"z" has been a valid alternative to "s" since I was a boy (and I can no longer claim to be a spring chicken).
What I have noticed more of is children saying "zee" instead of "zed". I beat those children and they come to realise that they deserve it.
What I have noticed more of is children saying "zee" instead of "zed". I beat those children and they come to realise that they deserve it.
Or we could all memorize something like the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet, I guess.
Americans and the British (and a couple billion other people) share a language that is spelled like shit. We should steal simplifications from each other as much as possible.
Ay, see, ef, jee, aitch, aye, jay, kay, oh, kyuu, yuu, double-yuu, eks, why?, zed.
It's because the English alphabet is not a phonetic lettering system. If I were American I'd:
a) start saying "t" in the middle of a word as a "t" instead of a "d", and
b) vastly improve the standard of my spelling and those around me
before telling anyone, especially British people, that words shouldn't be spelt "like shit".
Personally, I'm with the Arguments against reform section of Wikipedia[1]:
> English is a West Germanic language that has borrowed many words from non-Germanic languages, and the spelling of a word often reflects its origin. This sometimes gives a clue as to the meaning of the word. Even if their pronunciation has strayed from the original pronunciation, the spelling is a record of the phoneme.
Which is how I can usually guess the correct pronunciation and meaning of an unfamiliar word while I see highly educated Americans butcher the pronunciation of anything outside the common vernacular. These "simplifications" are doing anything but.
However:
> Another criticism is that a reform may favor one dialect or pronunciation over others, creating a standard language
If I could force North Americans to speak better then I might be persuaded.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-language_spelling_refo...
Edit: an important point was missed!
> a) start saying "t" in the middle of a word as a "t" instead of a "d"
Americans do not have a distinction between intervocalic /t/ and intervocalic /d/. (Though you have to be careful - that analysis requires you to commit to a "syllabic /n/" model of words like "kitten".)
But while /t/ and /d/ are pronounced identically in that context, you can't say that /t/ is being pronounced "as /d/". They are both flapped, which is a sound just as distinct from [d] as it is from [t].
;-)
> Population > 2018 estimate > 1,352,642,280
> Official languages > Hindi > English
As a starting point, this source lists about 128 million people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-s...
It probably started with the popularity things like Sesame Street and Dragon Ball Z (Dragon Ball Zee).
However, interestingly, the one time everyone uses "zed" is when we acronymise the country name -- NZ, or N-Zed.