Why do english say zed

Well, that might be the case today, but once upon a time things were quite different. Historically, both zed and zee were used pretty much interchangeably in both British and American English, alongside a whole host of other more outlandish names for the last or rather, second last letter of the alphabet, like izzard , uzzard , zad , shard and, our personal favorite, ezod.

In America, there's only one way to pronounce the letter Z: zee , of course. However, head to England, Ireland, or pretty much any other English-speaking country, and you'll find that most natives refer to the same letter as zed. To understand this difference in pronunciation, you have to look at the origins of the English alphabet itself.

As you can imagine, the British zed is the older of the two pronunciations, and it dates all the way back to the s. The pronunciation stems from Latin and Greek, as both ancient languages have a similarly pronounced equivalent: zeta. Whereas the more established zed has an etymology that makes logical sense, the reason why Z is pronounced as zee in the U. There were many historic names for the letter Z , including zad , zard , ezed , ezod , izod , izzard and uzzard. The pronunciation zee is a 17th-century variant of zed.

Regardless, zee made its way to the British colonies in North America. Some argue that Americans sought to distinguish themselves from the British, particularly as they fought for their independence see American Revolution. Zee became the American standard. While British and American English have distinct vocabularies, Canadian English vocabulary is informed by both.

For the most part, however, Canadian English follows the American influence, with Canadians preferring flashlight to torch and diaper to nappy , for example. Zed is perhaps the most iconic instance of Canadians preferring the British term to the American. But that was not always the case. Still, evidence suggests that children were taught to say zee in school. Canadian linguist J. In the end, education reform led by Egerton Ryerson in the s standardized school textbooks in anglophone Canada West Ontario , settling on British books and removing American textbooks from classrooms see Curriculum Development.

Europeans are just fucking stupid. Yeh, I have to agree with money Boz. People in America tend to ignore that their society is based on that of the European nations and as a result, in an effort to give themselves an identity they changed letters and the names of foods. They might not think that the world revolves around them then? Europeans always seem so entitled. That is something you made up in your head.

Derrick: But they made the Web! Describing British people as Europeans as if there is a unified European culture is a certain sign of ignorance. The Spaniard is as different from the Swede as an Nigerian from a Chinese. It is the absolute conviction in the superiority of opinion that the yank has that we have an aversion to refering to British arrogance. It was created as a safeguard against American stupidity, as nuclear war was actually considered a viable option and information had to be protected between computer hubs.

We invented the English language. So maybe your not always right just cuz you came first. Or you could stop being a pedantic twit and actually learn to read.

The question was simply why the difference. No sense of superiority was stated or implied. This is just your own inferiority complex shining through. No one said the Brits were wrong…they just were curious as to the difference. No, Europeans are just wrong and stupid. Zed is the right way its the bl oody yanks who say it wrong.

Bloo dy Americans always think there right they are always wrong more like. Same with right night etc its not nite its night and its not rite its right blo dy wan ker americans. Check out the word ethnocentrism. Language is constantly evolving, and always will be. You just need to accept that fact. Zed is the right way. Same with right, night, etc. Bloody Americans. Also, nobody in America spells night or right as nite or rite. This is comical to me. To fish out the bigots, just make a post about something trivial like the pronunciation of the letter Z.

Your reply makes no sense to me. And I hardly think that the free American colonies decided to drop a u to stick it to us Brits. During the 17th century British English went through a Europeanisation whereby spellings were adopted to look more French — hence color became colour, harbor to harbour, etc.

You are correct. Another one of these errors is that soccer is actually an English and not an American word. It was adopted by the Brits to differentiate association football from rugby football.

Nah…completely incorrect. Oh well. I am British and 71 years old. So much so that in later years I found myself constantly looking the words up in a dictionary.

It has no date on it but it must be at least as old as me as it belonged to my parents. If I ever did see it spelled like that, I thought it was a typo. So we Americans think throwing in a consonant when no other letter of the alphabet is pronounced that way is odd—get over it.

Imagine what the early Brits would think of the language you speak now if they heard you. Classic Brits stuck in the old times and refusing to change. Another question you kinda alluded to..

You can whinge about it all you like, but it has stuck, so you might as well get used to it. This is false. Americans were called Americans all the way back to when the States were colonies.

So it is originally a british term for people living in what is now the U. And regarding soccer. Soccer IS a british word. So if your name was Ted, you would be called Tedder. Mostly for girls. Amazing how little the british know about their own language. It was the first country established as an independent nation on either the North American or South American continent. Deal with it. We say Zed, you say Zee and who cares?

What a ridiculous thing to argue about. It just is what it is. When you live here you say Zed and if you live in the United States you say Zee. Everyone in here needs to find something more important to argue about. I happen to like the British too so stop trashing each other people!! We were the first independent country in the Americas. We chose to call ourselves the United States of America for reasons that are probably too complex for you to follow.

But there it is. Now with that name what do we call the people? United Staters? United States of Americaers? American was the only logical choice and as we were first, we had dibs on the name. Referring to the people of your country, Brits is prejudicial. I believe they are quite content to call themselves Canadians.

Citizens of the U. Oh more whiny antiamericanism. And rite is actually a word…look it up. B is pronounced B, not bed. C is pronounced C, not ced. Fucking tea-drinking Queen worshippers. Sometimes t makes sense, but a majority of the time it just does not. I mean do you really pronounce the word color as, col-OUR or color; another one being neighborhood or neighb-OUR-hood.

Also its funny you complain about american on an american site, dont see many british owned sites do we now…. Are you THAT ignorant? Get your own language! And if not for the invention of the telephone by Mr. Bell a Canadian , the Internet would not have a medium to exist on. Alexander Graham Bell March 3, — August 2, [4] was a Scottish-born[N 3] scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone.

When you move to a new country and become a citizen of that country you will, from that point forward, be considered to be from that country regardless of your age and the fact that your roots and ancestors may be from somewhere else. You may may label yourself as an Irish American or a Scottish Canadian if you so choose but the country you are a citizen of will also become a part of your identity.

As for Bell, he lived and worked a great deal of his life in Canada. He died and is buried at his estate in the Cape Breton area of Canada where he spent most of his time during his later years but he was ever officially Canadian. He was born in Scotland and moved to Canada shortly after Canada became a country. At the time he remained a British citizen as that would have been all that was required. He worked took him to the US and he divided his time between the two countries; however, he chose to become a US citizen and reportedly considered himself to be an american.

Zed is said to derive from Greek Zeta. You pronoun ce it properly, so do we…get over it. No language is monolithic, especially such a large one.