Editing 1069: Alphabet
Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
The edit can be undone.
Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then save the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
Latest revision | Your text | ||
Line 3: | Line 3: | ||
| date = June 15, 2012 | | date = June 15, 2012 | ||
| title = Alphabet | | title = Alphabet | ||
− | | image = | + | | image = Alphabet.png |
| titletext = Do I get to remove letters entirely? Or just rearrange them? Because the 'k/c' situation is ridiculous. Look, we can make out whenever. This is *immortality*!}} | | titletext = Do I get to remove letters entirely? Or just rearrange them? Because the 'k/c' situation is ridiculous. Look, we can make out whenever. This is *immortality*!}} | ||
==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | This comic is mainly a joke on the traditional {{w|pick-up line}} that goes: "Baby, if I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put 'U' and 'I' together", | + | This comic is mainly a joke on the traditional {{w|pick-up line}} that goes: "Baby, if I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put 'U' and 'I' together", i.e. "you and I", or "the letter U and the letter I". |
− | However, in typical [[xkcd]] fashion, rather than continuing with that tired pickup line | + | However, in typical [[xkcd]] fashion, rather than continuing with that tired pickup line, [[Cueball]] jumps at his hypothetical chance to rearrange the alphabet and fix the {{w|English orthography}}. An {{w|orthography}} is a standardized system for using a particular writing system (script) to write a particular language, including rules of spelling. The English orthography happens to be one of the deepest (that is, most irregular) ones around, since almost every sound can be spelled in several ways, and most spellings and all letters can be pronounced in more than one way, and often in many different ways. |
− | + | So faced with this opportunity, the hooking up could wait. Restructuring the alphabet and creating a sensibly regular English spelling is the chance of a lifetime, and would make history, making Cueball immortal in the sense of living on forever in memory as the alphabet-fixer. | |
− | + | "The 'k/c' situation" is about the use of the letter 'c'. It doesn't have a unique sound, and most often make a {{w|Voiceless velar stop|'k'-sound}} or an {{w|Voiceless alveolar sibilant|'s'-sound}}. Combined with an 'h' it usually makes the {{w|Voiceless palato-alveolar affricate|'ch'-sound}} in ''chair'', but also they often sound like 'k' (''character''), and in not too few cases they even make the {{w|Voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant|'sh'-sound}}.[http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Words_with_the_letters_ch_that_sound_like_sh]. So a reasonable change Cueball might make is to replace 'c' by 'k' or 's', and keep 'c' only followed by 'h' (or even giving 'c' the current sound of 'ch' as in ''chair)''. | |
− | + | Orthography was again the subject in [[1562: I in Team]]. | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | Orthography was again the subject in [[1562: I in Team | ||
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
− | :[Cueball | + | :[Cueball walks up to a girl sitting at a bar.] |
− | :Cueball: Baby, if I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd forget about you in a ''heartbeat''. | + | :Cueball: Baby, if I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd forget about you in a ''heartbeat''. I'm not gonna waste my one chance to help the mess that is English orthography. |
− | |||
{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
− | |||
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | ||
− | |||
[[Category:Language]] | [[Category:Language]] |