DCHP-3

zed

DCHP-2 (Oct 2016)
n. — especially Education

the majority pronunciation of the letter Z.

Type: 2. Preservation — The pronunciation of the letter Z as zed rather than "zee" is not limited to Canadian English. It is the predominant form in Great Britain and most other Commonwealth and English-speaking countries, deriving from "zeta" in Greek. The dominant American pronunciation of the letter as "zee" was first listed in 1677 in Lye's New Spelling Book (see Casselman reference) and this form was likely solidified in American English by Noah Webster in his American Spelling Book published in 1783 and following.
"Zee" is sometimes used by Canadian children as they learn the (American) alphabet song, where the pronunciation of Z is changed from zed to "zee" in order to rhyme with a preceding letter (Chambers 2009: 202; see also the 2009 quotation). Once in school, however, their pronunciation changes back to zed in what sociolinguist William Labov would call an "age-graded change", a change that is predictable by a speaker's age. In Canadian adults, zed is by far the predominant form (see Chambers 2009). "Zee", however, is a strong but stable minority variant at about 20% across all ages and regions. While a strong tendency towards zed persists, the showing of "zee" means that statements such as those made in the 1995 and 1999 quotations are untenable over-simplifications.
See also COD-2, s.v. "zed", which is marked "Cdn & Brit.", W-3, s.v. "zed", which is marked "chiefly Brit.", AHD-5, s.v. "zed", which is marked "Chiefly British".

Quotations

1980
In recent studies, Chambers has found almost all adult Canadians surveyed pronounced the last letter of the alphabet as ''zed,'' the traditional pronunciation here and, indeed, the one given on the next to the last page of the new Canadian dictionary.
1986
But he added that the final letter will be pronounced "zed" in the Canadian and British style whenever all four call letters are announced on the air.
1988
Consider the splashy alphabet sequence presented at the seminar: as the living letters frolic through a song, they draw to a neat close with the Canadian-style "zed - That's what I said."
1989
"That is serious. The Zed word, eh? I'll send someone out to investigate right away."
1993
The U.S. is "the only country in the universe to have turned zed into zee," says Jack Chambers, a professor of linguistics at the University of Toronto. "Even in French and German, it's pronounced zed."
1995
If the answer is "zee," the speaker is American, if "zed," then Canadian.
1999
In Canada, the last letter of the alphabet is pronounced ZED -- not ZEE, which is American.
2002
Loosely organizing his book around the alphabet, Coupland takes us on an intensely personal tour of Canada, from Baffin Island to the letter "zed."
2009
The "zee" pronunciation is reinforced especially by the "Alphabet Song," a piece of doggerel set to music that ends with these lines:
ell em en oh pee cue, ar ess tee,
you vee double-yoo, eks wye zee.
Now I know my ey bee sees,
Next time, won't you sing with me?
The rhyme of "zee" with "tee" is ruined if it pronounced "zed," a fact that seems so salient that many Ontario nursery school teachers retain it in the song even though they would never use it elsewhere.
2013
Sure beat the heck out of listening to Mr. Nightengale in math class droning on about the sum of something or other after zed equaled emcee squared... or something like that. I zoned out. Math was never a strong point. That requires left-brain thinking.

References