Zed?

[SuperDave]

I find it curious that everyone I have met from around the world knows that Americans say "ZEE", yet there are still some Americans who didn't realise most of the rest of the world says "ZED"! I blame Sesame Street!!

This has been interesting! I really didn't know, so I'm glad I asked. Once again, you Zed folks have taken something that could have brought out the snob factor, and you turned it into something fun. Sometimes I don't know whether I like Zed's more or the people who love them!

[Zedrally]

In Australia when the zed was first introduced, it also adopted the nickname of a "bottle" amoungst other local names.

Why?

This was in pre-metric days and 24 fluid ounces was roughly a full bottle of whatever. Down here, fluids ounces where abbreviated to ozs.

So the 24 ozs became the bottle, stubby or what ever nickname according to area was the fluid capacity.

Local history......

MOM

[240znz]

Yep, I knew them as 24ounce's as well. 24oz. I tried to get that as a rego plate but it was one too many digits....Got 71 240Z instead.

Funny that you didn't notice my signature...a little light heartedness guys.

[dogma420]

Man, that bottle thing is kick arse! I love it...you aussies/kiwi guys rock...I'd love to have you put paddles and floats on your zed and drive over to Oregon, USA and sample some of our tasty micro beers!

It's not a surprise that Americans say Zee cause the alphabet in America has the z pronounced Zee, and I think that's where it comes from.

British people....is saying Zee for Z an American english thing? I would think that UK people would say Zee for Z as well, but I've heard some blokes type Zed before, so I don't know!

Take care everyone, great thread...heh

[Bambikiller240]

Guess the USA never used that bottle thing since (back then) our bottles were 32 ounces. Now most use 1 litre bottles.

[ZedMark]

I agree. You mates down under are way cool!

Great zed thread. My science teacher in high school taught us to "always zed your zees". He showed us how to cross our letter 'z' to distinguish it from a '2'. This z with a short horizontal line crossing it I came to know as a zed, because it was crossed.

Of course, if you look on your car, all of the badges inside and out are crossed z's. I know that there is a large history of the design of the badges and names of the early cars, but I'll let you profoundly qualified members handle that.

[Zedrally]

Guess the USA never used that bottle thing since (back then) our bottles were 32 ounces. Now most use 1 litre bottles.

Your fluid ounces were different to imperial ounces, although bottle size was similar measured capacity varied, hence 24 ounces and not 32.

I'm surprised to hear you mention 1 litre bottles are in use, looks like those subversive french have infiltrated the US!

Incidentally, common bottle size herecwas 750ml ]again 24-26 fluild ounces depending on how accurate the bottling line was operated, 1 litre seems to becoming more standard.

MOM

[Alfadog]

Dogma, I'm glad you took my previous post in good humour (humor), some would take it completely the wrong way which was not my intention...

British people....is saying Zee for Z an American english thing? I would think that UK people would say Zee for Z as well, but I've heard some blokes type Zed before, so I don't know!

British people say "Zed" too. I was always told "Zee" was an American-English thing... It's amusing to think of how differently we say things.. "BMW ZEE THREE" sounds totally weird to me

[sblake01]

My parents are from Guyana, known as British Guyana before it's independence. That's in upper South America for those who don't know. I actually grew up pronuncing the letter 'Z' as zed because of that. I remember learning of the zee pronunciation in that age-old 'ABC' nursery rhyme.

[240znz]

Members close to the throne (the British one...not "the john" or "the dunny"), would be raising wooden crosses at you for even remotely thinking they pronouce Z as Zee. There are some very humourous threads about the so called "bastardisation" of the "Queens English". The Brits have resisted two world wars, the Euro, monetary union with the EU and there would be civil war if they started to change the "Queens English". There was an uproar when they changed from pounds and ounces to kg's only 4 years ago.

New Zealand as a former dominion, along with other countries such as Australia, have very successfully "adapted" the Queens English into something a little less rigid. But we obviously didn't seem to give a toss about changing the pronouciation of the last letter of the alphabet. How our septic tank "zee" pronounciators got to "Zee" is anyones guess, maybe a mix of your change in culture over the years...does anyone actually know why it is and also why you seem to drop all the u's out of your words and rearrange r's and e's ie meter and metre? Maybe another fact finding mission for a thread?

Here in New Zealand we converted to the "French" metric scheme a long time ago. But it is still possible to frequent "the boozer" and ask for "a twelve" of your chosen brew or use a "seven" to pour jug (1 litre) of beer into. These are still in ounces, so 12oz or 7, but you just have to say 12 or 7. We too like the Aussie's have 750ml bottles of beer but they are now less popular with the 333ml "stubby" becoming the default.

Anyway, I'm with Alphadog, BMW Zee 3? Just doesn't do it for me either!

[CCC77]

We have been metric in Canada for a long time now, but we still call our bottles by oz.

A 750ml is a 26, 1140ml is a 40, and a 1750ml is a 60.(I cant remember if those are the exact ml sizes) It may be a regional thing, I don’t know if it’s as prevalent in eastern Canada. We also call a 24 bottle case of beer a twofour.

Regards

CCC77

[Bambikiller240]

New Zealand as a former dominion, along with other countries such as Australia, have very successfully "adapted" the Queens English into something a little less rigid. But we obviously didn't seem to give a toss about changing the pronouciation of the last letter of the alphabet.

So did we. A LONG time ago, but we did choose to alter the pronunciation of the letter and the spelling of certain words to our own liking. Is there a right or wrong? I don't think so. "BMW Zed 3" sounds just as goofy to people in the USA. (it's not, it's just different)

BTW if "members close to the throne raised wooden crosses" now, the future wife of Charles (Princess Bow-Wow?) would like fall dead at his feet!