You're Probably Pronouncing "Huzza" Incorrectly! 

Go and read the original article! It's a fascinating piece! allthingsliberty.com/2014/04/you-say-huzzah-they-said-huzzay/ Also, go follow me on Twitch and Facebook! Links in the description! Also start saying "Huzzay" instead of "Huzzah!" Also exclamation marks!!!

*dont mind me just reflecting on how wrong i’ve been my whole life*

I can sense a bit of Lindybeige from this video.

“hoozay” *zooms in* “Well I just gave it away..”

Bit early but congratulations on 50.000 subscribers! *hoo-sayyy*

Just shy of 17 minutes on how to pronounce a word? This is some buzzfeed level of shenanigens. I like it.

This man has earned my respect for making a 16 minute video on how to pronounce huzzah

All I can say is that for me as a non native english speaker, YOUR pronounciation is actually pretty easy to understand. On the other hand: going from London to Edinburgh is much more a linguistic adventure as the correct pronounciation of huzzah could ever be. After having watched a few of your vieos - subscribed. Good quality content presented in an interesting way. Keep it up!

Huzzay Hurray Hurrah Huah Hooyea All this Leeds to Rick Flair’s “Woooo!”

when you have been fighting a crusade against American English your whole life, but celebrated every victory with an american pronunciation without even knowing

As a student of the linguistics and a reeanactor I must thank you sir for this lovely video-lesson

That pronunciation makes it much more understandable why it morphed into Hurray.

This actually makes sense. I was always confused why in the song (Free America) sang to the tune of the british grenadiers. Why it said "Huzzah huzzah huzzah huzzah, for free Ameri-kay" it always sounded weird. But now I just sang "hoosay hoosay hoosay hoosay, for free Ameri-kay" and the ryme scheme sounded much better.

“Double zed”

I thought he had like 200k not sub 50... damn good quality for such a relatively low number... Huzza!

I can't get over his face at 0:16.. *that would be faaaarrrrrb*

Much more closely resembles the Dutch pronounciation of "hoezee!" Pretty cool my dude

The absolute poshness of this channel overwhelms me. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen and it’s genius.

Huzza sounds a lot more jolly than huzzah, wich i think is appropriate considering it was originally a cheering word. Much like many european militaries essentially used their own native version of "hooray" as a war cry, swedes used "Hurra!" and the russians use(d) "Urra!", both of wich just means "Hooray".

its like civil war reenacting and the rebel yell very few units get it right and we have recording of veterans

I love trivia like this, well researched as well. Great job!

You're the only American I've heard pronounce z as "zed", Brandon. Is this a legacy of your time living in Britain, or because you're wearing a British uniform?

I loved your final point! It wouldn't matter if they yelled candyland, it would still be fierce.

*“Jose!”*

Nice job Brandon, Thanks for the tip!

Would it have still been 'Huzzay' in the 1860s with the american civil war?

I like this new thing you have, with the zooming in and out. It's a nice transition from the awkward interview-style lectures you previously gave.

They were actually shouting "José" as they had been looking for him since 1588.

What’s funny for me is that in games I will yell Huzzay and people will stop and look at my character. Then they all get massacred by musket fire as I continue the charge.

Well, this just flipped a desk in my mind. I am finishing a piece of music that I entitled, "Huzzah!" I came to RU-vid looking for audio of a crowd shouting the word and ended up being shocked instead! Near the end of the piece, I instruct the performers to shout "Huzzah!". Now I find myself torn about how to instruct them to shout. If I have the opportunity to rehearse it, I could instruct them to pronounce it "hu-ZAY" and prep the audience with a brief explanation of what they are going to hear and why. I could also instruct the performers to say "hu-ZAH" for the sake of the word's pronunciation meeting the expectation of the majority of people, then inform the audience of the authentic pronunciation afterward. Well, saxophones in the intended style is already "farb", but I guess we should always try to be as authentic as possible. Thanks for helping to keep things authentic! I could listen to you talk all day.

Even huzzah was wrong....huh... At this point,everything from "historical" movies feels like false.. Mel Gibson: *breathe* Brandon:THAT'S INACCURATE!

