Zulu
Zulu is for Z. Not zebra, although most ABC books seem to suggest it is. They are also called abecedaries, or one abecedarium. Zebras are great, but Zulu is a word easier to hear compared to the other words standing for letters.
Zulu is a language, a people and a kingdom in the south of the African continent, and in the country of South Africa - which are not the same thing. Africa is a huge place with many, many countries.
Sometimes Z is zee, sometimes it is zed, depending on which English variety. The Zuiderzee is a bay in the North Sea in the Netherlands, it never answers to Zuiderzed.
Z buzzes and zig-zags, zips and zings. Best in small amounts, which may be why the Z section of the dictionary is so small. It shares space with S, and gets shoved aside so often. Z may not be most comfortable in English, as it is more often seen in words from other languages, like Zulu, and Italian, and Dutch. How else would we get pizza?
Z seems such an afterthought, a straggler behind all the letters. So, here, it gets to go first. Zounds!
ZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDEBA
Zulu is a language, a people and a kingdom in the south of the African continent, and in the country of South Africa - which are not the same thing. Africa is a huge place with many, many countries.
Sometimes Z is zee, sometimes it is zed, depending on which English variety. The Zuiderzee is a bay in the North Sea in the Netherlands, it never answers to Zuiderzed.
Z buzzes and zig-zags, zips and zings. Best in small amounts, which may be why the Z section of the dictionary is so small. It shares space with S, and gets shoved aside so often. Z may not be most comfortable in English, as it is more often seen in words from other languages, like Zulu, and Italian, and Dutch. How else would we get pizza?
Z seems such an afterthought, a straggler behind all the letters. So, here, it gets to go first. Zounds!
ZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDEBA
Labels: ZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA
Posted by Zhoen on Thursday, February 07, 2013
9 comments:
lovely and quaint and charming post, though i must stress that Z is *only* ZEE in the united states, everywhere else where english is spoken it is ZED.
spelling my name in the year we lived in chicago was an exercise in frustration - being mule-headed on the subject of letters, i always spelled my name with ZED to the utter and complete confusion of every single phone operator. not one could figure out that i meant ZEE when i said ZED and i refused to say ZEE because i was not only mule-headed but also very very homesick. silly girl, no?
that's my story of Z.
PC,
An excellent story of Z, however one pronounces it. I did give both pronunciations a Sometimes, only stating my own first since I am the writer in this case.
We all have our moments. This series will demonstrate my axe a'grinding on the Alpha, Bravo, Charlie series to distinguish letters.
We were once quizzed by a palace guard in england to prove we were canadian. I said the last letter in the alphabet was zed. He laughed and said we passed with flying colours. :)
When saying the alphabet forwards, the last letter is Zee. When saying it backwards, the first letter is Zed.
Phil,
That seems fair.
And for all of the Empire, a little credit for at least including Zed, ok? Could have been an american asshat and not even mentioned.
Zzzzzzz...
Oh! Hello. Guess I fell asleep.
(o)
Pacian,
HA!
hahahahahaha!
zhoen, if you were an american asshat, we would not be here. just sayin'.
But I am by heritage Canadian. And Canadians consider sarcasm to be a High Art. Really, seriously, wouldn't joke about a thing like that.
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