NickM
Veteran
- Location
- Darwin's birthplace
...when they meant "zed"? Or is it just a modern American affectation?
Tim Bennet. said:Lye's New Spelling Book (1677) was the first to list "zee" as a correct pronunciation.
It's generally assumed to be the result of the post revolution enthusiasm to embrace anything that differentiated the new American citizens from the 'official' British Colonial position on nearly everything. So adopting the speech idiosyncrasies of perhaps west country migrants or even immigrants from non English speaking areas, was done in a hope they could quickly sound as different as possible to their enemies 'the English'.
Obviously the reverse pressures where in play in Canada, so Zed has remained.
Tim Bennet. said:Lye's New Spelling Book (1677) was the first to list "zee" as a correct pronunciation.
It's generally assumed to be the result of the post revolution enthusiasm to embrace anything that differentiated the new American citizens from the 'official' British Colonial position on nearly everything. So adopting the speech idiosyncrasies of perhaps west country migrants or even immigrants from non English speaking areas, was done in a hope they could quickly sound as different as possible to their enemies 'the English'.
Obviously the reverse pressures where in play in Canada, so Zed has remained.
Tim Bennet. said:In the UK, we are now so exposed to these differences, that we are all intrinsically bilingual to a degree.