Q stripped of status

[LuigiHann]

Q was stripped of its status as a letter when linguists from around the world declared it "unnecessary," leaving just 25 letters in the Latin alphabet.
The glyph Q (pronounced "cue"), discovered in 1742 by Benjamin Franklin, has traditionally been the 17th letter of the alphabet. However, modern linguists have doubted its status as a letter for decades, noting that in virtually all cases, the arrangement "Cu" can replace "Qu" with no notable change. Serious debate over what constitutes a letter arose when a move to add æ to the alphabet was shot down, leading many of its proponents to argue that much of the same reasoning could be used against Q as well.
Fans of Q, such as those introduced to the character via its prominence in the James Bond films and the Star Trek series, are fighting the decision, as are many fans of the traditional "Alphabet Song," which includes Q. However, after all arguments were made, the new definition of "letter" was voted into effect.
Native English words using the letter Q will be altered to use K or C instead, and words borrowed from other languages will be adjusted on a case-by-case basis, to ensure intuitive pronunciation after the changeover. Proper nouns and foreign words may continue to use the Q glyph, but in those cases it will be treated as a foreign character, not unlike æ.
Children going into schools this September will still be getting dictionaries which refer to Q as a letter, as it will be months before new dictionaries will be ready to print, and in some cases years before schools can afford them, but teachers hope that by presenting the old information and explaining the new, they will be giving children a bit more insight into the way language evolves.

[eheiney]

Interesting. Link?

[Phyltre]

Nice satirical commentary on Pluto, but frankly, I'd rather get rid of Q than not. The english language could use some significant refining.

[LuigiHann]

Originally posted by denkensiefursich
Interesting. Link?

[eheiney]

Yeah, I'm fairly gullible at times. You caught me off guard.

[rockouthippie]

Originally posted by Phyltre
The english language could use some significant refining.

The main strength of english is that it's loose structure makes it very flexible. For an alternative, look at german, which is very formal. It's formality is not an asset.

Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgeset is a word relating to british beef imports and mad cow disease and the longest german word for 2005.

And I don't think Q should be removed from the alphabet. Maybe it should be something else. It doesn't act like normal letters, it has a squiggly thingy in it.

And it should drive textbook prices even higher. But we need to wait until Pluto isn't a planet anymore so we can spend millions publishing this important new information.

Or we could just get bumpers stickers that say "Pluto isn't a planet" and "Q isn't a letter".

[Phyltre]

Originally posted by rockouthippie
The main strength of english is that it's loose structure makes it very flexible. For an alternative, look at german, which is very formal. It's formality is not an asset.

I don't really mean formality, per say. I was thinking more along the lines of cleaning up sounds that are identical but that have different spellings simply because they came from different languages. There's no good word to address crowds (we settle with you all or y'all, and fumble over "everyone") and can you you tell me why maneuver isn't spelled manuever? Manu is a word particle for moving something with your hands. Shouldn't it derive into the word without getting switched around? Why do C and K both exist? Soft Cs are Ss, hard Cs are Ks. WHy do we have X when it's usually used as a Z sound, and the other times makes an ecks sound? Shouldn't each letter be a discrete noise?

English is somewhat of a mess because it comes from everywhere and adopts spelling/usage rules from all those places into an incohesive whole. I think we'd be best served by simplifying it, not necessarily formalizing it.

[ElChevelle]

Holy fucking shit!
Don't people have more important things to worry about?

[zootm]

I get the feeling the author doesn't understand the issue with the Pluto thing.

[MidnightViper88]

Originally posted by rockouthippie
And I don't think Q should be removed from the alphabet. Maybe it should be something else. It doesn't act like normal letters, it has a squiggly thingy in it.

That, and it has some odd butt-buddy affection to the letter U...

[Doggy Dog]

English language fails because of its shoddy/wrong letter-sound connection.

[eukhost.com]

hmm

i get it now...

shane

[LuigiHann]

Originally posted by zootm
I get the feeling the author doesn't understand the issue with the Pluto thing.

Feel free to adress me directly...
And I'm not really adressing the issue itself so much as the bizzarre public reaction to it.

[zootm]

Originally posted by LuigiHann
Feel free to adress me directly...
And I'm not really adressing the issue itself so much as the bizzarre public reaction to it.

Well then you're capturing that fact that people don't get the issue quite well

Apologies for not realising you wrote that, things like this get cut-and-pasted across the internet.

[Omega X]

Originally posted by ElChevelle
Holy fucking shit!
Don't people have more important things to worry about?

Nope.

There are hundreds of real problems. And the letter "Q" is not one of them.

Fucking retards.

[LuigiHann]

Originally posted by zootm
Apologies for not realising you wrote that, things like this get cut-and-pasted across the internet.

It's all right, I'm actually hoping that'll happen to this. Feel free to repost it wherever, but link back to this one.
I'm surprised even a few people think this is real for more than a couple seconds, considering I credit Ben Franklin with discovering the letter Q. (He didn't, btw)

[Phyltre]

Originally posted by Omega X
Nope.

There are hundreds of real problems. And the letter "Q" is not one of them.

Fucking retards.

People like writers, English teachers, and mostly any graduate student will realize these hundreds of little idiosyncracies serve to make the english language harder, rather than easier, to learn and understand. They don't exist for any logical reason; it's all just mashed together and from a time when "literacy" basically meant spelling words free-form (you've probably seen the text in journals older than 120 years or so. There IS no correct spelling.)

Feel free to call the people who spend their adult lives working with language retards, but realize that there are people out there getting evangelical about OPERATING SYSTEMS. It's not like their priorities are any worse.

[Omega X]

Originally posted by Phyltre

Feel free to call the people who spend their adult lives working with language retards, but realize that there are people out there getting evangelical about OPERATING SYSTEMS. It's not like their priorities are any worse.

Not really.

Operating Systems are far more useful than removing "Q" from the English language.

But the news is "faque" so all is moot.

[zootm]

Originally posted by LuigiHann
I'm surprised even a few people think this is real for more than a couple seconds, considering I credit Ben Franklin with discovering the letter Q. (He didn't, btw)

But it must be real! I read it on the internet!

[ElChevelle]

Originally posted by Phyltre
People like writers, English teachers, and mostly any graduate student will realize these hundreds of little idiosyncracies serve to make the english language harder, rather than easier, to learn and understand.

Too fucking bad.
I learned it.

[Phyltre]

Originally posted by ElChevelle
Too fucking bad.
I learned it.

lol

[Doggy Dog]

Originally posted by LuigiHann
I'm surprised even a few people think this is real for more than a couple seconds, considering I credit Ben Franklin with discovering the letter Q. (He didn't, btw)

Zmofg, wasn't Benjamin Franklin, like, a Roman emperor and stuff.