ichadwick
Well-known member
They say it never rains, but it pours. And pour it does, ukulele-wise. I have Dave G's tenor banjo ukulele sitting in Customs going through the bureaucratic once-over with the glacial speed only a government worker can apply to something that one is anxious to receive. And today I got an email my Ohana zebrawood* ukulele is at the distributor's, to be shipped out Monday. So by the end of next week I will have not one, but TWO new instruments. I'm all aflutter.
*Just to throw a spanner into the works, I was telling a friend about the incipient Ohana, and he asked me what "zee-bra" wood looked like. Zee-bra? I asked. You mean "zeh-bra." No, he insisted, it was "zee-bra." But would you ever call a girl "Dee-bra" instead of "Deh-bra" I asked him. He admitted he would not, but refused to accept the sameness in pronunciation for zebra despite the substitution of only one initial letter. I argued that with one consonant, the vowel before is long but with two it shortens. Holy, holly; Mary, marry; Joliet, jolly; pater, patter; cater, chatter and so on. Zebra has two consonants, therefore it is a short e: zeh-bra. Zero, zebra. The logic is inescapable. QED and all that.
Unmoved, he was, and insisted on saying "zee-bra" even though it grated on my ears, like someone saying nu-cu-lar instead of nuclear, or li-berry instead of library, Feb-u-erry instead of February.
He spends prone to call the last letter of the alphabet "zee" rather than "zed." So perhaps that's his problem with "zeh-bra." But what do YOU call it?
*Just to throw a spanner into the works, I was telling a friend about the incipient Ohana, and he asked me what "zee-bra" wood looked like. Zee-bra? I asked. You mean "zeh-bra." No, he insisted, it was "zee-bra." But would you ever call a girl "Dee-bra" instead of "Deh-bra" I asked him. He admitted he would not, but refused to accept the sameness in pronunciation for zebra despite the substitution of only one initial letter. I argued that with one consonant, the vowel before is long but with two it shortens. Holy, holly; Mary, marry; Joliet, jolly; pater, patter; cater, chatter and so on. Zebra has two consonants, therefore it is a short e: zeh-bra. Zero, zebra. The logic is inescapable. QED and all that.
Unmoved, he was, and insisted on saying "zee-bra" even though it grated on my ears, like someone saying nu-cu-lar instead of nuclear, or li-berry instead of library, Feb-u-erry instead of February.
He spends prone to call the last letter of the alphabet "zee" rather than "zed." So perhaps that's his problem with "zeh-bra." But what do YOU call it?