Why Do Canadians Say Zed instead of Zee?

Until about 200 years ago, everyone in North America and Europe said Zed. Now, only those in the United States say zee. It is believed that Noah Webster suggested the switch in pronunciation because it was “easier” and rhymes with so many other words. On the other hand because it rhymes with so many other words, when speaking it is much easier to confuse zee with cee, dee, and other similar cousin-words.

Most European languages use zed or a variation of the Greek zeta. So you see, we Canadians are always right!

When I first met my pen pal from Pennsylvania, we found another language conflict. When we spoke “about” something, they wondered what “a boat” had to do with the issue. There was nothing. It was just the fact that their accent was so different from ours. When we were writing back and forth by snail mail, our accents weren’t noticeable, but take them off the pages and into our mouths and there was a big difference. We met a couple of times a year, and often chuckled about our accents. They thought we were hilarious.

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