Dragon Ball Zee or Zed?
https://youtu.be/EFOvKQPk9LI
Dragon Ball Z. How is it pronounced? Perhaps you never asked yourself the question, but it turns out there are a few different ways to say it. All because of the Z.
For example, is it pronounced Dragon Ball Zee, Dragon Ball Zed or something else entirely? The title of the show represents a linguistic problem with various answers that depend on where you live and what language you speak.
Why does it matter? Because the show is an international phenomenon with no agreed upon standard for how to pronounce its name. And the differences stand as another example of diversity seen within the localized versions of the Dragon Ball series.
To really understand why this is the case we have to learn a little about languages and world history from within the Dragon Ball perspective.
The American Way
https://youtu.be/dP75aZvWVdw
Dragon Ball Z is a proper noun, the name of an entity, so it should be pronounced the same in every country, like how the band ZZ Top should be pronounced Zee Zee Top regardless of where you speak it.
But unfortunately this is not the case for DBZ, and the pronunciation varies around the world.
Americans are taught to pronounce the letter Z as Zee. We are taught to pronounce it this way in schools as well as on Sesame Street at home. So we pronounce the show’s title as Dragon Ball Zee.
We pronounce it Dragon Ball Zee in the theme song, in the marketing materials, video games and everywhere else. For example, the original theme song to Dragon Ball Z in America has lyrics of, “Dragon, dragon, rock the dragon, Dragon Ball Zee! Dragon, dragon, rock the dragon, Dragon Ball Zeeee-yah!”
Now, in the United Kingdom the people use the Queen’s English and pronounce the letter Z as Zed. They end their alphabet with a full stop; “X, Y, Zed.” So it is pronounced Dragon Ball Zed.
And Australian’s, while normally saying Zed if the letter stands alone, will still finish the alphabet with “X, Y, Zee.” Same with New Zealand. Yet in words they’ll pronounce it as Zed but without the d, so Zebra is not pronounced Zed-bra, in contrast to the American Zee-bra.
In Canada they have both French and English as national languages, but which English do they speak, the Queen’s English or American English? In this case, the answer is both, and it’s called Canadian English! Because the country is so large and geographically varied sometimes they will say Zed and other times Zee, depending on the region.
Yet this is not an English specific issue. To make things more complicated, the French also pronounce Z as Zed, so if Canadians decide to speak French, then they will say Dragon Ball Zed.
In other parts of Western Europe the Spanish may say Ceta, the German’s say Zed and the Swede’s say Zeta.
However, as a result of the popularity of the American Dub (and the intro along with it), the American pronunciation of Dragon Ball Zee was catapulted into the common fandom across the world.
A user by the name of “Super Sayian Prime” on the Daizex.com forums stated that he grew up in Canada where he was taught to pronounce Z as Zed, but he also grew up watching American Dragon Ball Z, which confused him because they always pronounced it Zee. He said, “This shows’ theme always screwed me up on the alphabet. I’d always say “Zee” instead of “Zed”.”
The same problem occurs in Australia where children watch the American’s Sesame Street alphabet song and are then corrected later by their parents to say Zed. The letter T (tee) rhymes with Zee, but it does not rhyme with Zed, hence the issue. Therefore, teachers that instruct children in the alphabet use the rhyme as a learning device but also teach them about Zed.
Americans might it find it strange to pronounce the Z as Zed, but the reasons why others do so is very rational and goes back thousands of years.
A Brief History of Z
The Greek Alphabet, source (www.uic.edu)
As mentioned, Zee and Zed are not the only pronunciations. In fact, Z has a rather involved past.
In ancient times when the Romans borrowed 21 of the 26 letters from the Etruscan alphabet, they included Zeta as the 7th letter in the alphabet. But at some point after 250 BC the letter was dropped because Latin words no longer needed that particular sound. Then when Rome conquered Greece in the first century BC, the Z was taken back into Latin from the Greek so they could transliterate Greek words. This time they placed it at the end of the alphabet and pronounced it Zeta just like the Greeks.
The modern pronunciation Zed is derived from the Middle French Zède, which the French in turn derived from the Latin Zeta, which the Romans borrowed from the Greek. Today, some languages use Zed while others use a form closer to the original Latin and Greek.