It's also a 'Renaissance Faire/Festival' thing - indeed, one of those quintessentially Renfaire characteristics, like oversized turkey legs - and is just barely appropriate to the Elizabethan period lexically (the OED gives a 1573 citation, in the plural form 'hussaes' which may hint at an '-ay' pronunciation; Shakespeare never used it), never mind the pronunciation. And the three-times-three 'hip-hip-huzzah' business, common at such festivals, is definitely wrong for the Tudor period. There is an interesting article on jstor about 'Hurrah' (Walz, John A. "The Interjection Hurrah." The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 39, no. 1 (1940): 33-75. www.jstor.org/stable/27704571.) It has some evidence that 'huzza' and 'hurrah' were pronounced similarly, and cites a couple of poems, such as a poem with the refrain, 'Huzza, huzza, huzza, huzza//For free America' (perhaps ambiguous, since 'Americay' is sometimes used in songs and poetry) and, even more tellingly, a Tory ballad (1776) with 'Huzza! huzza! we thrice huzza!// Return peace, harmony, and law.' Taken altogether, it seems a tangled mess (as word histories so often are), in which German war cries (Hurrah) and English cheers of approval are all woven together and very likely influenced one another over the years. The examples do suggest that, just as 'hooray' and 'hurrah' are both seen contemporaneously in our time, 'huzza(h)' and 'huzza(y)' might well have been in contemporary use as well.

In context of group yelling, I think the old pronunciation has a nice forcefulness to it compared to the modern pronunciation.

That sounds Dutch! In Dutch it's spelled hoezee. Most likely the Dutch influence as dominant sailing nation during the 17th and partly 18th century on English is evident. In Dutch the yell hoezee (huzzay) is an exclamation of (upcoming) victory. The word hoezee is no longer in use since the 1930's.

Interesting, as always, Brandon. Well done on nearing the 50 thousand subscribers, well deserved :)

Even in the modern military you may be shouting all sort of weird or funny stuff in formation. It really doesn't matter what the words are when a company or a battallion shout them all at once. No matter the words it sounds strong.

16:18 "Poppet!!!!!"

Meh, I've always preferred Hurrah anyways

Subscribed! Less than 200 to go Brandon! Thanks for your historical investigation and contextualisations and detail reconstruction. Also, you said "Zed" and not "Zee" in today's commentary .... Keep up the efforts in putting together an interesting background to our interest in history.

Well, now I'm gonna be that guy at parties who corrects people who jokingly say huzzah

I being lied to my whole life!

Well done Sir, well presented -- as a fellow re-enactor (and older) as a Loyalist (Capt KRR NY) we have been fighting this correction -- I will admit to being one of the holdouts -- I have been converted -- well done .

Huzza! Many thanks for correcting my mispronunciations! Henceforth, I shall endeavour to pronounce it correctly as to reduce further pericombobulations which may cause phrasmotic bouts in others. :D

Englishmen still say " I say!" As in "I say! you there" when attracting someone's attention or merely "I say", when surprised. Henry pagent may have said "I say sir, I think I've lost my leg" instead of " My God". Sounds the same and still used today. Just a thought.

After having watched this about, oh, half a year ago, I cannot pronounce the word as "huzzah" and think myself right. Every time I see it written I think "huzzay." And of course, I spell it as it was spelled, huzza. Not huzzah. Oh, also, this was the video upon which I based my subscription to this channel.

It must be fun watching history movies with Brandon

Are you Lindybiege's son or something?

In the 2015 Dutch film 'Admiral' they all shout Huzzay. Maybe they always do that in Dutch, but I still found it interesting.

Are you...the Wheelchair Historian?

Dr Seuss is pronounced Dr Zay-us! The irony is real!

Well, a bunch of military men can make "Barbie girl" sound intimidating, so...

I could believe that "Huzzay" was a possible pronunciation. However, both "Hurrah!" and "Hurray!" (or Hoorah and Hooray) also existed and likely influenced each other. And for some reason, British English likes to change R to Z in several nicknames, e.g., Gazza for Gary. But a viewer below says Dutch has "hoezee," which would sound like "hoozay" to British/American English ears, and of course, in the Colonies, there were plenty of Dutch colonists, as well as German-speaking colonists, from New York (New Holland, New Amsterdam) and Pennsylvania (Germans, Deutsch, not actually Dutch). So it's likely that with four English words overlapping, you had those four pronunciations, and then similar words from Dutch or other languages in the Colonies and British trading contacts. -- I'm sticking with Huzzah! as a possibility along with Hurrah!, though Ill concede Huzzay with Hurray!

I was still on the fence that it would still hold the same feel when shouted, then you showed the clip of the british soldiers and their 'hip hip hooray' and yuuup I'm sold

It's ironic that he talks about how a word was pronounced in the 18th century while wearing a lobsterback uniform complete with modern glasses and a body mic.

But a Scot would say indeed say "awa" for "away", so might they also say "huzzah" for "huzza"?

When you causally drop a English Lesson.

This guy is adorable!! Love listening! 😀

Going on a bit of a tangent here, but these are many of the same reasons we know how even ancient languages such as Latin were pronounced when they were spoken. Poems, literature, speeches, et cetera, all give us a very good idea of how old languages were pronounced.

