Z ...is it Zed or Zee?

Question

How do you say it?

Answer 1

I had a friend ask me if I could help shed some light on why Americans pronounce the last letter of the alphabet, Z, as "zee" while Canadians pronounce it as "zed."

Well, I had no clue they even did this, but a quick Google search helped me uncover some interesting facts on the matter (if you can call information you find online facts these days). First off, The Canada Page reveals some Canadian myths, one of which involves the idea that Canadians speak Canadian:

The two official languages are English and French. Many Canadians can speak both and other languages. However aside from a few pronunciations (ie: Americans say "Z" as "zee" and Canadians say it as "Zed"), and spelling (Americans "color", Canadians "colour") the English between the two countries are identical.

Okay, so at first glance it appears that French is to blame. Believe it or not, that was my first guess before I ever asked Google for help. But, a little further investigation reveals that "zed" may actually go beyond just the French language. At a page titled simply "zee and zed," I found the following:

'Z' is called "zed" everywhere in the world, not only in English but also in French, German, and most other languages, except in the United States, where it is called "zee". Hence "zee" is an American shibboleth.

Answer 2

Yes, zed is used in Australia and New Zealand. We ruin the universal Alphabet Song.

Answer 3

In Britain it's zed. In the U.S. it's zee.

Answer 4

Zed. I take my lead from Shakespeare. King Lear, Act II, Scene 2: "Oh thou Zed! thou unnecessary letter." Shakespeare, after all, preceded the Pilgrim Fathers. Who thought up all this Zee business?

Answer 5

British English (and that of the Commonwealth) says "zed", American says "zee". I'm in the latter group.

But BOTH names have been around for centuries (in other words "zee" is NOT an American invention, and the choice had NOTHING to do with the A-B-C song). And each makes its own sense once you know their story..

Here's something of that history (and that of our letter-names in general)

1) The Greeks had a letter named "zeta".
This name, like that of many of the Greek letters was actually borrowed directly from the Semitic alphabet the Greeks had picked up from Phoenician traders (ca. 900 B.C.). The same is true of "alpha, beta, gamma, delta", for example, which imitate the Semitic names (compare Hebrew "alpeh, beth, gimmel, dalet"). Now these names had a meaning in Phoenician and Hebrew, but in Greek they were entirely meaningless!

(The Greeks later added some letters of their own, which they named differently -- examples: "omicron" and "omega" mean "little o" and "big o" in Greek; "epsilon" means "simple e".)

2) When the Romans borrowed their alphabet (from an ancient form of the Greek alphabet through the Etruscans), they simplified the names, just using the sound the letter made for the vowels, and the sound followed by a simple vowel sound for the consonants. This the root of MOST of our modern letter names (ay, bee, cee, dee..)

3) Some Greek letters were borrowed (or 'RE-borrowed') by European languages many centuries LATER. These tended to be added on at the end of the alphabet, and to indicate their Greek origin by their names.

Thus in many European languages the letter "y" is now called by the Greek letter name (upsilon) or by a name meaning "Greek i", and the name for "z" echoes the Greek name "zeta". (The new letter "J", a variant of "I", also may be based on the Greek name "iota" [Semitic yod].)

4) But "zed" was NOT absolutely fixed as the "standard" English name for some time. Various dialects of English invented new names for "zeta/zed", just as had been done for other letters. These included such interesting names as "izzard"

ONE of these was 'zee" -- which follows the simple ancient logic of names like bee, cee, dee

The Concise Oxford Companion states, “The modification of zed ... to zee appears to have been by analogy with bee, dee, vee, etc.” Lye’s New Spelling Book (1677) was the first to list “zee” as a correct pronunciation."
http://www.billcasselman.com/cwod_archive/zed.htm

This dialectal variant was used by some of the groups that emigrated to the American colonies in the 17th century.

5) The use of "zee" as THE standard for American English was probably finally established by Noah Webster in the early 19th century. His influential books, including his dictionary, were intended for teaching children, and so he tended to prefer simpler spellings, etc. The name "zee" fit the bill nicely.

Answer 6

Technically, it is "zed" in the USA too.

We learned it as "zee" by singing an alphabet song.
The only reason that it is called "zee" is because "zee" rhymes with "V", "C" and "me."
.

Answer 7

Zee
I think zed is in Australia/New Zealand

Answer 8

in french it's zed. in english it's zee.

Answer 9

both are correct but zee is more preferable. I guess its just the difference of how Americans and Britishers pronounce it.

Answer 10

Zee. I grew up in the US so that's how we learned it.