What is the more common pronunciation for the r­ōmaji letter Z in Japanese?


I was on the phone with NTT the other day and things were going well (or as
good as they could), until I had to spell some email address for the customer
rep, and fell upon the letter 'Z'.

Instinctively, I went with 'zed' as a pronunciation, which seemed to stumble
the NTT lady, so I tried a 'zee', which did not seem to elicit more
comprehension...

Eventually, after trying a few more variations, I had to give up and was told
to send that piece of info by email (a rather silly situation, considering I
had just been giving and receiving bits of information in Japanese for 15
minutes until that point).

According to
[Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Japanese), pretty
much any pronunciation goes:

> Z; Zetto, zeddo, or zī (ゼット, ゼッド, or ズィー, though sometimes pronounced jī,
> ジー)

It is very possible that, while trying to figure which of the two common
native pronunciations to use, I omitted to stress the second mora enough
(saying 'zed' instead of a frank 'zeddo' or 'zetto'). But I'm still a bit
surprised that she would stumble on this particular instance.

**In your experience, is there a more common/natural pronunciation of the
letter 'Z' in Japanese? Any circumstances that might dictate the choice of
either?**




  * ゼット is the most common pronunciation for Z.
  * ズィー is used by younger generation or by realists, but elderly and conservative people may not understand it.
  * ゼッド is rare. Actually, I have never heard of it.

* * *

Traditionally, there are several English alphabet letters that are pronounced
departing from mere transcription of the sound. They are

  * デー【HL】 for D
  * エッチ【HLL】 for H
  * ブイ【HL】 for V
  * エッキス【HLLL】 for X
  * ゼット【HLL】 for Z

I (as well as many people) thought that they (particularly D and Z) are
mixture of German pronunciations, but that does not necessarily seem to be the
case. It may have come from some British English dialect.

  1. Among them, the following have almost replaced the old forms in present Japanese:

    * エイチ【HLL】 for H
    * エックス【HLLL】 for X

Thus, the old form `エッチ` will imply "sexuality" and `エッキス` is used mostly to
refer to the variable `x` by some mathematicians dragging the old habit.
(There is a rumour that this pronunciation `エッキス` can be traced back to a
certain academic school, which happens to be my alma mater. Not sure of the
credibility).

  2. Younger people or "realists" will pronounce

    * ディー【HHL】 for D
    * ズィー【HHL】 for Z 

but aged or conservative people will not necessarily understand them. `デー` and
`ゼット` are the most widely comprehended pronunciations.

  3. For V, there is a more realistic pronunciation:

    * ヴィー【HHL】 for V

but I don't think this is very popular yet.




  * ゼット is the most common pronunciation for Z.
  * ズィー is used by younger generation or by realists, but elderly and conservative people may not understand it.
  * ゼッド is rare. Actually, I have never heard of it.

* * *

Traditionally, there are several English alphabet letters that are pronounced
departing from mere transcription of the sound. They are

  * デー【HL】 for D
  * エッチ【HLL】 for H
  * ブイ【HL】 for V
  * エッキス【HLLL】 for X
  * ゼット【HLL】 for Z

I (as well as many people) thought that they (particularly D and Z) are
mixture of German pronunciations, but that does not necessarily seem to be the
case. It may have come from some British English dialect.

  1. Among them, the following have almost replaced the old forms in present Japanese:

    * エイチ【HLL】 for H
    * エックス【HLLL】 for X

Thus, the old form `エッチ` will imply "sexuality" and `エッキス` is used mostly to
refer to the variable `x` by some mathematicians dragging the old habit.
(There is a rumour that this pronunciation `エッキス` can be traced back to a
certain academic school, which happens to be my alma mater. Not sure of the
credibility).

  2. Younger people or "realists" will pronounce

    * ディー【HHL】 for D
    * ズィー【HHL】 for Z 

but aged or conservative people will not necessarily understand them. `デー` and
`ゼット` are the most widely comprehended pronunciations.

  3. For V, there is a more realistic pronunciation:

    * ヴィー【HHL】 for V

but I don't think this is very popular yet.

