please or pleaze

[kdawg]

Does anyone any information linguistically pertaining to the US use of 'z' in words as to the English use of 's'? Why is this so? any funny anecdotes?

thanks

[jno]

Z used to be used more often than it is now in Britain - I think The Times was the last paper to insist on it, and it changed its mind about 10 years ago. Neither is right or wrong, it''s just a matter of local practice (or local practise, as Americans might say) and British practice changed. From memory, Z was used in words that came from ancient Greek and S in words from Latin. Some never change: prize is never prise. ('prise' is a different word altogether).

Can't think of many jokes abotu it, though.

[jake-the-peg]

You do sometimes see it used where it's just plain wrong like LAZER.

Laser is of actually an acronym so unless you spell stimulated Ztimulated it's incorrect

[Octavius]

Its not just esses and zeds!

I think it primarily refers to a more simplified form of spelling when compared to the phonetic, note also:

Theatre � Theater
Neighbour � Neighbor
Jewellery - Jewelry
Counsellor- Counselor
Catalogue � Catalog
Tomato � Tomato ( ! )

Etc etc. it is something we used to do, but we have obviously evolved more than the Americans.

[Quizmonster]

The Oxford English Dictionary, regarded as the 'bible' of English form, invariably uses -ize verb-endings, as in publicize, theorize etc. Chambers Dictionary offers both -ize and -ise verb-endings, but with the z version offered first...ie suggesting it is preferred.
All British newspapers, as J says above now use -ise, however, as do most British writers.
As suggested, there are exceptions, which are invariably one or the other and not alternatives...capsize can never be capsise and disguise can never be disguize.

[jno]

Octavius, a lot of those variant spellings were deliberately created by Noah Webster when he compiled his American dictionary; he wanted to show Americans were more logical than the old world. (There's a highly entertaining book by Bill Bryson, Made in America, about the American language, which you might enjoy.) Personally I say tomahto.

[heathfield]

On the same sort of topic, Have you found when watching TV, that more and more presenters are devolving the ''s'' sound into a ''z'' sound, where ''Them and us'' becomes ''Them and uz''. Dr Ian Stewart, with his BBC geology programmes, is one of the worst offenders. Why is it happening? It surely can't be down to verbal laziness, since the effort to pronounce ''s'' or ''z'' seems similar to me. Curious.

[Quizmonster]

The Oxford English Dictionary offers only the uss pronunciation for us, but Chambers offers both uss and uz. The latter is the more recent publication of the two, so it seems to have taken this tendency into account.
It's not difficult to understand why this has been so, given how many words do give s a z sound...as, his, ours, Ms and so forth.

[trish432]

I tend to use Z in many spellings, as this was the way I was taught in the fifties and early sixties. Can`t think of many words, at the moment, but sterilizer, appetizer, spring to mind, there are many more that I would automatically spell with a z., but just can`t bring to mind at the moment.