Z = Zed

Jimbob1977

My Mum says "A Zed"

It's a country thing.

Like pronouncing "pen" as "pin"

Gregor Samsa

Jimbob1977 wrote: »

My Mum says "A Zed"

It's a country thing.

It's definitely a Dublin thing too, at least some parts of Dublin. My mother said it, and she was many generations Dublin. My Dad, who was also from Dublin but a mile away from my mother, said "Zed".

You'll hear Ronnie Drew of The Dubliners saying "a-zoo" in this song (and its introduction):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPysmYy76Ws

Oranage2

Also shocking is that most of the world don't say 'Haych' for H

Th isnt just a T sound

And ur makes an ir sound

trixi001

Definitely Zed! Zee is American, and creeping in here via TV!

And my mum says is-zed..lets go to the is-Zoo (and she is definitely from the country - lived on the low slopes of a mountain in rural Co Down)

Her friend had a daughter she called Zoe, and mum had to practice saying the name before she went to visit lol!

And like a previous poster, i say Ay, B, C but in normal life Ah.. (Although strangely my own name starts with A and has another a in it, and i pronounce the first one as Ay, and the second as Ah..maybe i see the capital letter as Ay...)

Vita nova

Although most of us pronounce it zed, many people will use the zee pronunciation when it suits, e.g for companies such as EZ Living, EZ Recycling etc. Even when used as replacement for s in boyz, toyz, etc., it seems closer to the zee pronunciation (to me anyway).

mikhail

Vita nova wrote: »

Although most of us pronounce it zed, many people will use the zee pronunciation when it suits, e.g for companies such as EZ Living, EZ Recycling etc.

I think I end the alphabet song with "zee" because of Sesame Street, though possibly only in that context, so there's something to that. Still, those two examples are exactly the same, and are so obviously stand-ins for "easy" that people just substitute it back.

Even when used as replacement for s in boyz, toyz, etc., it seems closer to the zee pronunciation (to me anyway).

I don't think that's relevant. The sound of a letter and the name are not necessarily identical. At least, I assume you don't pronounce that last word "ideentiseal".

Hamsterchops

Esel wrote: »

Dubs go to the azoo.

I remember Yazoo, great voice Alison Moyet.

EmmetSpiceland

Hamsterchops wrote: »

I remember Yazoo, great voice Alison Moyet.

Ah yes, ‘The Only Way is Up’.

Hamsterchops

That was Yazz and the plastic population if memory serves correctly?

That's Yazz with a zed zed

r93kaey5p2izun

I say zed now, but grew up saying eh-zed. I have a friend from Limerick who insists they learned zee in school, and also some strange pronunciation of Q as "k-yuh". I always assumed zee was just an Americanism from Sesame Street, but it's interesting to hear it's used in parts of the country.

EmmetSpiceland

Hamsterchops wrote: »

That was Yazz and the plastic population if memory serves correctly?

That's Yazz with a zed zed

:pac::pac: