# Do the letters of the alphabet have official spellings?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-letters-of-the-alphabet-have-official-spellings/347632>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 9, 2006, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-letters-of-the-alphabet-have-official-spellings/347632 "2006-03-09T02:56:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-letters-of-the-alphabet-have-official-spellings/347632/21 "2006-03-10T14:01:04Z")

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> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> Despite what the usually-correct **Chronoc** says, not all phonetic versions of the letters start with the letters themselves, which is what makes the Harris joke funny.

I think he meant that that’s the case in Greek. He indicates in his last sentence that it’s not the case in “our” language.

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**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-letters-of-the-alphabet-have-official-spellings/347632/22 "2006-03-10T14:51:16Z")

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> [@scm1001](#):
>
> What is this Zee imposter? All users of the Queen’s English know it to be rightly Zed.

Zee is Zed’s evil twin from Power Rangers.

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2006, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-letters-of-the-alphabet-have-official-spellings/347632/23 "2006-03-10T23:56:05Z")

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Yes, I meant to specify “in Greek”, but I see on re-reading that that I somehow omitted that. And I’ve seen the Harris cartoon, too (I have a book with that one in it), but I didn’t feel inclined to either find it online nor to transcribe it.

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