Legal Writing

The Letter ?Z? Will Be Removed from the English Alphabet

By Daniel Scocco

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?

Full post as published by Daily Writing Tips on March 31, 2010 (boomark / email).