Z (letter): Difference between revisions
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'''Z, z''' is a letter of the [[Latin alphabet]]. It is the twenty-sixth and last letter of most variants of the Latin alphabet, being placed after [[Y (letter)|Y]]: for instance it is the case in the [[English alphabet]]. Its English name is pronounced [ˈzed] | '''Z, z''' is a letter of the [[Latin alphabet]]. It is the twenty-sixth and last letter of most variants of the Latin alphabet, being placed after [[Y (letter)|Y]]: for instance it is the case in the [[English alphabet]]. Its English name is pronounced [ˈzed] in [[British English]] and [ˈziː] in [[American English|American]], and these are sometimes spelt ''zed'' and ''zee''. | ||
A lower case '''z''' is the symbol for [[redshift]]. | A lower case '''z''' is the symbol for [[redshift]]. | ||
Revision as of 11:11, 24 December 2008
Z, z is a letter of the Latin alphabet. It is the twenty-sixth and last letter of most variants of the Latin alphabet, being placed after Y: for instance it is the case in the English alphabet. Its English name is pronounced [ˈzed] in British English and [ˈziː] in American, and these are sometimes spelt zed and zee.
A lower case z is the symbol for redshift.
Use in English
z is a buzzing sound (which in English is actually more usually encountered as final s in words like hís, stŏries, dógs, hánds, líves, lîves). Examples (the accents show stress and pronunciation: see English phonemes): zíp, Azerbaijàn, quíz, púzzle, hâzy.
It is often doubled, especially at the end of monosyllables: fízz, búzz, whízz, jázz, fúzz and thus before certain endings: fízzle, dázzle, nózzle, embézzle, búzzer, búzzing, whízzed, jázzy, fúzzy.
There is no clear rule about doubling it: it is always doubled before -er as in búzzer, and also in búzzard and blízzard, but not in házard, lízard or wízard.
Winston Churchill used the simple z sound in Nàzi, presumably to show contempt for the German language: in English it is usually pronounced *nàhtsêe (cf. BrE nàsty), the preceding t making z unvoiced, a hiss; this is heard in other words from German such as quårtz (*kwŏrts) and Kátz person (= cáts animals) while in wåltz (*wålse) the t is silent. This ts is also the sound of zz in Italian words: pìzza (*pêetsə), piázza (*piátsə), paparázzi (*paparátsy).
In ázure, z can sound like z plus y plus û, but more often is heard with the zh sound - which is actually written as such in foreign - especially Russian - words: Brézhnev - but is more often written s before i or u: vísion, lêsion, pléasure, méasure, Âsian.
At the end of a word with silent e, s is more common: nôse, nŏise, clôse shut, phâse, plêase (cf. crêase, grêase, which have the hissing s sound).
But: frêeze, frôze, mâze, dâze, crâze, glâze, dòze sleep (cf. dôse quantity, unvoiced s).
Most words ending in -îse can also be spelt -îze: émphasise or émphasize; but since -îze is never found in advîse, ádvertise, comprîse, cómpromise, despîse, éxercise, surmîse, or surprîse (*surprîze appears as late as Jane Austen, but no later) there is no reason not to spell them all -îse.
z does not begin clusters, so for example there is no zd- equivalent of st- as in some languages: s is used instead, as in mesméric mézm-.
There are redundant French z’s in lâissèz-fãire (*lày-sày-fãir) and rendezvous (*róndâyvoô).