American immigrants to the region, numbering severalhundred annually, routinely report that their name for Z is one of thefirst things they change after arriving there, because calling it "zee"unfailingly draws comments from the people they are talking to. In Southern Ontario, the pronunciation of Z as "zee" is stigmatized,as might be expected. One of the small matters is the name of the last letter of the alphabet.'Z' is called "zed" everywhere in the world, not only in English but alsoin French, German, and most other languages, except in the United States,where it is called "zee". Their resistance involves matters bothlarge and small. The first example is probably more interesting socially than linguistically.In Southern Ontario, the southernmost part of Canada and also the mostpopulous, the proximity of the United States on three sides makes the Americanpresence a constant factor, and one that Canadians feel compelled to resistin order to keep their autonomy. Its elimination or reductionin the speech of individuals normally takes place without conscious efforton their part, and the linguistic effect of the change is minor, but itis no doubt one of the dozens of miniscule changes that contributes tothe perception of their maturity in the view of parents, teachers, andother adults.Ĥ.6.1.1. Thus the early variant might bethought of as a marker of children's speech. The that I willcite here take place in adolescence. Very few changes of this kind have been reported. Theyare, then, regular and predictable changes that might be thought of asmarking a developmental stage in the individual's life. The Old Man and the Sea.Age-graded changes are usually thought of as changes in the use of avariant that recur at a particular age in successive generations. Zee f ( plural zeeën, diminutive zeetje n)
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