Why do British people pronounce the letters H and Z "Haych and Zed"?

[ValleyofDrakes]

Do they learn it that way in their culture or is it a sort of slang?

[CheeseLoveWhiz]

Well , since English is partly Romantic and Germanic, it comes from those pronunciations. In Greek/Latin, Z is prounounced "Zeta" and in German it's pronounced "Set". England is where English formed so, they take from that and American pronunciation changed around the 1600's. That's the best answer I can come up with.

[ArabianPwincess197]

Don't know -just were taught to say

Aee, Bee, Cee, Dee, Eei, Eff, Gee, Aytch, I, Jay, Kay, El, Em, En, O, Pee, Queue, Ar, Ess, Tee,
You (Emphasis), Ex, Y, Zed

[lifes_curve_ball]

You forgot "V". No Guy Fawkes mask for you.
You forgot "W". Can't add this one to the W column for you.

[lifes_curve_ball]

Typing this from the phone I'm guessing lol

[ArabianPwincess197]

Lol I was on the laptop when I typed this but it just slipped out of my mind @Lifes_curve_ball

[ArabianPwincess197]

QA - ignore the faux pas lol

[ArabianPwincess197]

Vee, Doublieu (V, W) I'm typing phonetically for you so hence like this lol

[musicbrain5]

Who knows. It is probably just the way the accent is. We say Zed in Canada too.

[Anonymous]

Actually the correct British pronunciation of 'h' is 'aytch'. 'Haytch' s considered low class.

As for 'z', there were many different pronunciations, but English standardized in the eighteenth century and nineteenth century. The British settled on 'zed'. The Americans settled on 'zee'.

[pionneer]

Ok, I understand that yanks say Zee for Z but how do you say H that differs from the English way. Just wondering?

[ValleyofDrakes]

Well instead of "Haych" it's just "Aych"

[LastGirlScout]

Well since English is from England, I'd go so far as to say it's probably more correct that American English. Haytch isn't always the way people pronounce it, many people just say aytch.

[Rocco-K]

That is British English. That comes with the British accent.

[COCOCHANEL]

”z” is pronounced ”zed” in french. japan uses that pronounciation too.

[Anonymous]

It is old English