Why zed instead of zee?

While it is amusing to watch the “mighty” Americans getting ‘bashed’ by their “co-brothers” over who owns this language called ‘English’, I, a non-native speaker of ‘your’ language would like to gently draw the attention of the both of you to the following two pertinent facts, which obsolete your squabble:

1) Native speakers are now substantially outnumbered worldwide by second-language speakers of English

cited from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-speaking_world

2) India has the largest number of second-language speakers (see Indian English)

also cited from the same source as above.

A map showing this is available here http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten/countries-with-most-english-language-speaker-map.html

(I am unable to figure out how to insert the graphic in this reply, hence, I have just posted the URL).

From another direction, there is the threat to English itself receding to ‘Second Language’ status with the rising numbers of Spanish speakers contra the declining numbers of English speakers, in the U. S.

In light of such development, it may be very likely that white English speakers throughout the world will encounter the Indian accents – there are many – and, maybe, even adopt one, for wider market reach or other reasons, whether they like it or not.

Guess, the ‘real’ Indians will be having the last laugh – in English, mind you.

When you’re learning English as a second language, you have a lot to contend with.

There usually isn’t much variation in how to pronounce letters in the alphabet – apart from the letter Z. You might have heard Z pronounced as zed and zee. So, which is correct… and why?

Zed is widely known to be used in British English. But it’s also used in almost every English-speaking country. In England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Australia, India, Canada (usually), and New Zealand, Z is pronounced as zed. It’s derived from the Greek letter zeta.

It’s only in American English that it’s pronounced as zee, with Candian English sometimes being the exception, depending on which option the speaker prefers.

Zee became the standard way to pronounce Z in the United States in the 19th century. It’s said that zee most likely came about because it rhymes with other letter pronunciations in the English alphabet (e.g., e, d, c, b, g, and p).

While zee is only the standardized pronunciation of Z in American English, with the popularity of The Alphabet Song, as well as the popularity of American television shows and films across the world, zee is now sometimes used and accepted in other English-speaking countries.

Regardless of which pronunciation you use, people will usually know which letter you’re referring to! But, keep in mind that zed is technically the correct version in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Canada, India, Australia, and New Zealand, and zee is technically correct in the United States.

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As zed is the British pronunciation and zee is chiefly American, zed represents one of the rare occasions in which most Canadians prefer the British to the American pronunciation.