English, the Language.

[iguana_tonante]

I think of it as Tee Enneh Zeytah.

 

[Count Zero]

And here I thought the English form would be 'hullo'.

 

[Goliath]

On a different matter, I was pleased to note in some videos in TNZ that I'm also not the only Brit here who reads/says 'Tee Enn Zee' even though in every other context I think of 'Z' as 'Zed'.

I do that too.

Sadly, the British "zed' is slowly losing ground to the American "zee" here in Canada.

But they can have my zeds when they pry them from my cold, dead mouth!

 

[Trilliam]

\'Z' as 'Zed'.

:thumbs:

 

[ITL]

And here I thought the English form would be 'hullo'.

That lost ground to "hello" a long time ago. In any case, i frequently employ a jaunty Mr Burns-esque "A-hoy hoy!" when answering the door to friends. It's only polite.

And I think of TNZ as Tee En Zee as well. It just...works. It's the only aberration from my usual Zed usage.

 

[Count Zero]

I think of it as Tee Enn Zed - which makes me more British than the British, I guess.


Now, where's my free jar of Marmite?

 

[Miss Chicken]

My language and spelling is generally British because I was taught that and generally write for an exclusively British audience. But I refuse to be the idiot who once told me off for saying 'Hi' to him because the English is 'hello'. Both forms of English (as well as, no doubt, all the other myriad of forms I get less exposure to) have their pros and cons, there is nothing wrong in my eyes with evolving English by borrowing from 'itself' just as we've spent centuries borrowing from others.

It seems that he might be a bigger idiot than you think. The word 'hello', it would seem is quite young and seems to have first became popular in America. I have recently read "The Phone Book: The Curious History of the Book That Every One Uses But No One Reads" by Ammon Shea. Despite sounding like a boring topic I found this book to be an informative and interesting read.

At one point in the book Shea talks about the word 'hello'. He says

The word 'hello' as a greeting predates the telephone (The Oxford English Dictionary gives the first recorded use of it in 1827, but it generally was not used in such a widespread fashion. the word was more often used as a means of attracting someone's attention ("Hello, what do you think you're doing?") or to express some form of mild surprise ("Hello, what have we here?"). An editorial aside in the same dictionary states that "Thomas Edison is popularly credited with instigating the practice of saying 'hello' when answering the telephone ...and the word's subsequent popularity as a greeting. His rival, Alexander Graham Bell, preferred that 'ahoy' be used." (Indeed, Bell insisted on answering the phone with 'ahoy' for all the rest of his days)

 

[MacLeod]

Well pour can be spelt poor, but of course that changes it's meaning.

Also pore, which has yet another meaning.

Yep, so many words sounding the same but spelt differently, each having it's own meaning. Metre and Meter being another one.

As for centre was has been mentioned, perhaps it's spelt that way because maybe it's derived from the word central.

Though it's not only in English we have differences, times as well in the UK, 24hr time is more or less the standard for written time, Look at any time table for a train. Whilst spoken 12hr is more common though oddly enough not am or pm is not always said.

Then there are differences in how the date is written dd-mm-yy in the UK as opposed to mm/dd/yy in the US. Imagine how that can confuse people. Though I believe the US is one of the few countries that use the mm/dd/yy format.

Then units of measurements such as tempature, C being more common outside of the US than F. Personally I don't mind which is used so long as the writter specifies.

 

[Count Zero]

As for centre was has been mentioned, perhaps it's spelt that way because maybe it's derived from the word central.

No, it's spelled that way because it's actually the French word 'centre' pronounced wrongly.

 

[Goliath]

I think of it as Tee Enneh Zeytah.

Sounds like the stage name of a movie actress or something: Tienna Zeta, born Gertrude Zompf.