The pronunciation Zee comes from America.
Noah Webster (1758 – 1843), an American lexicographer and author of the American Dictionary of the English Language (today known as the Merriam-Webster dictionary), proposed to change the pronunciation of the letter.
Why? Primarily because he wanted Z to be pronounced in the same way as B (bee), D (dee) and V (vee). And perhaps as a point of national identity to distinguish from the British form of English.
There were other pronunciations as well, such as Izzard. In the 1755 Johnson’s Dictionary it states “Z… zed, more commonly izzard or uzzard, that is, shard.”
These pronunciations were rarely used up to the middle of the 20th century alongside the more common Zee, but they were there all the same, and for a while their use could help could signify where a person was from. If a person said Zee then they were from New England and the North-Eastern colonies, and if they said Zed then they were from the South, where it was born from French or Spanish colonies.
As we know, eventually Zee conquered Zed.
Even so, then you might reply, “Our alphabet would no longer rhyme: T, U, V, W, X, Y and Zed?”
The thing worth keeping in mind is that the alphabet is not a poem and it does not have to rhyme. But we prefer that it does and creative people still find a way:
“….
O, P, Q, R, S and T
Read it back again to me.
U, V, W, X, Y, Zed
Now it’s always in your head.”
See? And there’s a brief history of the letter Z.
But what about the Japanese?
The Japanese Z
The Dragon Ball Z Logo
How do the Japanese pronounce the letter Z? Dragon Ball Z was created in Japan so certainly the Japanese must know the proper pronunciation of their own show.
Not necessarily.
The letter Z is not part of the Japanese language, and the Japanese pronounce the Latin alphabet Z by saying Zetto, which is based off the original Latin Zeta.
To be specific, the Japanese say “Doragonbôru Zetto” from the katakana of ドラゴンボールZ.
To confuse matters further the developers and marketers of the shows’ related products occasionally say Zed as it is pronounced most everywhere else in the world, perhaps to cater to those markets. So they are inconsistent in the pronunciation of their own creation. Notably, they do not say Doragonbôru Zii.
Mike Labrie from Daizex.com said on a forum post about the topic, “Hell, I’ve seen tons of Japanese commercials with a narrator and the zed pronunciation, followed immediately by another one with Masako Nozawa and the zetto pronunciation. If the original country won’t decide on a pronunciation, you don’t have too much to complain about.”
Another important question, what does the Z in Dragon Ball Z even stand for?
The ‘Z’ was added to the title by Akira Toriyama to signify it as different from the original Dragon Ball, as well as to denote it as the final arc of the series. He was tired of working on the show and wanted it to end, so he picked the last letter of the Latin alphabet thinking that there would be no further place to go afterward. The irony of course is that it lasted even longer than the original and was followed by another, known as Dragon Ball GT.
The Z series lasted much longer than Toriyama wanted it to, and the Z theme began to creep in, such as in the Z Sword, the Z Warriors, and Z TV. It became a part of the comic book and the show.
In regards to the Z Sword in particular, Americans (FUNimation) called it the Z (Zee) Sword, while the Japanese called it the Zetto Sodo. And as you might have guessed, the British called it the Zed Sword.
So, which Z is correct?
The Latin Z, from Wikimedia Commons
There is no correct one, per say.
It depends on where you live and how you speak.
I cannot base an argument for the American version being “correct” simply because it is the most popular in the West. Why not? Because it is an American translation of a Japanese TV show to begin with, and Zee is an altered version of both the original English Zed and Latin Zeta.
Likewise, I cannot pose an argument for Zetto being “correct” either because it is only the romanji pronunciation of the Latin letter, although it is the original pronunciation.
So what’s to do? Is there a solution to all this?
Fundamentally it is a linguistic concern that stems from Americans pronouncing the letter Z differently from everybody else. If we want a global pronunciation, then Americans will have to change their Zee’s to Zed’s, and the others that followed the American pronunciation will slowly change in turn.
But I have doubts that this will happen because it would involve a complete shift in our educational system.
If you’re an American, then as an individual fan you can certainly make the effort, but is it even necessary? Other international fans will know what you mean all the same when you say Zee.
