), Thomas Lye’s A New Spelling Book first advanced the idea that “zee” was also an acceptable pronunciation.Īlthough this didn’t latch on popularly among the English at first, after the American Revolution (when it was rather unfashionable to remind others or be reminded of our little falling out with our cousins across the pond) the new Americans took great pains to distance themselves from the British as much as possible, latching onto nuances in dialect and pronunciation as one way to do so.īy 1827, it was all over for the rest of the world, as (American) Noah Webster declared in his eponymous dictionary, “It is pronounced zee.” Zee last word The English letter “Z” traces its origins to the Greek zeta and called “zed” accordingly. Brits, Aussies, Kiwis, and yes - even the Canadians say “zed.” In fact, every other predominantly English-speaking country in the world uses “zed.” So why don’t we? The truth is, we Americans are in the minority here. Here’s a hint: NZ call signs start, for the most part, with the letters “ZL.” Yep. The American thought the Kiwi was saying something like, “Fiddle two…” Just the other day I read a story from an American amateur radio operator who said he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what a New Zealand operator’s call sign was. There are apparently a huge number of American English speakers that are pretty confused about this. So what’s one more little difference in letter pronunciation? To zee or not to zee (Don’t get me started on tire/tyre and curb/kerb.) Why do people in England and Canada say the name of the letter Z as zed instead of zee?Įnglish, like any widely spoken language worldwide, has its dialects and idiosyncrasies.įrom the use (or non-use) of the letter “U” in words like neighbor/neighbour, color/colour and so on, to the odd discrepancy between how we and they pronounce aluminum and aluminium, the whole language is pretty disorganized.
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