Is it "Zee" or "Zed"?

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TallyMan
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11 Aug 2013, 8:05 am

Max000 wrote:

The pronunciation "zee" will prevail. You all can make it easy on yourselves and just except it. Because we are not going to give up on it. :mrgreen:

OK?

ZED, ZED, ZED, ZED, ZED, ZED, ZED, ZED, ZED, ZED, ZED, ZED, ZED, ZED, ZED

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Max000
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11 Aug 2013, 8:07 am

TallyMan wrote:

Krabo wrote:

Another unanswered question about the letter Z is why it is crossed by a short horizontal bar in some East European languages. The bar brings no additional information with it.

I was taught to do that in computer science classes back in the 1980s. It is to make a clear difference between z and 2. Similarly zero had a line through it too to differentiate it from the letter o.

I hate the line through zeros. It makes it look like an 8 to me.

Krabo
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11 Aug 2013, 9:04 am

A natural way to name letters would be that they bear names that start with the sound the letter represents. Thus, for example, M and N should be called me and ne, respectively. The letters in the Hebrew alphabet are named like that.

Declension
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11 Aug 2013, 10:11 am

Krabo wrote:

A natural way to name letters would be that they bear names that start with the sound the letter represents.

That would require an alphabet with at least 40 letters. There are a lot of distinct sounds in English, and our 26 letters have to do a lot of double-duty.

greenturtle74
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11 Aug 2013, 10:41 am

Zod.

Joe90
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11 Aug 2013, 11:00 am

Us British say ''Zed''.

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Max000
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11 Aug 2013, 2:10 pm

Declension wrote:

Krabo wrote:

A natural way to name letters would be that they bear names that start with the sound the letter represents.

That would require an alphabet with at least 40 letters. There are a lot of distinct sounds in English, and our 26 letters have to do a lot of double-duty.

Japanese is like that.

[img][800:743]http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z477/KaaBoom1/Kanji_tattoo_528_zpsbcf5262b.jpg[/img]

Maybe a similar new enhanced English alphabet could be created to cover all of these sounds. It would probably make reading and writing English a lot quicker and easier.

a i u e o
ka ki ku ke ko kya kyu kyo
sa shi su se so sha shu sho
cha chi chu che cho
ta ti tu te to tha thu tho
na ni nu ne no nya nyu nyo
ha hi hu he ho hya hyu hyo
fa fi ju fe fo fya fyu fyo
ma me mu me mo mya myu myo
ya yi yu ye yo
ra ri ru re ro rya ryu ryo
la li lu le lo lya lyu lyo
wa wi wu we wo
ga gi gu ge go gya gyu gyo
za zi zu ze zo zya zyu zyo
da di du de do ja ju jo
va vi vu ve vo
ba bi bu be bo bya byu byo
pa pi pu pe po pya pyu pyo

jk1
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11 Aug 2013, 7:49 pm

Tattoo?

I think the English language needs a major overhaul. The USians should've done it in the 19th century. Maybe they can try it again now, even introducing new letters from other languages such as θ and δ.

Murihiku
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11 Aug 2013, 7:55 pm

Max000 wrote:

Americans were pronouncing it "zee" well over a hundred years before the alphabet song. I believe the alphabet song was written to indoctrinate the world into pronouncing it the way Americans do. The pronunciation "zee" will prevail. You all can make it easy on yourselves and just except it. Because we are not going to give up on it. :mrgreen:

OK?

Only if the US agrees to adopt the metric system nationwide.

Deal? :wink:

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Declension
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11 Aug 2013, 8:32 pm

Max000 wrote:

Maybe a similar new enhanced English alphabet could be created to cover all of these sounds. It would probably make reading and writing English a lot quicker and easier.

Maybe so, but it would also destroy one of the most interesting parts of English - the fact that you can see a word's heritage by looking at its spelling.

(Also it would ruin cryptic crosswords. :wink:

)

rapidroy
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11 Aug 2013, 11:18 pm

Joe90 wrote:

Us British say ''Zed''.

I think British english is closer or the same as Canadian english.

I also heard that Canadian and British english teachers are often prefered in other countries over Amarican ones becouse the Canadian and British versons are more correct therefore a teacher from those countries would be better in theroy. Don't quote me on that though, just something I heard years ago.

equestriatola
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11 Aug 2013, 11:19 pm

Max000 wrote:

equestriatola wrote:

In Japan, it's even more complicated. There's 'ze', 'za', 'zo', 'zu' and 'shi'.

Actually it's ざza じzi ずzu ぜze ぞzo

しshi is on the "S" row, not the "Z" row. さsa しshi すsu せse そso

Oh and on the subject of this thread. Japanese pronounce the letter "z" zetto or zeddo.

I stand corrected.

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BeggingTurtle
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12 Aug 2013, 11:10 am

Who cares? It's called dialect!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFuJDk6qLlA[/youtube]

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