Perhaps if you’re a hardcore fan of the Japanese you may even want to call it Zetto, but others might have a hard time with it.
Luckily, now if you’re talking with a fan and they say Dragon Ball Zee, Zed or Zetto, then you’ll be able to understand why, if you didn’t already.
Zee, Zed, Zetto, it’s all in the mind!
Resources
http://daizex.fanboyreview.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8413&p=186738&hilit=Zed#p186738
http://daizex.fanboyreview.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=7462&p=161336&hilit=Zed#p161336
http://daizex.fanboyreview.net/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=4741&p=98900&hilit=Zed#p98900
http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/The_Z_Sword
http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=110064
http://momm-eh.blogspot.com/2005/10/zed-versus-zee-love-letter-to-nancy.html
http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20000707
http://www.teenspot.com/boards/showthread.html?p=13322594
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c8FzDm4Gbo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFOvKQPk9LI&feature=video_response
http://www.uic.edu/las/clas/style/greek_alphabet.gif
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-692114.html
great post as usual!
This article could function as a surprisingly deep explanation of the nature of reailty
Care to elaborate? I’d love to learn more about what you mean. Thank you either way.
We have an innate sense of permanence and singularity here in the Western World. We don’t treat our views as our views, we treat them as concrete facts. A basic example would be to consider someone’s politics or religion. In the west, we don’t tend consider the alternatives as plausible and in many cases, we discredit opposing views from our own,only accepting ideas that support what we currently believe. This is called the Confirmation Bias in Psychology.
More on point, we all love and discuss DragonballZ because that’s what we grew up calling it. I’ve never heard of Dragonball Zed and I only knew of Zetto from the fact that I like to know the origins of the things I enjoy. Anyways, the idea that Dragonball ‘Z’ really isn’t what it is. Its a single character and yet, there are different pronunciations, which in turn have different associations to different people, convey different ideas about the show in a way.
DragonballZ sounds way more agressive to me than Dragonball Zed, for example while ironically I find the softer term more appropriate as my focus with the show has deep roots in character development .
Fascinating that you find the softer term more appropriate. I never really thought about the implications of the pronunciation that way before. But I suppose it’s true.
It also makes me think of the relationship between hard and soft martial arts. Zee sounds more aggressive to you, and the Dragon Ball Z series is known for its hard hitting action. This is like a hard external martial art. But Zed sounds softer and you relate to the series because of its aspects of character development. This is like a soft internal martial art.
It seems that Dragon Ball has both the soft and the hard. The Yin and the Yang. Perhaps that is why so many can relate to it.
All things have balance, it is a law of the universe. Even Dragonball could not escape this fundamental law of existence
The idea that the character ‘Z’ can be seen differently and connected to a completely different thought for each individual… I don’t entirely know how to explain it. This article reminds me of the photograph of a window and the question posed "Does the window face north-east or north-west?" It’s sort of obscure and difficult to explain now that I’m trying. The thought was innate to me. It’s the idea that we think of it as Zee but that doesn’t make it so. I think the best way to describe it is that reality is fluid, not solid. There isn’t just one solution to life. There are possibilities beyond that which you may have conceived, and that is something that compounds on itself as you learn more. To me, this simple thought about the letter Z shows that you should never presume there is only one correct means to an end. In my limited understanding, I believe a Taoist explanation for my reality rant might be "The Tao exists and the Tao doesn’t exist." Please let me know if that’s a fair statement. I don’t want to misrepresent and I do want to learn!
Of course all this could just be the lack of sleep talking haha
What you’ve said broadens the mind. Well put. I wouldn’t chalk that up to lack of sleep. That type of comment comes from years of living an introspective life.
Your photograph of the window question is in that same line of thought. North, south, east and west are man made directions, created within the framework of our own world. But the entire planet is rotating on an axis and around the Sun within our solar system, while our solar system is rotating around another point within our galaxy, and our galaxy is rotating around another point somewhere else in the universe while the universe itself is rotating. Are they all on the same horizontal plane? Not even close.
So tell me, which way is north, south, east or west? There is none. Or conversely, all directions equates to no directions while each direction equates to every direction. This is to say that directions are only relative within a given limit of space and time. We’ve become attached to the concepts of directions because we live in this human world.
