Z is for Zedbra
You know, I'm finding it really difficult to deal with the letter Z. As a child watching sesame street, I initially learned to pronounce the letter Z as Zee, because obviously sesame street is an American show. Then I got to school and all these people are telling me that I'm wrong and that it should be ZED, and I was all confused. Now, I'm living in America, and unfortunately I have this particular letter in my new last name, and after finally learning how to spell it and such, I now essentially have to learn to spell it AGAIN. I always stumble on the letter Z in my name, and it doesn't help much because American's have no clue when you say Zed to them. They're all like, HUH?? I mean, if somebody says Zee to a Canadian, we'll know what they're talking about. We may snicker a little because it sounds weird (and because it's wrong to us, and because we're probably thinking to ourselves, "stupid Americans":), but we'll know what letter of the Alphabet they're talking about. I wonder why that is.....I wonder why American's say zee in the first place. Help me out you linguists....(Peter, John). That all came to mind because yesterday I ordered Harry Potter from Barnes and Noble and I had to spell my name to the guy on the phone. I'm so excited about the new book coming out!!! I'll have something to do with my time!!!!! Woo Hoo:)
posted by Jo @ Wednesday, June 22, 2005
4 Comments:
Joanne,
Maybe you could pretend that you are some other sort of nationality like spanish and pronounce it "ZEEED". You might be better understood, plus it would be a good combination of your heritage and where you are now living.
Some Motherly advice!!!! Ha ha ha!
Love you. Mom :) :) ;)
Hi Mommy,
At least when you speak you can make yourself understood to humans. It is very hard for us furry felines to make our meows understood to the human world.
I miss you and daddy. Favorite mommy tries to play tag with me, but it is not nearly as much fun as it was with you and daddy.
Luv, Oscie Meow, meow
ps Favorite mommy sent you some pictures of Soonie and me in the mail the other day.
Another meaning for B.O......BAD OSCIE
Hi Mommy,
Favorite Mommy is mad at me this morning. I knocked over the flowers you all sent and made a big mess of water and flowers in the living room. I'm sorry though, I was just curious and wanted to smell them.
Miss you and daddy. meow meow
luv, Oscie
Oh Oscar...you curious little thing. You should know better, but we love you anyway. At least some of us try...
Joanne, I can sympathise to the maximum. I think part of the reason why they pronounce the letter "zee" is because of the traditional, North American alphabet song. "Zed" does not rhyme with "gee" "pee" and "vee" (where the pauses are in our song.) In Great Britain, the alphabet song is a different one that doesn't put stress on letters (at least the one we used in the Kindergarten didn't). I think Great Britain may have also named the letter "zed" to avoid confusion between the letters "c" and "z" when spelling things out orally.
The funny thing is, it doesn't make a lot of sense. You'd think the Americans would want to clarify the letter "z" more than we do because they use it in more words. For example, most words ending in "ise" in Canada and Britain are spelled "ize" in the States. Realize, sympathize etc. I used to read out letters to people on the phone and they NEVER understood "zed." Not only that, all of our computer programs had American spelling (for those you spell colour, neighbour etc. without a "u" - is it really that hard to remember one more letter?) and it drove me crazy. I wasn't totally innocent, though...I don't know how many times I asked somebody for the last 4 digits of their Social INSURANCE Number instead of Social Security, or their Postal Code instead of their Zip Code. Once again, though, people up here would have understood...down there, no way. "My WHAT????" (insert Brooklyn accent here)
I would just like to say this is TOTALLY unresearched and I'm just stabbing in the dark. This whole thing is longer than your post, but you know how I like language and grammar! CANADIAN SPELLING AND PRONONCIATION FOREVER! Oh yeah, and about the word "about" - I never understood why they think we say "aboot," but it was clarified for me at Convergys. They say about with a more open mouth (as if you were grinning), but we form an "o" with our mouths when we say it. Once again, it's less nasally when we say it.
Loves you and misses you to the mega!
Johnny
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