Surprising as it sounds, it looks like the English alphabet will be losing one of its letters on June 1st. The announcement came from the English Language Central Commission (ELCC).
Here is a quote from the press release:
After carefully considering and debating the matter for over two years, the ELCC came to the conclusion that the letter “Z” should be removed from the English alphabet. The main objective of this change is to simplify the phonetic aspect of the language, and to unify the American and British spellings.
What will happen to the words that have the letter “z” in them? It depends on the word. According to the ELCC, words that started with a “z” will now start with an “x”. Examples include:
- zero becomes xero
- zoo becomes xoo
- zone becomes xone
- zodiac becomes xodiac
Words that featured a “z” with the “s” sound, on the other hand, will now be officially written with the “s” (i.e., unifying the American and British spelling). Examples include:
- visualize becomes visualise
- analyze becomes analyse
- materialize becomes materialise
What do you think about this change? Will it really simplify the English language, or will it make things more confusing?
This post is an April fools prank.
This is somewhere between a crying shame and totally ludicrous…really hard to believe…although given where we’ve been going with everything lib and p.c. lately, guess I/we shouldn’t be surprised. Still, WHO or WHAT ENTITY has/makes such a decision for all of us…? I will NEVER give up my z letters for anything…rule change or not…and will use the letter s before x if necessary (if z disappears from computers/keyboards). I’ll tell you what’s REALLY driving this and other similar vocab changes: This is another dumbing down of our education system for those who can’t/won’t learn to write and spell correctly because it’s “so/too hard.”
Answer: I think that removing the letter ‘Z’ would be bad because if someone who has come to canada to settle here before there last name or first name has to change so like my last name instead of ‘Tarazi’ it would be ‘Taraxi’ and that is not so right.I think that if we remove the letter z then for people that know the alphabet or people that are going thru high school it will be really confusing.
is this a joke? (Comments didnt help) I was just trying to look at stuff online and found this. Pleas tell me it is a joke because my stomach just sank 😨
I can see the grandparents now “It don’t make no sense their teaching you that crap. Cuz back in my day the letter Z exiest”
It is 2019 are we still thinking about doing this stuff still?
We need the letter Z otherwise we will get confused. And by the way that April fools prank was not cool at all
The responses are for great reading….LoL
Shows how many people read the whole thing or they would have know it was a joke….
Would never fly….no ZZ top …nooo …..no wiZard of OZ and no sleep ZZZZZZZZZZ…and no Zoot suits …I think it would be Zany!!!
2019 z is still here
Absurd is the word that comes to mind. I have seen where people are no longer using the “Z” in their writings. For those of us older folk that grew up learning our alphabet and singing the alphabet song it will be hard to change. I like the letter and do not see the need of removal.
That is like the minority wanting to remove the word “man” from everything. Because it is considered sexiest. Again my thought is total absurdity!
Bro all these comments are like from almost 10 years ago. Im the first 2019 comment on this. And this is true, the letter z has removed. Kindergarten schools are starting to stop using z in the alphabet.
Even the alphabet itself will end off questioning this decision. Do you agree?
X is the most inconsistent letter (behind C, of course), and zero becoming xero will further English’s inconsistent spellings.
Clearly the letter Z was not, nor will it, but X it has been said has become obsolete and apparently far too heavy for each person to pick up and carry.
You can Zuck it !
Why were people initially ‘freaking out’ over this post? My assumption is that the writer hadn’t included the fact that it was an April fool’s joke until a later date?
Regardless – hypothetically speaking of course – if a particular letter were ever to be removed, I don’t suppose that one hundred years from now, there would actually be so many people as ‘up in arms’ about it as is suggested in the earliest prior dialogue here suggests.
I can’t imagine that people would even think twice about “How handy it would be if only we had a letter that made more of a ‘______’ sound.” 😉
Still, educated discussion is fun on occasion. 😀
I would consider the removal of – for example – one of letters: C / K / Q to be more suitable as they make similar sounds. Further, there would quickly become changes in the phonetics of two letters placed side by side to fill voids.
Present examples include:
– ‘ch’ vs ‘cc.’
– Why is the word ‘Queen’ not spelled ‘Kween?’
– Or ‘question’ spelled ‘kwestccun?’ Lol 😉
Just some random thoughts.
When I was younger, I knew a fellow from Sri Lanka. He may have been full of baloney (bologna?), but once told me that his country’s language(s) had multiple alphabets, consisting of hundreds of letters or sounds; each representing the slightest change in tone for it’s use; to the point that it was quite rare for someone to be completely fluent in them all.
I know, I should have googled this before posting. 😉
Have a great day everyone!
Justin Barracosa
First , it sounds insane because without the letter Z
the English alphabet wouldn’t exist any longer .
Also , think about the future generation …..what
about them right ? People will heartbroken or
shocked to find out the letter Z can no longer
be use for a boy/girl name .