“The Tao exists and the Tao doesn’t exist.” I’d say that sounds fairly Daoist, although I’ve never heard that exact statement. But it does remind me of another Daoist quote:
“Before I received the Dao, a cloud was a cloud. When I received the Dao, a cloud was no longer a cloud. When I became one with Dao, a cloud was a cloud again.”
You’re point about directions being man-made certainly is an interesting one! And it holds even more true as you expand into the outer dimensions of the universe, as you explained. That really explains my idea of permanence in the West but on a Human level, rather than a cultural one.
The planet’s axis shifts and in several hundred thousand years (a small time frame in the course of eternity) the poles will have reverse and our physical North pole will be where the south once lies. Does this change which direction is North and Which is south? It’s interesting to ponder.
The statement I made in the words of a Taoist aren’t a quote but rather, an attempt at explaining a condition through another view. I find it helpful in understanding cultures to try and Role Play as one in this sense. Using what the culture would deem logic or philosophy as best as possible.
Is your quote from the Tao Te Ching? I have definitely read it somewhere before, and I’m glad you brought it up where you did, It makes my point well and brings yet another similar quote (paraphrased):
"When the beginner is attacked, he thinks only of protecting himself from any strike. When the practitioner is attacked, he thinks of using the technique and knowledge acquired through training. When the master is attacked, he only thinks of protecting himself from any strike."
You’re point about directions being man-made certainly is an interesting one! And it holds even more true as you expand into the outer dimensions of the universe, as you explained. That really explains my idea of permanence in the West but on a Human level, rather than a cultural one. It’s always great to me to realize where all humans have commonalities. Despite this fact, we are still all anomalies of our species. I find us to be more unique than any other species for that reason. Though, I don’t know how other species view things like direction or how their cognition is interpreted by their own minds… plus I am human so I’m not an entirely unbiased judge
I remember reading a book several years ago about animals, and how they know when their owners are coming home. I think it was by Rupert Sheldrake. I don’t recall the exact science behind it and don’t want to sound superstitious, but if I remember correctly he mentioned that birds have a tiny crystal in their brains that helps them find true north. They use this to migrate each season without getting lost. Some other animals have it as well. Humans also have it, but for many humans this part of their brain has atrophied over the generations as we became more sedentary. Others, such as nomads, have continued to use it and it remains fully functional. Please don’t quote me on this though, because it’s been a while since I read it.
So basically, the theory is that we evolve according to our environments. If our environment expanded beyond the scope of the earth, then so would our brains and minds. If it became smaller, then so would we.
Have I yet mentioned that I tend to rant?
Please do!
Well, the main reason that the Japanese say Zetto or ゼット which of course is based on Zed and its equivalents, is not only because the zee sound doesnt exist in Japanese, but because the Zee sound is transliterated in Japanese as G, or Gee. So in Japanese, Gee and Zee would both be spelled/pronounced as Gee. This would be confusing. So they use Zetto (ゼット) for Z to avoid confusion with G ”Gee” (ジー). They also use Zetto over Zeddo because its easier to pronounce. So technically, they use Zet. Lastly, Zee is not an Americanism as it was used in Britain long before America existed. Z has many variants though. Both are correct.
I didn’t realize Gee and Zee were pronounced the same in Japanese. Thanks for clarifying the Zetto origins to the precise level that you did. Now it makes sense.
Dragonball ZED is the correct way. Zee is how they translated for teh murrikans. It’s not official written in stone
In the show they pronounce it like Zee. If you don’t like it, think of it as an imaginary word or letter because in the show it’s never pronounced Zed.
That’s because they’re Yanks. Now Yanks are cool and shit, but they tend to fuck up anime dubs.
Well it’s officially pronounced as “Z” universally because it’s a official name of a title. You don’t necessarily translate a title unless other languages do have a official translated title for it. But since the title is universal and not translated and that people in Japan call it by it’s American title, then yes “Zee” is the official name here. The whole “Zee” and “Zed” thing only matters in regular translation and international speech.
I’m British, but I pronounce the Z in the title ‘ZEE’.
This is only because the dub we got pronouces it this way. I’m too used to it and it slips off the tongue.
Of course we don’t say zedbra, nor do we say enohtee for not.