How do you pronounce Z

could be “en” for dyslexics :wink:

::don’t flame, don’t flame me::

UK - zed
's dead baby.

‘zee’, because I’m an Uhmuhrican,
‘zed’ because I’m a ham (KF4VCC)
‘zulu’ because I log radio contacts in GMT, AKA ‘zulu’ time.

Vlad/Igor

Neither it would be Zed cola. Here, cola is cola, soda is only used only for soda water and pop is not used at all.

I’m American, and also say “Zee.” In fact, are there any Americans who primarily say “Zed”?

Furthermore, which pronunciation is older? I like how “Zed” is distinct from other letters–“Zee” could sound too similar to “C.” But I don’t know if that means “Zee” was changed to “Zed” because of the similarity, or if “Zed” has always been a preferred pronunciation in the UK (and the Commonwealth).

I’d think zed would be older since the Greek zeta is how we got it. It seems like there’s been a steady shift from the more complex names for letters to names based on how they sound. Beta and Delta have given way to bee and dee. Zee seems to follow that logic. It’s too bad we can’t get rid of double-u and replace it with wee. No, we have too many ee sounding letters, how about way.

A B C D E F G
H I J K LMNOP
Q R S, T U V
way and X, Y and Z.

That works nicely.

Wow, this is pretty cool.

I use zee, because I live in the United States. In fact, until now, I didn’t even know one could pronounce it properly as zed.

In Spanish, we use zeta.

That is cool.

U S …zee

Zed - UK

I’m starting to, since I am used to hearing it on amateur radio. The example would be: “This is 4RZED**M” for a local station **4RZM. But I would consider myself in the minority. I don’t hear many other people adopting ‘zed.’

Good question. I know from personal experience that the pronounced letters V, C and Z all sound more or less the same on the radio or telephone (which is why I usually announce myself as KF4 victor charlie charlie, even for local FM contacts), as do T, G, D and P.

Vlad/Igor
KF4VCC

Zed.

Always zed.

Although strangely, it would still be ‘zee zee top’. I guess that would make me multi-cultural :wink:

I’m from UK so I pronounced it zed. But a few months back I had a revellation. Those Americans are right, it should be zee !
B = bee not bed
P = pee not ped
ergo
Z = zee not zed

Both.

Canadian born and raised, and my parents are/were American… When I say it out loud, I say “zed”, but when I read it I pronounce it “zee” in my head.

That’s the first thing I wondered when I heard about this odd zed thing: why don’t they say bed and ped too? Then I wondered if people go to see Zedbras at the Zedoo. :slight_smile:

I’m in the U.S., and I say it “hizking boot.” It’s got a silent “hiking boot.”

I’m a Canadian who lives in the US. I say Zed, but sometimes will have to clarify as ‘zee’ to Americans.

I don’t know if there is anywhere else in the English speaking world that says ‘zee’.

“Well the horror, the pain and the alphabet
from a to migraine, from nausea to zed”

Well, we don’t say Zedbras, but we do call them ‘zebras’ (with a short ‘e’). Don’t Americans call them Zeebras?

There you go, introducing logic to a place it doesn’t belong - like the old 'all the other elements end with ‘um’ not ‘ium’ (false) argument - you might as well be asking why K isn’t pronounced ‘Kee’ and ‘L’ doesn’t come out as ‘Lee’.

BTW, UK=zed for me, if you hadn’t already guessed.

The first syllable of ‘Zebra’ contains a short e, as in Deborah, in this locality.