Die letter Z….. 2009/05/26

Eendag lank lank gelede toe ons nog lekker gekuier het op SSSB, het daar eendag ‘n pastoor laat in die aand kom chat. 

(Kan.nie.nou.onthou.wat.hy.homself.genoem.het.nie,maar.ek.is.nog.tot.vandag.  toe.oortuig.dat.dit.Platkuif.was.wat.daar.kom.spy.het.mens.ken.darem.mos.sy.   skryfstyl )

Ai, hoe mis ek nie daardie dae nie!!  Anyway.. terug tot by die letter “Z”…….

Hy vra toe vir my hoekom gebruik ek Zee en nie net Z nie, want Z is suffice…...  Nou ja, dit het my aan die google laat gaan daardie tyd en ek kom nou die dat op hierdie informasie af wat ek iewers op ‘n disk gesave het.  Ek onthou ek het nog die stukkie gecopy en paste maar waar ek dit gesave het, sal nugter alleen weet.

The British call Z zed and the Scots call it ezed  but Americans call it zee.

 “Zee” (As jy op die link kliek sal jy drie verskillende weergawes hoor hoe om Zee uit te spreek, en dis hoe ek dit myself uitspreek )

(Z) – Pronunciation Keys      = bee

Z is the twenty-sixth and final letter of the modern Latin alphabet.

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, which dates from the mid-18th century, probably deriving from the French et zède, meaning “and z,” or else from “s hard.” A variant izzed is the predominant form in anglophone South Asia.

Other Indo-European languages pronounce the letter’s name in a similar fashion, such as zet in Dutch, zède in French, zett in German, zeta in Italian and Spanish, zê in Portuguese, and se (ze) in Russian.

Proto-Semitic Z	Phoenician Z	Etruscan Z	Greek Zeta

Why do the British pronounced the letter Z “zed”?

Whenever I hear a person from Britain pronounce the letter Z, they pronounce it “zed” instead of “zee,” as we Americans say it. Why is there a difference between the pronounciations?

— Arnold Wright Blan

As usual in most of these matters, it’s we the people of the US that changed it, not the other way around. “Zed” comes from the original Greek zeta via Old French zede, and pretty much all English speakers worldwide pronounce it that way. The reason we don’t is because we had a pretty major falling out with the people that did, and in the aftermath, seized on dialectical nuances and amplified them.

The last thing an American wanted to sound like after the Revolution was an Englishman, or vice-versa. Not that it was an intentional alteration, but there was a regional dialect in the US (and, it must be said, in parts of England) that pronounced it zee (as there were others that pronounced it zad, zard, ezod, izzard, and uzzard), and this was one difference in the vocabulary which was seized upon by post-George III America.

According to the Concise Oxford Companion, “The modification of zed … to zee appears to have been by analogy with bee, dee, vee, etc.” You kind of get the feeling that this wasn’t the most important letter of the alphabet, not only from this sloppy attention to its pronunciation, but also by such quotes as Shakespeare’s “Thou whoreson Zed, thou unneccessary letter!” Lye’s New Spelling Book (1677) was the first to list “zee” as a thecorrect pronunciation, and it was pretty much firmed up by Webster, who, like grammarians all over the former Empire, wanted to put the kibosh on all this “izzard” nonsense, and decreed “it is pronounced zee” (1827).

We may win the battle yet, though, by indoctrinating British, Australian, and Canadian kids when they’re young. The plan was, take a catchy tune by some pop composer like, oh, say Mozart, and attach the alphabet to it. The previously mentioned ‘analogy’ with other letters enables you to rhyme the last line of the song, and even a four year old can tell that the line following “q r s, t u v” is not supposed to be “w x, y and ZED”.

This so-called “Sesame Street Phenomenon” is noted in almost all other English-speaking countries, and was addressed by J.K. Chambers in a study of kids in Ontario, in which he noted a lessening of the taboo on “zee” in the Canadian schools. Even in England itself, elementary teachers are complaining that they have to re-teach the pronunciation of the letter when 5 and 6 year olds come to school, and when they sing the song, they typically do so with the American pronunciation. In my opinion, all we have to do to win the whole language war is to popularize some rhyme with some lines like “Cookies, elevator, french fries, truck; don’t say ‘petrol’ or you suck.”

Now you know about zed and zee. Next time won’t you sing with me? ♪♪♪♪♪♪

Zee may refer to:

• The letter Z /zi/, in English (U.S.) pronunciation.
• Zee (artist), Abdul Aziz Peregrino-Brimah, a Holy Hip Hop artist (Christian rapper).
• Zee TV, an India-based satellite television channel.
• Anthony Zee, an American physicist
• Zuider Zee (Dutch for “Southern Sea”), a shallow inlet of the North Sea in the northwest of the Netherlands.
• Doctor Zee, a character from the TV series Galactica 1980
• Zatanna, a DC Comics character.
• Zee (band), Rick Wright & Dave Harris’ band.
• Zee is the love interest of the character Link in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions movies.
• Zee is a character that co-hosts the Noggin cable television network.