What will happen to the English language in the future ?

[Mikey]

and notice how most kids pronounce the letter z these days

Interesting ....
How were z's commonly pronounced in the Canada in the past ?

[The Bat]

I feel Americas have become lazy in the usage of the English language. We use less adjective's...and even shorten words. Soon we'll all be speaking like "Jeff Foxworthy".

Smatter'chu?
Utcha'Doin'?
Yon'some?

[Mikey]

Sometimes the British are lazy too in a different way.

Ever hear some Brits pronounce a word with a T in the center ?

They don't pronounce the T at all ... Example, they say Bea'les (pronounced Bee uls) instead of Beatles ... which most Americans pronounce the missing T with a D sound - example Beadles

So everybody's lazy

[AUSSIE-Rebooted-AMM]

Interesting Topic. . . .I would love to contribute. . . .but I have to go and drop a steaming hot T1K-Mikey!

[Bionic Joe]

In a 100 years everyone in America will be speaking spanish

[cjefferys]

How were z's commonly pronounced in the Canada in the past ?

In Canada, it's usually pronouced "zed". I go back and forth on that pronounciation, depending on if I'm talking to an American or Canadian, my mind just automatically does the conversion (I do the same in writing with words that have different spellings in each country)

We see that today, even in Canada, with words like Couch and sofa replacing chesterfield,

Wow, "chesterfield" is really old fashioned, I only ever heard my grandmother and other people of her generation use it (folks in their eighties). I think it was a regional thing too, only used in parts of Canada.

[Captain]

and notice how most kids pronounce the letter z these days

Interesting ....
How were z's commonly pronounced in the Canada in the past ?

Z is/was pronounced zed up here versus zee. In school...at least when I went..it was zed or else!!!

Some regions, like where I grew up, always used either pronunciation as fit the need due to our historical ties with the US--(same with the spelling of certain words like color/colour, center,centre, etc.), but officially, zed is correct, as is the spelling of colour, favour, etc with a U.

[Captain]

Sorry cjefferys...Didnt mean to copy your answer...we answered essentially the same, at the same time...weird!

Yah, chesterfield is an older term. Out here it was a pretty common term into the late seventies early eighties. They still used it in advertising up until then.

[Mikey]

I don't understand the zed pronunciation

Is it only used when a word ends with a z sound ? ....

What about a word like zebra or zero ?

[cjefferys]

Nah, it's just the pronunciation of the letter itself, "zed" instead of "zee".

[Mikey]

ahhh, ok

[cjefferys]

Sorry cjefferys...Didnt mean to copy your answer...we answered essentially the same, at the same time...weird!

Yah, chesterfield is an older term. Out here it was a pretty common term into the late seventies early eighties. They still used it in advertising up until then.

Spooky!

I really only recall hearing "chesterfield" being used by my grandmother. She also always called napkins "serviettes", and Kool-Aid was "Freshie", regardless of the brand.

[Captain]

...which makes that pronunciation (zed) all the more odd. "Zee" makes sense, and phonetically sounds as it should. Its like pronouncing R as "phipt"...It just doesnt fit.

[Captain]

Serviettes...Hah! My Mom used to call napkins that too, and her side of the family still does. Since this is a family board I wont say what my Dads side calls them!

[Mikey]

To me, pronouncing Z as zed makes me think of radio operators pronouncing 9 as NINER.

Perhaps zed originally came from something like that ?