any native speaker? pronunciation of lacZ? - non-native has to give a talk in English (and wants to avoid embarrassment) (Jun/28/2006 )

Hi everybody!
I hope this is not too off-topic:
I wondered if 'lacZ' is pronounced like
'lac zed' or
'lac zi'
I hope you know what I mean. I would be very grateful for answers from native English speakers.
Thank you!

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It is just how it looks....Lak Zee
Hope that makes sense

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I am not a native speaker but I have heard it being pronounced as "Lac zi" not "Lac zed" during talks.

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If you are in Australia or the UK (and probably a few others), it's "Zed". Just see how the rest of the lab (at least, those from the country you're in) say "Z". Or you could be bold, and say it however you please! No-one should mind (unless they are small-minded, language snobs!!)

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It depends on what country you are talking to.

In the US it would be pronounced Lac Zeeee
In British countries (UK, NZ, Australia) it would be pronounced Lac Zed

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When I was at the uni, they told me to pronounce it Lac Zed instead of Lac Zee but people pronounce it both ways. I learnt that words are pronounced in a very special way according to where you are from. And the Latin words... I've been studying Latin for 7 years at school and learnt that you pronounce "nuclei" (and people pronounce "nucleai"), "veece versa" (people say vyce versa) and so on. It's very good to try and use the right pronunciation but I wouldn't care too much I'm sure you will go to conferences (workshops or whatever) and you'll here both

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it's lac-Zed in Canada

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