T he readers are correct. But English, like other languages, evolves (changes gradually). English has evolved a lot in recent years because of the internet, twitter, and Facebook. Many people now refer to the 26 letters of the alphabet as “alphabets”. Evolution of the English language has, for example, made it acceptable to say: "I'll SMS you" or "I'll Google your name". Some people believe it is wrong to let evolution change the English language that way. Others say it’s no big deal.
A native English teacher from a local kindergarten also e-mailed me. Such teachers are called NETs in Hong Kong. They are hired to improve the English of local students. The NET who e-mailed me said “eezed” for the letter “Z” and “ello” for “L” are just some of the mispronunciations. He said many Hong Kong people pronounce “girl” as “girlo” and “bus” as “bussy”. I have noticed that too. He said it is hard to teach the correct pronunciations to his students because they are already so used to the incorrect pronunciations of their parents and some of their local teachers. Another reader who e-mailed me said there is no “Z” sound in both Cantonese and Putonghua but the Taiwanese, who speak Putonghua, have no problem saying “zed” instead of “eezed” because they are willing to make an effort. He said Cantonese does not have the “R” sound but Putonghua has. That is why most Taiwanese find it easier to pronounce the letter “R” instead of saying “allo”. Thanks to all the readers who e-mailed me.
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上星期我在專欄中寫到，好些香港人讀錯某些字詞和字母（letters of the alphabet），許多讀者因而寫電郵給我。我已經盡力回覆，但對於那些未能回覆的，我先在此致歉。上個專欄中我用alphabets這個字，但今次我則轉用letters of the alphabet。有幾位讀者指出，alphabet這個字只能是單數，因為它代表全套字母。例如，由A到Z的26個英文字母，就代表了英語的字母表。
這些讀者是對的。但英文，一如其他語言，也會演變（evolves）。因網絡、twitter和Facebook的普及，英文近年亦演化（evolved）了不少。現在許多人也會將alphabet的26個字母也叫作alphabets。英語的演化（evolution）令 "I'll SMS you" 或 "I'll Google your name" 這樣的說法也被接受。有些人認為，容讓演化（evolution）這樣改變英語是錯誤的，也有些人覺得無傷大雅。
一位任教於本地幼稚園的外籍英語老師也給我寫電郵，這些老師在香港被稱為NETs（Native-speaking English Teacher），聘請這樣的老師是為了改善本地學生的英語水平，這位NET在電郵中跟我說，Z讀成eezed、L讀成ello，只不過是芸芸錯誤發音的其中幾個。他說，許多香港人會將girl讀成girlo、bus讀成bussy，我也注意得到。他說，要教導學生正確發音是很難的，因為他們早已習慣了父母或某些本地老師的錯誤發音。另一位讀者在電郵中說，廣東話和普通話也沒有Z音，但同樣說普通話的台灣人，卻可讀到zed而不是eezed，因為他們比較努力。他說，廣東話沒有R音，但普通話有，因此台灣人較易讀到R音而不是allo。感謝所有寫電郵給我的讀者。mickchug@gmail.com
中譯:七刻
Michael Chugani 褚簡寧
Source: http://news.stheadline.com/dailynews/headline_news_detail_columnist.asp?id=271848§ion_name=wtt&kw=126