Why does it rhyme with Yahtzee when clearly it looks like it should rhyme with Daisy.
Why isn’t it pronounced Nahzee?
I’ve wondered this for years.
Where do I accept my Nobel Prize?
That’s German for you. In the German language, the letter Z is pronounced as “tz”. The pronunciation carried over into our language, because the word is relatively new to English, and with radio, we had a solid introduction as to how to pronounce it. We didn’t have to guess at it, which is how we used to end up smushing foreign words into English pronunciation rules.
Probably because that’s how it’s pronounced in German.
Because that’s how it’s pronounced in German. A “Z” is a “TS” sound.
I assume it’s because it’s the German pronounciation? (“z”=“ts”) Yes, I know most foreign words don’t keep their original pronunciation, but this one did, it seems.
wow. Quadruple simulpost. How 'bout that?
I’ve heard it pronounced “Nah-zee”, too.
[Cotton Hill] Ya wanna kill a Nazzy, boy? [/CH]
“Nazi” comes from the full name of NSDAP, “die Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei,” which means “the National Socialist German Workers’ Party.” According to Wikipedia, “Nazi” comes from the first word: Nationalsozi*alistische*.
WRS
By the way, Shirley, how do you pronounce “pizza”?
Click on the link in my previous post. 
The OP actually got me thinking: why is it written as “Nazi” instead of “Nati”? I did a search for “Nazionalsozialistische” and for “Nationalsozialistische” (both of which would have been pronounced the same). There were more hits for the latter than for the former, so I would say that despite being called “Nazi,” the first word was spelled with a “t.”
Although the spelling of the word “Nazi” may be explained by pronunciation, it doesn’t make sense orthographically from whence the abbreviation came from. Wikipedia had an explanation, but I don’t think I’m totally convinced. I am half inclined to believe to the spelling came from taking two letters from “National” and two from “sozialistische.” The other half believes the spelling is a reflection of the pronunciation. After all, why those two letters from “sozialistische”? Why not the first two of that word, creating “Nasozis” (nah-zoh-tzeez), who believe in Nasozismus (in German) or Nasozism (in English) instead of Nazis who believe in Nazismus (in German) or Nazism (in English)?
WRS - sorry for the hijack
Oy. I also wanted to mention that I, personally, try to avoid using the word “Nazi.” It’s been bandied about so much that it can hardly be used when referring to the specific political movement that the NSDAP was. So, I use “NSDAP” instead to refer to what others call the “Nazi Party” or “Nazism” whose believers are “National Socialists” instead of “Nazis.” In my opinion, the NSDAP as a political and ideological movement is more than anti-Semitism, Hitler, SA, SS, Himmler, Goebbels, Hess, etc.
WRS
Mozart = Mote sart
I would assume to retain the correct pronunciation of the shortened word. “Nati” auf deutsch would be pronounced as Naa-tee, more or less. To preserve the “ts” sound of the “tio”, they changed it to a z. Similarly the way Spanish changes the spelling of verb radicals on occasion to maintain the correct pronunciation, like “buscar” (boose-car) becoming “busqué” (boose-kay), instead of “buscé” (boose-say).
Those of us with irregular spelling systems would probably have just written Nati and remembered it was an exception. German spelling is much more regular than English, so they changed it. And I have nothing to back this up other than my own opinion.
And ouryL, it’s not Mote Sart, it’s Mo Tsart, and there is a difference.
Peet-zah!
Huh. The Nazi’s invented pizza. Giggle
Winston Churchill did pronounce it “Nah-zee”.
Am I the only one who thought of “The Producers” when he saw the thread title?
I need to find the cite, but I’ve read that “Nazi” is actually a nickname that their opponents in Bavaria gave to the party, (because in addition to being an abbreviation you could make from the party name, it was also Bavarian slang meaning “fool” or “bumpkin”) and it stuck. I’ll see if I can find a cite for that, though.
And here I found a source mentioning that theory (and arguing against it). Never mind, unless anyone can find an original use by Heiden.
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1104/dictionary_men111704.asp