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 7: | Line 7: | ||
==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
| β | 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, addressed at [[Blondie]] at the bar, [[Cueball]] jumps at his hypothetical chance to rearrange the alphabet and fix the {{w|English orthography}}. | However, in typical [[xkcd]] fashion, rather than continuing with that tired pickup line, addressed at [[Blondie]] at the bar, [[Cueball]] jumps at his hypothetical chance to rearrange the alphabet and fix the {{w|English orthography}}. | ||
| β | An {{w|orthography}} is a standardized system for using a particular {{w|writing}} system (script) to write a particular language, including rules of spelling. English orthography is | + | An {{w|orthography}} is a standardized system for using a particular {{w|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. Unsurprisingly, {{w|English-language spelling reform}} has been a common topic of discussion over the years. |
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. | 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. | ||
| β | In the title text Cueball muses on the | + | In the title text Cueball muses on the possibilities. Does he get to remove letters entirely or just rearrange them (like putting U and I together)? Then he mentions "the 'k/c' situation" specifically because that "situation is ridiculous". This is about the use of the letter 'c'. It doesn't have a unique sound, and most often makes 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}} (like ''champagne'', [http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Words_with_the_letters_ch_that_sound_like_sh see more examples here]). 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'' or giving the role of 'ch' as in ''chair'' to 'kh', spelling 'khair')''. |
He finishes off by stating that they can make out any other time, because fixing the alphabet now would bring him immortality. | He finishes off by stating that they can make out any other time, because fixing the alphabet now would bring him immortality. | ||