Zeus wuld be mad
I Actually believed it I thought I found new my sister dont know b4 me cuz I’m always late some dude Kobe died I dont know who he is she told me yesterday but I forgot🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I was really going to tell her my mom my friends 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Z is my favorite letter
would there be a rearrangement to English keyboards, therefore making people with super-fast typing speeds have to relearn the keyboard.
The logic you have is completely stupid. Let me give examples of Z words that would look stupid if replaced by x or s:
zoom – soom/xoom
zebra – sebra/xebra
buzz – buss/buxx
zaps – saps/xaps
zoology – soology/xoology
I think my point is clear, also this joke definitely did bring up a bunch of logic on how removed z would be stupid and make no sense. Also don’t pretend to be a company as a joke you could actually get hate to the company so yeah but whatever 🥱
Some how this JUST came up today in a Google search for me, I was like, “What?!!!!” It would suck if your name started with a Z like Zelda or Zandra…or what about that malt beverage company, not sure if they are still around, Zima?! They could never eliminate a letter. Impossible. But you had me…10-years after the fact.
If Z removed there wouldn’t be an alphabet song. The melody would never be complete.
I disagree because this is outrageous. Why should they remove such an amazing letter? What will the children think! I shall speak with the manager about this because my kids will not only learn about 25 letters they will learn bout all 26 of them. How dare they decide to remove it without the consent of the people. Isn’t this whole world a democracy! How dare they do this! I hope that all the people on this flat earth will be with me!
😂😂😂Whoever thought of this should become a comedian! You can’t just remove the letter “z”. It’s apart of the alphabet family no matter its shape, size, gender, sexuality e.c.t. Aprils fools joke? The fool who tried to trick everyone the stupid trick 😂
What if you have the letter Z in your name?
Thank you, I will be uzing thiz on April Foolz Day.
Are you zure that thiz iz making thingz eazier though?
Wouldn’t it make more zenze for x to be removed?
Thiz iz almozt az bad az Pluto not being a planet anymore!
(btw ELCC ztandz for European Lung Cancer Congrezz)
If you can read thiz mezzage eazily, congratulationz.
I can’t believe I fell for that
I’ve always thought the letter “C” is disgusting. I think we need to eradicate (eradikate) it. All it does is take credit (kredit) from all the other hardworking letters. It doesn’t actually (akshually) make its own sound. It just steals from “K” and “S” so mercilessly (mersilessly). Who wants to start the movement with me to end the letter “C” once (onse) and for all?!
Umm, z is still in the alphabet.
it literally says this is an April fools prank at the bottom
I will NEVER accept that. Who decides such idiotic things?? Iceland was equally stupid. Anyone saying a letter will no longer be part of the language is just plain stupid!!! Who OWNS the language?? Especially, when speaking of a language used worldwide now…
Sorry Brit twits, but American English will keep its Z!
If people really knew how bad they were being treated because of that letter…they would change their minds. If anyone doubt me…than I wish the singer Aaliyah was still alive to tell you. Remember she died in that plane crash after agreeing to play the character Z in the blockbuster movie series THE MATRIX.
i cant believe it. it is not a problem of having z who is spreading like this roomers
I have Z’s in my name!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t like it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wonder why they would do this it is only going to make things harder to memorize plus my friend has a z in her name, that’s sad 😭🥺
Ok… I think that if a letter of the alphabet is being taken away it’s a waste, imagine how many people have to struggle to not say “z”. Think about all the changes there is, new posters of the alphabet, new keyboards on all computers, every sign has to change, and that’s would be a waste of money for a letter in the alphabet. And taking a letter out of the alphabet is something we shouldn’t be worrying about in the state the world is in right now. And I just like to say if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
No. What do they mean by simplifying English. English is already simplified. Majority are disagreeing, how could they just do a decision without consulting the people around the globe
Why not the letter C? It makes an s sound and a k sound, Why not just replace c with k and s
Also PH does not equal F so fix that
This makes me laugh at how dumb this is. The ELCC does not exist, I even searched it up. There was also NO announcement stating that they would remove the letter “Z,” you just said that out of nowhere. I get you may be trying to joke, but spreading evil information like this is just rude.
Lmao, why am i here in 2020
10 years later…
why don’t they remove the letter C. it is useless in my mind
My sister just pulled this prank on me. Also great for group chats
It’s a joke, no way
When was this posted?
this is so fake its 2020 and it is not removed…….
Bullshit!
Wow…Zendaya won’t be happy with this..or the millions of zebras…or zoo’s…or anything to do with z 🙁
My Name is Zykeria😐😬
So my last name is ‘Hizzett’ pronounced as it’s spelt. How am I gonna spell it? As you’ve said if it’s at the start it’ll change to an x but it’s not at the start. But it’s also not an ‘s’ sound. What’s my name gonna be lads