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From Cecil's Mailbag by the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board
Dear Straight Dope:
Whenever I hear a person from Britain pronounce the letter Z,
they
pronounce it "zed" instead of "zee," as we Americans say it.
Why is there a difference between the pronounciations? --Arnold
Wright Blan
SDSTAFF Ian replies:
As usual in most of these matters, it's we the people of the US
that changed it, not the other way around. "Zed" comes from the
original Greek zeta via Old French zede, and pretty much all
English speakers worldwide pronounce it that way. The reason we
don't is because we had a pretty major falling out with the people
that did, and in the aftermath, seized on dialectical nuances and
amplified them. The last thing an American wanted to sound
like after the Revolution was an Englishman, or vice-versa. Not
that it was an intentional alteration, but there was a regional
dialect in the US (and, it must be said, in parts of England) that
pronounced it zee (as there were others that pronounced it zad,
zard, ezod, izzard, and uzzard), and this was one difference in the
vocabulary which was seized upon by post-George III America.
According to the Concise Oxford Companion, "The modification
of zed ... to zee appears to have been by analogy with bee, dee,
vee, etc." You kind of get the feeling that this wasn't the most
important letter of the alphabet, not only from this sloppy
attention to its pronunciation, but also by such quotes as
Shakespeare's "Thou whoreson Zed, thou unneccessary letter!" Lye's
New Spelling Book (1677) was the first to list "zee" as
a
correct pronunciation, and it was pretty much firmed up by Webster,
who, like grammarians all over the former Empire, wanted to put the
kibosh on all this "izzard" nonsense, and decreed "it is pronounced
zee" (1827).
We may win the battle yet, though, by indoctrinating British,
Australian, and Canadian kids when they're young. The plan was,
take a catchy tune by some pop composer like, oh, say Mozart, and
attach the alphabet to it. The previously mentioned 'analogy' with
other letters enables you to rhyme the last line of the song, and
even a four year old can tell that the line following "q r s, t u
v" is not supposed to be "w x, y and ZED".
This so-called "Sesame Street Phenomenon" is noted in almost all
other English-speaking countries, and was addressed by J.K.
Chambers in a study of kids in Ontario, in which he noted a
lessening of the taboo on "zee" in the Canadian schools. Even in
England itself, elementary teachers are complaining that they have
to re-teach the pronunciation of the letter when 5 and 6 year olds
come to school, and when they sing the song, they typically do so
with the
American pronunciation. In my opinion, all we have to do to win
the whole language war is to popularize some rhyme with some lines
like "Cookies, elevator, french fries, truck; don't say 'petrol' or
you suck."
Now you know about zed and zee. Next time won't you sing with
me?
--SDStaff Ian
Straight Dope Science Advisory Board
Cecil's Mailbag is researched and written by members of the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board, Cecil's online auxiliary. Although the SDSAB does its best, these articles are edited by Ed Zotti, not Cecil, so accuracywise you'd better keep your fingers crossed.
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