Mediterranean Blues

There's a Spanish island in the Mediterranean called Ibiza.  I always thought it was pronounced "ib-ee-tha." But now that there's a contest to win a trip there, the ads keep pronouncing it as it's spelled, "ib-ee-za."  At first, I thought it was just local talking heads who didn't know any better.  But now even better-produced ads are pronouncing it the later way too.

So I did what I always do when confused: I consulted Wikipedia.  It says that the "th" pronunciation is "British English" (and close to the actual Spanish) while the "z" pronunciation is "American English," which in turn makes it the "zee" pronunciation.  Ibiza is known for its Electronic Music scene, so I had heard of it through association with British people, and had thus adopted their pronunciation.  But most people just say it the way it's written, and those people seem to be taking over.

I bring this up because:

• Apparently the Ibiza scene is over.  DJs, it's time to move on to Majorca.
• I never realized the irony here.  English speakers are often unaware of how rare the "th" sound is among the world's languages, and are only dimly aware of how much trouble it causes people around the world that we put it in several of our most frequently used words.  That's why people speaking English as a second language often turn it into a "z" sound.  But in Ibiza, we English speakers are turning a "th" into a "z."