Why's it called a double U anyway, instead of a double V?
And why are the vowels scattered through the alphabet in that fashion? No order at all. I'd keep them together.
Another thought. The 'b', 'd', 'p' and 'q' are actually the SAME shape either reversed 4 times - it would be quicker to like keep the 'b' and just put a little slash through it to indicate which of the other letters you meant. Like the notation in music at the long stroke of the note.
Now we're cooking with gas. Let's reinvent the alphabet!!
Can't help you right now, Roberta. I'm too busy re-inventing the wheel. Maybe nexy week. Oh, wait! Next week I'm scheduled to establish peace and harmony in the world. Next month, then.
One word for you, Andrew: rhombus.
In Spanish it's not double-u but "doble v." See, they're smarter than we are.
Come to think of it...there is no W in the Latvian alphabet. But if it becomes necessary to refer to the letter in connection with spelling a foreign word which contains that letter, it is called a double V, not a double U.
Which still doesn't answer my original question -- why do we call it a double U in English?
Didn't U used to look like a V?
Patio -- in the Latin language, the original Roman alphabet had no v and no j (therefore no w either). Julius Caesar was actually Ivlivs Caesar (actually Gaivs Ivlivus Caesar, if you want to be persnickety, but that's another story.) They had no k either, the c representing all k sounds. The J and the V were introduced from the German alphabet in order to accurately reflect Germanic pronunciation of certain words. It was all phonetic back then with no rules for spelling whatever.
If this all sounds confusing, remember it's all off the top of my head which is about as confused as one can get. Hoping you are the same, I remain,
Merrie Andrew
I came across this bit of humor about the letter "Z" by Benjamin Franklin in
Fart Proudly, copyright 1990 by Carl Japikse, published by Enthea Press, Alpharetta, GA 30239.
Quote:(Editor's Note: This short piece was written by Franklin as a way of venting his frustrations of dealing with Arthur Lee, who, along with Silas Deane, served with Franklin as America's commission to France at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Isaac Bickerstaff was a pseudonym used by the satirst Jonathan Swift.)
To the Worshipful Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq.; Censor-General
The Petition of the Letter Z, Commonly Called Exxard, Zed, or Izard, Most Humbly Sheweth,
(He was always talking of his Family and of his being a Man of Fortune.)
That your Petitioner is of as high extraction, and has as good an Estate as any other Letter of the Alphabet.
(And complaining of his being treated, not with Respect.)
That there is therefore no reason why he should be treated with Disrespect and Indignity.
(At the tail of the Commission, of Ministers.)
That he is not only placed at the Tail of the Alphabet, when he had as much Right as any other to be at the Head; but is, by the Injustice of his enemies totally excluded from the Word WISE, and his Place injuriously filled by a little, hissing, crooked, serpentine, venemous Letter calles s, when it must be evident to your Worship, and to all the World that Double U, I, S, E do not spell or sound Wize, but Wice.
(He was not of the Commission for France, A Lee being preferred to him, which made him very angry; and the Character here given of S, is just what he in his Passion gave Lee.)
(The most impatient Man alive.)
Your Petitioner therefore prays that the Alphabet may by your Censorial Authority be reformed, and that in Consideration to his Long-suffering and Patience he may be turned out of the Word Wise, and the Petitioner employed instead of him;
And your Petitioner (as in Duty bound) shall ever pray, &c.
Z
Mr. Bickerstaff having examined the Allegations of the above Petition, judges and determines, that Z be admonished to be content with his Sation, forbear Reflection upon his Brother Letters, & remember his own small Usefulness, and the little Occasion there is for him in the Republick of Letters, since S, whom he so despises, can so well serve instead of him.
Under the new official European Integrated Language System [EILS] many letters of the Roman Alphabet have already been slated for elimination.
Europe's Official Language...
The European Union Commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five-year phased plan for what will be known asEuro English (Euro for short).
In the first year, "s" will be used instead of the soft "c". Sertainly, sivil servants will resieve this news with joy. Also, the hard "c" will be replaced with "k" Not only will this klear up konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced by "f". This will makewords like "fotograf" 20 per sent shorter.
In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent "e"s in the languag is disgrasful,and they would go.
By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" by "z" and "w" by "v." During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou", and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters. After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl.
Zer vilbe no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech ozer.
Ze drem vil finali kum tru.
[From ze Internet.. .. ..]
bravo! fancytickler, that is the funniest thing I had read in years!
I'm afraid you've got it all wrong. Letterology is a well developed science so I'm was sure some of you would have recognized the true worst letter of the alphabet; which is "x" of course. I have never seen a hand written X that was written in such a way as to appear to be written rather than printed. It just doesn't look right and I'm not going to stand for it. I was going to have a recall drive for the letter x but that bastard Gray Davis took all the lime light. It's like a letter anniliator can't get a break these days.
Hi Dov, Do you play Scrabble? X is a good letter to have. Lots of three letter words and it's worth 8 points. Q is the letter that should be banned. It's in a co-dependent relationship with U. Rarely if ever stands on its own. Looks like a 2 when a handwritten capital letter. Granted, it's worth ten points in Scrabble, but so is Z. And Z doesn't need a U.
I could get into trying to make a nice looking handwritten 'x'. Might take a while. That was my first thought on my unloved letter. Then I thought k, but remembered dear little k. I was dismayed at how many people didn't really like C, a favorite of mine. I could possible lose F.
On Dov's riff on monarchical signatures, back on page 3, that reminds me of the time I was a partner in an interior design firm. Well, a few of us got together, already being qualified in one way or another, and figured out a firm name for ourselves. JAM. Based on our initials. The firm lasted exactly one job, because we got bored, but ne'er mind. One day, two of us three principals spent a whole afternoon, perhaps facilitated by some white wine, in practicing to have our signatures look as keeno as the guy prinicpal's. His was very striking, a designerish swash of slashes, too cool. We tended to do faulty palmer method signatures. So, together and separately we covered a pack of paper trying to signaturize ourselves with flair. What a waste. Basically we just wrote a little sloppier, but the sigs were discernably us. I guess it takes real laissez faire to cut a signature with verve....
Are our choices based on a predilection for straight lines or curves?
Roberta,
I am going to have to challenge your position in banning the letter Q. My first name begins with Q, and the second letter is I. Q does not have to be codependent as "proper grammer" teaches us. Perhaps, its U that needs therapy.
It only looks like a 2 when written in script if you are a conformist and have no everyday need to write Q, such as I.
q is also the symbol for heat. q is also a symbol in the field of cytogenetics for the long arm of a chromosome as a opposed to the short arm.
The sound of letter q is derived from the sound of swallowing water. CH is sometimes used to describe this sound as in loch ness..Q is necessary, with its bi polar sometimes counterpart U, or standing alone.
!!Vive la Q!!
What about Z? Do we really NEED Z's?
When it gets to be around midnight or so, I usually do need my zzzzzs.
teeheeteehee
MA did you help but the sheep out of commission with a new Serta?
Hiya 3octopuss3, Sorry to have been so highly critical of a letter you've obviously had an intimate and loving relationship with for your entire life. I was defending the X (I'm from the BronX), and I got carried away. I'm not willing to give up Z. I'm not a major fan of the letter, but it comes in handy sometimes.
