Sesame Street in the UK?

[D'Snowth]

Wait a minute... it's pronounced as "zed" in the U.K. too? Aw, I thought it was just a Canadian thing! I feel so disappointed!

 

[Drtooth]

Maybe it's just a ratings thing... that's what usually gets rid of shows. Mayhaps they reran things too many times. I heard that England is notroious for that (Monty Python made fun of that many times, for example).

 

[MJTaylor]

I'm not from the U.K. but I'm part British and I read somewhere that they cancelled the American version of the show because they were having problems with the spelling of cooky and the name of the last letter of the alphabet zed.

I remember reading somewhere that when the Australian Broadcasting Commision picked up Sesame Street there was some concern that Aussie kids would start pronuncing the last letter of the alphabet differently. However, it seems that most kids adjust to the fact that zee is pronunced zed here.
Tell you what, for a while there were some Australian produced segments on Sesame Street, including one for the alphabet. It did sound funny to hear 'Zed' on this show!

 

[abiraniriba]

Wait a minute... it's pronounced as "zed" in the U.K. too? Aw, I thought it was just a Canadian thing! I feel so disappointed!

America is the only former British colony where the word spellings and letter names have been so radically changed. It's partially due to the history we have involving that little temper tantrum known as the American Revolution. Daniel Webster of dictionary fame started it by creating the first American dictionary and cutting out the u in such words as honour and labour and the like, he also changed zed to zee and cooky to cookie.

 

[Drtooth]

One word... DIALECT. When languages spread they do tend to change. Chinese has several different dialects, as well as Spanish. There's even a Spanish portugues hybrid called "Catalan" they only speak in some places in South America.

So naturally, the language would have evolved over time.

 

[mikebennidict]

America is the only former British colony where the word spellings and letter names have been so radically changed. It's partially due to the history we have involving that little temper tantrum known as the American Revolution. Daniel Webster of dictionary fame started it by creating the first American dictionary and cutting out the u in such words as honour and labour and the like, he also changed zed to zee and cooky to cookie.

It was not a temper tantrum so quit it.

 

[D'Snowth]

Besides, here in America "cooky" means you're eccentric, or crazy.

 

[ISNorden]

Besides, here in America "cooky" means you're eccentric, or crazy.

That would be "kooky"...*cringes at the thought of a spelling flamewar*

 

[D'Snowth]

That would be "kooky"...*cringes at the thought of a spelling flamewar*

Sometimes it's spelt "cooky" too.

 

[Drtooth]

That would be "kooky"...*cringes at the thought of a spelling flamewar*

Kooky? I wish I had a Kooky!

(Reffer kindly to Fractured Fairy Tales version of Hansel and Grettal).