Poll

Zee or Zed?

Zee54%54% - 140
Zed45%45% - 116
Total: 256
Paco_the_Insane
Phorum Phantom
+244|6615|Ohio

Tehremos wrote:

Aries_37 wrote:

GunSlinger OIF II wrote:


U x2 or UU
no u
W is pronounced "doubleu" (well near enough, major influence being accent + up bringing)
We should start a petition to change the pronunciation of W to Wee
Daggoth-UR-XXX
Member
+21|6554|NC, USA, Earth, Milky Way
Zee

Confusing things I've heard where I live  are:

The = [thee/thuh]

A    = [Ah, Uh]

Siren = [Sy - reen/ Sy - run]

pecan = [pee - kan/puh - khan]

------------------------------------------

As for British English, I find vowels are more open back rounded:  that is you get "hawt" instead of "haht" like we say in America.  This vowel backness is often the first sign of someone coming across as snooty sounding in America.  Whether it is perceived as laziness or not, all languages simplify on a diachronic scale.

English was derived from Low German.  Romance languages (French, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Portuguese, etc) are simplified versions of Latin.  In a thousand years, any and every language you speak/write/listen to/ now will be utterly replaced by new sounds, new fricatives, new liquids, new stressed and unstressed vowels and consonants will be blended, dropped or new ones added. 

If it were not for Webster's dictionary, we'd still not know how to spell anything.  We'd all be using our own phonetic spelling system.  Of course, agreement on spelling is something all English speakers have yet to fully accept.  Unlike Spain's Royal Academy, we have no real guide except what is most commonly heard.

The way we spell words will change, yet non-derivatives (historically religious) will remain unchanged and yet be the heat discussion of then.

The most famous of all things related to this topic I can think of is that of Shakespeare, as he often writes using euphemisms and allophones:

Ere the ninth hour, I drunk him to his bed;
Then put my tires and mantles on him, whilst
I wore his sword Philippan

"hour" was often pronounced as [whore] and used in that manner though not all the time.  A pun upon pronunciation and the manner of spelling.

We do this all the time, and often words change in association over night.

After all, I grew up hearing the Fintstones, "have a gay ol' time" and now I tend to think such a reference would be seen in a different light.

Other touchy words:  niggardly, stewardess, mailman, et al.  These words are now deemed non-PC and though we may or may not complain about such words, they are only a handful of linguistic changes that occur.  Ever listen to elderly people talking to each other?  Now compare that to 9 year olds in BF2 talking to each other.

As a translator of a globalized world, I have to take note of all of this stuff.  "NOVA" doesn't work in Spanish for selling a car, for example.  The list is endless and will never be resolved.  Languages do not live in vacuums except dead ones.  This is why when we buy a computer program, we often get American and British options for patch downloads.  There are too many differences, and not all are comical or even apparent.

Even further into digression land, I would point out that certain words like "car bomb" over time become fused together.  The process starts with hyphenation and then a fully made compound word. 

Example:   "car bomb" = "car-bomb" = and finally "carbomb." 

Provided we deal with terrorists for a few hundred years and still drive cars.

End

Daggoth
mtb0minime
minimember
+2,418|6624

^ For me, the difference between "The" being pronounced as "theee" or "thuh" is if something is being emphasized.

Ex:
I went to "thuh" book store. Means I just went to a regular ol' bookstore.
I went to "thee" book store. Means I went to the one and only bookstore that has everything and is an amazing place and there's nothing else quite like it.

Just my opinion, though. I know a lot of people just say one or the other or mix it up for no particular reason.
Stingray24
Proud member of the vast right-wing conspiracy
+1,060|6415|The Land of Scott Walker
The right way ... Zee.
Havok
Nymphomaniac Treatment Specialist
+302|6645|Florida, United States

Stingray24 wrote:

The right way ... Zee.
Agreed.
David.P
Banned
+649|6244
Zee Motherfucker! Do you pronounce it?
Cheez
Herman is a warmaphrodite
+1,027|6409|King Of The Islands

Daggoth-UR-XXX wrote:

If it were not for Webster's dictionary, we'd still not know how to spell anything.
Its because of Webster's dictionary that you don't know how to spell.

In it, he introduced features that would be a hallmark of future editions such as American spellings (center rather than centre, honor rather than honour, program rather than programme, etc.)
My state was founded by Batman. Your opinion is invalid.
Sydney
2λчиэλ
+783|6813|Reykjavík, Iceland.
Null vote.

Zeta.

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