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. No doubt he was also the genius who suggested making spelling easier by eliminating the ‘u’ from words like colour (color), honour (honor) etc. That is the American way. On the other hand, zee is logical 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 teased us about the boat! They thought we were hilarious because wasn’t the American way always right? They never caught on that they were the ones with the distinctive accent, not us.

R. I. P. Good Friends Jackie and Bobby.

Jackie’s name was Jacqueline which she proudly told me was French, but she denied the French pronunciation. She was always Jakwaline.