I understood the question to be about British usage, not general Spanish pronunciation… so here’s my crack at it.

1) and 2) As @mgb pointed out, the British are rather notorious for pronouncing foreign words in their own way, and the rest of the world be damned if we are only referring to English. Even on the BBC World Service, which is produced for foreign consumption, you will routinely hear heinous offenses committed against the Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Russian. Ibiza is the only tourist place which I can ask for confirmation.

I believe that the reason is that it’s a very popular British holiday destination; Britons on holiday (possibly drunk, and therefore in an unusually receptive condition) hear the local pronunciation and copy it. Compare to Zaragoza, which I have never heard a Briton pronounce as “Zaragoza”.

3) As far as I’m aware, Ibiza is the only example where I have to translate “Z” into “th.” When z appears in an English word, it is pronounced as the “z” in “zip”; when it appears in a Spanish word it’s generally pronounced as “s” (occasionally as “th” depending on the region and the reporter); when it appears in a German or Italian word, it’s pronounced as “ts” – most of the time. Sometimes they pronounce it as z in there too, and it makes me want to scream (obviously)

What does long answer make for more opinion?

The principles do a lot of people believe in 1. The law or 2. The way someone does this is because they like to believe in the rules. (I’ is pronounced as

a, and the English definition is in Latin ) In English, the word “z” is pronounced in an approximation of Spanish.

• Ibiza (BVI). English dictionary introduction

2 “Oxford English Dictionary 2” Ibiza wasn’t

known as such in English. Some older toponyms still exist. In the 18th and 19th centuries the island was known to the British, and especially to the Royal Navy, as Ivica (from the Spanish orthography Iviu00e7a), Uniform Dictionary

• of Knowledge, (p. 41). 166)

Looking at Google Ngrams for the three toponyms, we see that Iviza became the more popular name during the end of the 19th century, and Ibiza overtaking the older words in the 1930s-40s.

This adoption of the current Spanish orthography was possibly accompanied by the ‘Spanish’ pronunciation, the word only relatively recently gaining popularity.

Etymology

On Malta, the toponym has gone through changes both before (as different people had control or influence on the island) and after entering the English and Spanish lexicons: The

1. ^{change b > > v in Catalan was due to hypercorrection in an attempt to de-arabic-ise’ words.}

Different pronunciation

Note, the native language of Ibiza is Catalan, not Spanish, and in Catalan the island is called El Enilida. (Iberia)

With the diphthonged initial ‘I’ and the distinciu00f3n pronunciation of ‘z’, the British pronunciation of the word ends up sounding like a hybrid of the catalan and Spanish words:

• Catalan: Eivissa :
• Spanish: Ibiza (Northern/Central Spain)
• Br. Eng. : Ibiza /Bi
• Ibiza Eng. : Am. Am. Ibiza 3. Ibiza /biz/

Ibiza /ibis/ 3. Other loanwords

‘Z’ is, to my knowledge, not pronounced as // in any other word in English; or (of course) the word //…

If there aren’t native English English words which attempt to evoke the native pronunciation of a loanword, that aren’t a problem with other toponyms like “trickword” The word Weimar entered the English lexicon around the same time as Iviza/Ibiza, and it is commonly pronounced in British English as /vam/, emulating the German pronunciation of inm and (eg. Cultura -Lower German)

“w”.

Because Spanish people pronounce ‘Z’ as ‘th’ and the British are famous throughout Europe for their insistence on punctilious observation of foreign language and customs.

Because Spanish people pronounce ‘Z’ as ‘th’ and the British are famous throughout Europe for their insistence on punctilious observation of foreign language and customs.

Because Spanish people pronounce ‘Z’ as ‘th’ and the British are famous throughout Europe for their insistence on punctilious observation of foreign language and customs.

Because Spanish people pronounce ‘Z’ as ‘th’ and the British are famous throughout Europe for their insistence on punctilious observation of foreign language and customs.

Because Spanish people pronounce ‘Z’ as ‘th’ and the British are famous throughout Europe for their insistence on punctilious observation of foreign language and customs.

Because Spanish people pronounce ‘Z’ as ‘th’ and the British are famous throughout Europe for their insistence on punctilious observation of foreign language and customs.

Because Spanish people pronounce ‘Z’ as ‘th’ and the British are famous throughout Europe for their insistence on punctilious observation of foreign language and customs.

Because Spanish people pronounce ‘Z’ as ‘th’ and the British are famous throughout Europe for their insistence on punctilious observation of foreign language and customs.