For many of us pronouncing the alphabet ‘Z’ can send ourselves and others in a state of frenzied doldrums. I bet you agree... I can see your head nod...
Does one pronounce Z as ‘Zed’ or Z as in ‘Zee’? While the British and the rest of the world pronounce Z as ‘Zed’ the Americans decided that they will pronounce Z as ‘Zee’.
All of us (hopefully) have crawled out the kindergarten singing A, B, C, D, E, F, G to Z – Z as in Zed. And then after spending a decade under the sentinel watch of ‘Wren and Martin’ we are now exposed to American English and that’s not all (there’s our food, our clothes, our lifestyles, even our values, all going American - so what? the whole world is going American).
Our rather checkered past has provided us with a perplexed present, if you know what I mean. Though English is not our native language, it’s certainly the preferred medium for education and corporate lingo in our country. Suddenly the collegiate degree and your knowledge of the English language are not good enough for the corporate world. So what does one do to avoid a plethora of errors? Unshackle the chains of inhibitions and put in a sincere effort to understand and manage the language differences across the cultures.
Understanding the mechanics of grammar and pronunciation of a language, especially the British and American English would equip us all to speak, read and write English that’s always ‘Politically Correct’. Amen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_English
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