Why do Canadians pronounce the last letter of the alphabet "zed" and
what was the historical background to this (i.e. first usage, etc.)

Jhabley,

Canadians pronounce "Z" as zed for a number of very good reasons. Most
of the English speaking world refers to Z as zed, including the United
Kingdom and Australia. Also, the French pronounce the letter the same
way.

The zed is also used in mathematical notation terminology, as well as
technology applications.

A good resource is

The Z Notation
http://www.zuser.org/z/

Obviously, Canadians pronounce z as zed because of their history as a
French colony, and the emmersion of that culture in the French
language. Zed has always been the pronunciaton in France, and has been
from the early middle ages.

If for some reason, you'd like the historical deriviaton of that
particular pronunciation in the French language, let me know and I'll
dig a bit deeper.

Hope that answers your question, and thanks for asking!

Prof

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Request for Answer Clarification by jhabley-ga on 10 Dec 2002 11:37 PST

Hi Prof, very quick reply, thank you.

 > If for some reason, you'd like the historical deriviaton of that
 > particular pronunciation in the French language, let me know and
I'll
 > dig a bit deeper.

A bit more on this would be great.

Also, I am a reporter for CBC Radio (similar to NPR in the U.S.) and
I'm doing a story about these online research services. I wonder if I
may call you to do a quick interview with you about how you help
people with this service?

---

Clarification of Answer by prof-ga on 10 Dec 2002 14:17 PST

Hey, Jhabley. We're not allowed to give out contact information, but
if you'd like to email answers-editor@google.com they'd be glad to set
up an interview. They're expecting a note from you.

As to your question, let me see what I can come up with. I'll get back
with you tomorrow. Thanks!

The pronunciation "zee" is said to be an invention of lexicologist
Noah Webster, who also established spellings like "center" for
"centre" and "labor" for "labour."

Canadians are very proud of their "zed." A famous beer commercial in
Canada shows a guy going on a sort-of-tongue-in-cheek anti-American
rant culminating in him saying, "and it's zed, not zee!"

But I like to make the point to Canadians that if you pronounce the
letter "zed," the alphabet song doesn't rhyme.

Here are my speculations as to Canadians pronounce it "zed":
1) Most countries in the British commonwealth (Australia, New
Zealand...) tend towards British ways of doing things, especially in
things like spelling etc. And Canada is a part of the British
Commonwealth.
2) At least in three major western European languages it is pronounced
"zed": British English, French and German (tsett). As far as I know,
only Americans pronouces it "zee". Canada is just trying to be like
the rest of the world.
3) The Greek zeta, from which the letter probably derives from, is
properly pronounced zet-ta, not zee-ta.

For a humorous rendition of the I Am Canadian rant:
http://alsocanadian.blogspot.com/