We shall talk on discord

I don’t know why but I thought it was funny when he said “that would be farb” also nice display of figures and paintings! Very nice and cool re enactment uniform, I have a napoleonic British one.

I love the new, flashy zooms.

Yes, the Dutch word "hoezee" which was used in very old Dutch songs is pronounced the same way ( the "zee" is the same as "zay" )

Ok, I feel like we really are building and the end of series hes just gonna tell us existence is Farb and we are still living in the 18th century and we are just crazy hallucinating in a medical tent.

News to me. I always thought it pronounced as spelt: HU.E-ZAH ... it seems rather lazy to say HAA ZAH!

Hey Hornblower in the bookshelf

Something I noticed, is that in the visitor center video for Fort McHenry, at the end, one of the people actually correct says "hoo-zay".

They weren't saying HUZZA, they were yelling URAAAAAA TUVARISH URAAAAAA

I ALWAYS GOT CRAP FOR SAYING "HUZZAY" hey are Your googles farb?

You always go into so much detail!

Very interesting video, sir! Love the primary sources. Much like when I discovered (everywhere) that we've been doing the rebel yell wrong the whole time. Would love a video on that, even though I know you're mainly 18th and not strictly 19th century.

So quite Ironically, as you produce a most excellent video on how we Mispronounce a word and you reference the article from which many resources are given… well, you Mispronounce Norm’s last name… or wait, am I mispronouncing it again? FU-ss, Fa-ss… yeah, it’s ok, I mispronounce it too. L What I do want to point out, that even in our Unit (which Norm Fuss is an officer) many (if not a majority) find it hard to make the correction. I have made a great effort, and even after years of knowing the proper pronunciation, I still revert back when I’m outnumbered by other Units. For the record however, I will say, I run the Youth VA Regiment and our Youth (who Norm also teaches regular) do, in fact, get it right and correct the adults. Thank you Brandon, always enjoy your videos!

Huzzah!, José.

I can't quite make it out, what are you guys saying in the last test?

Modern: HUZZAH 18th: HUZZA Slavic intellectuals: UUUUUURRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Could it have been "Hurrah" and "Hooray"? It came from the German with that pronunciation, from the word "hurra". Those words were common at the time. and are the correct words now.

I often find myself in large groups of reenactors, and I'm the only one saying "Huzzay!"

Kinda cray cray for huzza

I do thank you good Sir, for this intelligence, and I will correct my unit heretofore and hence.

I haven't read the paper yet, but I'd like to comment that "way" or "say" can be pronounced with a schwa-sound which would make for a good shout in the form of huzza.

I see you're wearing the important Microphone piece. Very prevalent for the time period that not many reenactors get right. It was used to choke the enemy to death when your flimsy bayonets broke. You had to be careful though, otherwise the enemy may be able to spot the blood on your uniform from being so close.

THEN THE WINGED HUZZA'S ARRIVED

Hey Brandon, I was wondering where you got your uniform? I was looking to buy one for myself

HOW DO YOU ONLY HAVE 52K SUBS!?!?!??!

Double Zed? Are you sure your not a Canadian Brandon? Hmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmh? Any way, Huzza for the Republic!!!

Never in my life have i heard a American say zed instead of z Channels great by the way

Well done, Brandon! These videos are gittin' good!!

I spent this whole video distracted by hearing someone with a Midwestern American accent saying "Zed."

I trust Scotch... "The English raised a loud "Huzzah!" But daurnae bide the brunt ava'." (from old Scottish song "The bonnie blue bonnets")

Next time I go to Ren Faire, I will say it loud and proud: "Huzzay!"

Makes sense considering the word Hooray. Easily interconnected.

Damn this dude is one of them loyalists

“You say potato; I say pot-ah-to.” You say tomato; I say te-mah-to.” We in Germany say "Heißa" or like in a 70' song "Hossa". Look at: Rex Gildo "Fiesta Mexicana" (Hossa, Hossa!).

You're peak nerd, and I'm in love! Fabulous outfit btw.

JOSE!!

I've seen English examples of a long S replacing the zz in the HuSa variant

Correct! It's all about the great vowel shift. In modern times it has shifted back to _ah_ ; for example, ahmen vs. aymen.

That close up, such cinematography.

say it in a guteral angry scream and the effectiveness of huzza

Watched the last part of the video at .5 speed to work out what Brandon's mates were cheering. I've gotta say, Brandon F at .5 speed is like a cross between a self help guru and an evil villian.

English in history class! Only way more accurate than what we learn at school though lol