Copyright news
In case you’re unaware, or dare I say uneducated, the Aussie way to pronounce the word Z is to say ‘Zed’. A quick Google search will tell you that Zed is the standard pronunciation in British English, so the UK and Australia say it that way - but Americans say Zee. I’ll admit, I’m very fearful that the letter Z is now being said the US way and being pronounced ‘Zee’ instead of ‘Zed’. I swear it has only been in recent years that my ears have been subjected to hearing Gen Zers and Millennials pronouncing Z the American way. Shall we blame it on a combination of American television and TikTok rotting our brains? Are we rapidly losing Aussie culture because we are hearing American people speak to us online more than we are talking to other Aussies at this point? Are things going to get so bad that we are going to start calling thongs flip-flops? These are the things I like to fret over. What can I say? I’m an anxious patriot. And I’m not alone in this. One of my Millennial mates recently complained that “we are turning into Americans” after he revealed that a Gen Zer he worked with did not even know Z is pronounced ‘Zed’ and not ‘Zee’. It got me thinking …. are Aussies really forgetting how to speak like Aussies? So, news.com.au decided to investigate. We headed to the University of Technology campus and asked unsuspecting young people how they say Z. I want to point out and put it on record that I put quite a bit of effort into this Z experiment. I had to hunt down an unsuspecting Boomer co-worker, beg to borrow a pen, then boldly steal a piece of paper from her notebook and write the letter Z on it. Then I had to locate some Gen Zers who weren’t rushing off to class to learn things, show them the piece of paper and demand to know how they pronounced the letter. It was a sophisticated operation but I will go to great lengths to seek out the truth! The heartening news is that most Gen Zers that news.com.au encountered said Z the Aussie way and without having to think about it. My ears were absolutely thrilled to hear so many young people say ‘Zed’ and most were quite passionate about saying it the Aussie way. “It is definitely Zed,” one young man in a trendy camo outfit said, like he couldn’t quite believe I had to even ask. Meanwhile, another Gen Zer who pronounced it the Aussie way revealed that, even though she got it right, plenty of young people are getting it wrong. “Do you hear other people pronounce it Zee?” I asked. She bravely chose to expose her own generation. “Yeah,” she said. What does she think? “I think it is American and weird.” Another young person who pronounced Z the Aussie way said that if she heard anyone saying Zee, she would step in. “If they do, I usually correct them,” she said. The Gen Zers were being confrontational over the issue, another Gen Zer said she would confront anyone who said it wrong. “If I heard someone saying Zee, I’d be like, ‘why are you saying Zee? Say Zed’,” she said. Quite the hard-line stance! Sadly, seconds later, she undermined herself and revealed she called her friend, who she was standing next to, Zee, but only because it is her nickname. Among the Aussies saying it right, there were also a fair few Gen Zers saying Zee, and some didn’t even know they were pronouncing it the American way. When I demanded to know why one said it ‘Zee’ she flat-out refused to be shamed. “I’ve just grown up hearing it that way. So I pronounce it that way,” she said. While the bulk of Gen Zers we spoke to definitely said Zed, some still said Zee, and it’s clearly a growing trend - I fear for Gen Alpha at this point. I will be taking the Gen Z confrontational approach, though, and start correcting any Aussie who says it wrong. I’m fighting for Aussie culture one letter at a time.