 

[iguana_tonante]

The word 'hello' as a greeting predates the telephone (The Oxford English Dictionary gives the first recorded use of it in 1827, but it generally was not used in such a widespread fashion. the word was more often used as a means of attracting someone's attention ("Hello, what do you think you're doing?") or to express some form of mild surprise ("Hello, what have we here?"). An editorial aside in the same dictionary states that "Thomas Edison is popularly credited with instigating the practice of saying 'hello' when answering the telephone ...and the word's subsequent popularity as a greeting. His rival, Alexander Graham Bell, preferred that 'ahoy' be used." (Indeed, Bell insisted on answering the phone with 'ahoy' for all the rest of his days)

Of course, the only acceptable way to answer the phone is 'pronto' ('ready') which was used by Antonio Meucci, the real inventor of the telephone.

I think of it as Tee Enneh Zeytah.

Sounds like the stage name of a movie actress or something: Tienna Zeta, born Gertrude Zompf.

And you are way much classier than me, my friend, because it sounds much more like a porn star name to my ears...

 

[{ Emilia }]

Of course, the only acceptable way to answer the phone is 'pronto' ('ready') which was used by Antonio Meucci, the real inventor of the telephone.

And nobody should argue with somebody from the most (cell) phone-crazy nation on earth.

 

[Count Zero]

Of course, the only acceptable way to answer the phone is 'pronto' ('ready') which was used by Antonio Meucci, the real inventor of the telephone.

I always wondered why Italians did that because it sounded kind of rude to me, like how Klingons answer comm signals with "What do you want?". This board is so educational.

 

[Trilliam]

Of course, the only acceptable way to answer the phone is 'pronto' ('ready') which was used by Antonio Meucci, the real inventor of the telephone.

Was also the name of a really good Italian restaurant in Darling Harbour.

 

[iguana_tonante]

And nobody should argue with somebody from the most (cell) phone-crazy nation on earth.

Tru dat. Italians love the sound of their own (loud) voice, and mobile phones give us the opportunity to TALK TO EVERYBODY EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME.

I always wondered why Italians did that because it sounded kind of rude to me, like how Klingons answer comm signals with "What do you want?". This board is so educational.

Funny, because it doesn't sound rude in my mind, except maybe because "pronto" it's a harsher sound than "hello". It's a contraction of "Sono pronto" ("I'm ready"), which is a rather polite (and amusingly detached) thing to say to answer the phone.

Was also the name of a really good Italian restaurant in Darling Harbour.

"Pronto" or "Meucci"?

 

[Goliath]

I think of it as Tee Enneh Zeytah.

Sounds like the stage name of a movie actress or something: Tienna Zeta, born Gertrude Zompf.

And you are way much classier than me, my friend, because it sounds much more like a porn star name to my ears...

You're thinking of Tienna Lynn.

 

[Trilliam]

"Pronto". While it was a sit down, linen table cloth & starched napkin type place, they were really good with kids. We used to take our 4 kids there after going to either the Powerhouse or Maritime museums or Sydney Aquarium.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Of course, the only acceptable way to answer the phone is 'pronto' ('ready') which was used by Antonio Meucci, the real inventor of the telephone.

Moshi moshi?

 

[Canadave]

The word 'hello' as a greeting predates the telephone (The Oxford English Dictionary gives the first recorded use of it in 1827, but it generally was not used in such a widespread fashion. the word was more often used as a means of attracting someone's attention ("Hello, what do you think you're doing?") or to express some form of mild surprise ("Hello, what have we here?"). An editorial aside in the same dictionary states that "Thomas Edison is popularly credited with instigating the practice of saying 'hello' when answering the telephone ...and the word's subsequent popularity as a greeting. His rival, Alexander Graham Bell, preferred that 'ahoy' be used." (Indeed, Bell insisted on answering the phone with 'ahoy' for all the rest of his days)

Of course, the only acceptable way to answer the phone is 'pronto' ('ready') which was used by Antonio Meucci, the real inventor of the telephone.

Meh. Alexander Graham Bell had the better beard, and ultimately, that's what matters.

 

[Trilliam]

^ Alex, aren't you supposed to be in class?