IKnowNot'ing

It's spelled like that because it comes from the latin 'theatrum' (derived from a greek work). Same way 'centrum' gave centre in English (center in US).

I never saw any law that says that words should be spelled the way they are pronouced !

ChrisR

Bit late on this but just caught a re-run of Men in Black and the head honcho is called Zed not Zee. Are our cousins learning to speak English again?

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

The only place left in the world where they speak the "original", pre-colonial english is deep in the heart of the mountains of West Virginia.
I'm afraid the Brits have corrupted the language just as badly as we have over here on this side of the pond.
Mind you, I learned this fine language in Denmark, so my opinion is that of an outsider, anyway.

Gomez

We just call it a Datto....

IKnowNot'ing

Took me 3 minutes on Google to get what you were going on about!
Arf!

IKN

Gomez

...and now you know a little bit more.....!:D

Seeya, Gomez.

IKnowNot'ing

Indeedy.
By the way, I lived in Melbourne* before.










* in Derbyshire, UK. Eh, Eh, Eh.

RotorManiac

Reading threads like that are real fun, 'cause it shows how funny americans are, especially when you try to mess with languages like greek, which must be real hard for you!
As you can see I'm greek and I agree with you guys. I think british as a language sucks! However, the way the brits pronounce same words is correct since they created their own language many many centuries before america was known.

P.S. DId you know that in south England when the want to say the number three '3' they say 'free'? Oh christ!

ChrisW

And in Pulp Fiction too ("Zed's dead, honey. Zed's dead.") Or maybe I misheard it and it's Zeb?

I used to have a program on my PC a few years back which was some kind of user-friendly DOS front end called EZ-dos. I could never figure out what the EZ (ee-zed) stood for. I assumed it was a company name like MS or DR.

I don't know if they sell la-Z-boy (lazy boy, geddit?) recliners over here, but if they do I bet they're called something else (what's a laa-zed-boy??)

affenage

Funny it thought it was pronounced
dubya
oh, yeah, right, only the IDIOT says THAT

So why it is schedule to them and skedule to us
I was married to a Brit for awhile. There really are many differences.

ChrisW

What it basically comes down to is that languages are continually changing. Two hundred or so years ago Brits and Americans spoke the exact same language and it was a little different to what either of us speak now. We sometimes like to think we speak "proper" English and Americans speak a corrupted version but actually we both speak a "corrupted" version of the 200 year old English we used to speak. It's just that we each introduced different corruptions.

Americans have changed quite a few things in English but they have also retained things that we have changed - like saying "gotten" instead of "got". And how Americans don't "meet" someone they "meet with" them (almost reminds me of Shakespearean English).

Interestingly (and to get this thread just marginally back on topic) the biggest diffferences in vocabulary seem to relate to cars (or should I say automobiles..)

Britain/US

bonnet/hood
boot/trunk
wheelarch/fender
windscreen/windshield
tyre/tire
petrol/gasoline
motorway/freeway

bowman

Spoken languages are not really created, they evolve. To my knowledge, the English language is of Germanic descent. The American form of English evolved separate from the English form due to our melting pot culture and the occasional hostilities with England.

I am not sure that 1 pronunciation is more correct, they are more like dialects. Look at the crazy people on the East coast (creek-->crick & car-->ca). Are they wrong?

PaulieWalnuts

And why does dear sound like deer, but bear sounds like bare?

LOL. Zed Zed Top.

Caecil

"Z" is prenounced "zed" because it makes it easyer to understand for us Dutch people who call it "zet", when we watch Top Gear!!!!:p

sco

And why do you drive on parkways and park on driveways?

Don't get me started on aitch (H) and people who pronounce it haytch.

Gomez... ROTFLMAO... will pay that one.

Gomez

A guy at work has one and it really sets him off when I call his Z a Datto. To the uninformed, a Datto is the endearing term for a Datsun here in Oz. Of course the term probably originated in the early 70's when the 120Y, 180B were top sellers.....nowadays those cars are all smoking, rusted buckets of pus...if indeed they are still running at all. The Datsun nameplate was killed off here in the 80's and they became Nissans...

The term Datto no longer engenders warm fuzzy feelings in the hearts of Z owners.....:D

Regards, Gomez.

Kev_UK

Don't Canadians pronounce the 'ou' sound as 'oo'.
Example - About and Aboot.

I think thats something from a film, but it's a common joke whenever i meet a canadian.

It's called English for a reason - we developed it, then when everyone setup camp in America, it got butchered.

At least your not scousers tho!

Oh and the 3/free thing is just slang the common people use (improperly educated kids/ anyone driving a nova or saxo).

Neddie Seagoon

The Brits pronounce it "zed" for the same reason we pronounce it "zee"!

Neddie Seagoon

Actually, Old Chap, if you look at the roots of most English words you will find that they derive from other langauges.... I do believe that language invented the English!

Unlike in Spanish or Polish, for example, it is hard to read a document in English that is 500 years old and harder to understand it. English is a constantly changing language, taking the best from the rest.

Don't get me started on Grammar....

RotaryNoob

Bump :D

RotorManiac

lol what do you guys mean when you say 'bump'
not american