Pronounciation of ZSNES?

Bent · Post by **Bent** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 2:49 am

Ichinisan wrote:I grew up in the United States of America where absolutely no one called the Nintendo Entertainment System "ness". Everyone and his/her uncle called it the "Nintendo" or the "N.E.S." as it was heard in the television commercials ("Introducing...Super Gameboy for Super N.E.S!"). Throughout the duration of the 8 and 16 bit eras, I never heard a soul pronounce it phonetically even once.

When Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World was not yet released for GBA, I watched a Gamespot video review in which the reviewer was obviously a complete retard who had never owned an SNES. In the review, he said both "ness" and "sness" and it completely threw me for a loop.

I wanted to punch his fucking face in...I don't know why.

This week a sixth grader wanted to interview me at work for a project he was doing, and he asked me about video games. He keep saying "Ness" when talking about the N.E.S. and it bothered me too.

Also, I never understood why people, usually regional/country based, pronounce the letter "Z" as "zed". Does anyone know why this started or why it is so regional? I mean, the letters, B, C, D, and many others are pronounced "bee", "cee", "dee", they are not pronounced "bed", "ced", "ded" or so on. For this reason, "zee" seems right to me.

Clements · Post by **Clements** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 2:59 am

Almost nobody says 'Zee' in the UK. The only people I know of who say 'Zee' have spent time in the US.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 3:03 am

Clements wrote:Almost nobody says 'Zee' in the UK. The only people I know of who say 'Zee' have spent time in the US.

"Zee" is the pronouncation for 'Z' used in the US... I've never heard "Zed" unless someone with a foreign accent (non-US) uses it.

Ichinisan · Post by **Ichinisan** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 3:25 am

Yes. I think we have firmly established that:

"Zee" - US
"Zed" - UK

whicker · Post by **whicker** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 4:35 am

slightly off-topic, but "W" is stupid.
Why is it still "Double You" and not "Wee"?

Also, in Canada or England how does the "alphabet song" go if 'z' is pronounced 'zed'. Ending with zed would kind of be anti-climactic.

My father used to poke me in the ribs at the end of zee, acting like a bee.

edit: hah, wikipedia strikes again. Typical pompous English attitude...

a-b-c-d-e-f-g
h-i-j-k-lmnop
lmnop-q-r-s-t
u-v-w-x-y-z
x-y-z.
Butter on your bread
If you don't like it you'll have to go to bed.

Clements · Post by **Clements** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 4:50 am

Ichinisan wrote:Yes. I think we have firmly established that:

"Zee" - US
"Zed" - Everywhere else

Fixed

Bent · Post by **Bent** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 6:08 am

Clements wrote:
Ichinisan wrote:Yes. I think we have firmly established that:

"Zee" - US
"Zed" - Everywhere else
Fixed

But again, I fail to see the logic behind this. This isn't the same as the stubborn US being the only ones not to change to the metric system. Ifg you pronounce it "zed", it is the only letter pronounced that way, while if it is pronounced "zee" then it fits the pattern of the rest.

Living as close to Canada that I do, we get a few Canadian television stations, and when I was little I used to watch a childrens show call Mr. Dressup (anyone remember that one?) Being only about 5 years old, I would laugh hysterically when ever I heard them sing the ABC's, "zed" sounds so out of place. Being older I am more sensitive than that now, so please understand I am not laughing at anyone at all, just trying to find the reasoning behind the difference.

Post by **grinvader** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 10:33 am

whicker wrote:slightly off-topic, but "W" is stupid.
Why is it still "Double You" and not "Wee"?

To add on that: in french, 'W' is 'Double Vee'

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 10:40 am

grinvader wrote:
whicker wrote:slightly off-topic, but "W" is stupid.
Why is it still "Double You" and not "Wee"?
To add on that: in french, 'W' is 'Double Vee'

I'm sure our president would be offended somehow and invite you to hunt with Cheney...

Clements · Post by **Clements** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 4:27 pm

Bent wrote:
Clements wrote:
Ichinisan wrote:Yes. I think we have firmly established that:

"Zee" - US
"Zed" - Everywhere else
Fixed
But again, I fail to see the logic behind this. This isn't the same as the stubborn US being the only ones not to change to the metric system. Ifg you pronounce it "zed", it is the only letter pronounced that way, while if it is pronounced "zee" then it fits the pattern of the rest.

Well, it's Zed in Shakespeare's King Lear. It was originally derived from the greek letter Zeta. The US 'Zee' arose from a now obsolete English dialect from the 17th Century. It's been Zed for centuries longer than the 'Zee' variant.

There are many letters that have unique pronouciation: F, H, L, M, N, O, R, S, W, X and Z. I fail to see how that is relevant, unless you want every alphabet letter to rhyme.

Sith · Post by **Sith** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 5:09 pm

whicker wrote:slightly off-topic, but "W" is stupid.
Why is it still "Double You" and not "Wee"?

There is some logic to that I guess:
UU -> W

I think "wee" sounds a bit silly.

rumrum · Post by **rumrum** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 9:28 pm

I always call'd it Zee-ness even if thats a name of a NES emulator.

Every one in my family calls it that too.

Zee-es-en-ee-es was just a pain for my tounge.

PHoNyMiKe · Post by **PHoNyMiKe** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 11:11 pm

the reason americans use double yoo instead of double vee is because until the birth of george dubya douche, the letter V didn't exist, so the closest thing was a U, so we called it double yoo. but when douche was born, as his mother squeezed his putrid self out, she not only created george, but also created venereal disease, and the first english word to use V.

xamenus · Post by **xamenus** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 11:19 pm

I think this will be enough.