Which letter of the alphabet could we do without?

If we had to do away with one of the 26 letters of the alphabet, which would you pick? Which do you think could become obsolete without you missing it too much? Q and Z are the highest scorers on Scrabble due to their rarity/uselessness. Plus Q needs U after it. I guess we could use 'kw' instead of 'qu'. Anyway, you've to delete one, which is it?

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

H

Flatzie_poo

U, OP

clairewithani

C just use s or k instead or j for ch

Flatzie_poo

Flatzie_poo wrote: »

U, OP

That's three.

clairewithani

clairewithani wrote: »

C just use s or k instead or j for ch

The 'i' in Claire is nice and redundant.

gammygils

Q
Where I spend too much time!

Maximus Alexander

Omackeral wrote: »

If we had to do away with one of the 26 letters of the alphabet, which would you pick? Which do you think could become obsolete without you missing it too much? Q and Z are the highest scorers on Scrabble due to their rarity/uselessness. Plus Q needs U after it. I guess we could use 'kw' instead of 'qu'. Anyway, you've to delete one, which is it?

Forget about which one would you pick. It'll be a much more interesting thread if we can get each person to propose some series of events where this would be the best solution. We need to explore this fascinating world you've created.

TheFarrier

clairewithani wrote: »

C just use s or k instead or j for ch

Not so sure about that, going to jurj on Sundays doesn't quite have the same ring to it

maudgonner

K. It's just a hard C.

Either we should use K in all cases where we use a hard C, or else get rid of it altogether.


(We could, of course, adopt the Irish language alphabet and get rid of J, K, Q, V, W, X, Y and Z )

clairewithani

TheFarrier wrote: »

Not so sure about that, going to jurj on Sundays doesn't quite have the same ring to it

Who goes to church anymore

clairewithani

Omackeral wrote: »

The 'i' in Claire is nice and redundant.

As is the c in your name. 😀

TheFarrier

TheFarrier wrote: »

Not so sure about that, going to jurj on Sundays doesn't quite have the same ring to it

Imagine Hozier Hosier singing ''Take Me To Jurj''

The Diddakoi

Can't manage without a P

clairewithani

Omackeral wrote: »

Imagine Hozier Hosier singing ''Take Me To Jurj''

Say it. Still works.

kfallon

The second last one, after Y but before Z. It's always mentioned when someone says the alphabet, sounds a lot like 'N' and 'D' together tbh. Never heard anyone use that letter :P

The Backwards Man

I say get rid of the whole lot of them!

HigginsJ

Z - That way Yank's would be forced to spell words the right way.

OldGoat

Don't downsize, upscale instead. Add new ones or at least incorporate some of the better known Greek letters. µ has always been a personal favourite.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

check_six

HigginsJ wrote: »

Z - That way Yank's would be forced to spell words the right way.

Are we talking about "Z as in zee" or "Z as in zed" here?

I've no real affection for "zee" to be honest and I wouldn't miss it.
"Zed" however is a different barrel of fish!

GLaDOS

e

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

RayM

clairewithani wrote: »

C just use s or k instead or j for ch

Not sure how Melanie Chisholm from the Spice Girls would feel about that...

RobertKK

Z

It was just an add on at the end...

GLaDOS

GLaDOS wrote: »

e

Gadsby is a 1939 novel by Ernest Vincent Wright written as a lipogram, which does not include words that contain the letter "e". The plot revolves around the dying fictional city of Branton Hills, which is revitalised as a result of the efforts of protagonist John Gadsby and a youth group he organizes. It's also carried the subtitle The 50,000 Word Novel Without the Letter "E".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadsby_(novel)

kunst nugget

Omackeral wrote: »

Imagine Hozier Hosier singing ''Take Me To Jurj''

You mean he's have to stop singing that song if we got rid of 'ch'? Gee, that would be a shame…


I strongly recommend that we rid the world of 'CH' as soon as possible!!!

Boom_Bap

GLaDOS wrote: »

e

It's probably the most important letter as it distinguishes between sh*te and sh*t.

GLaDOS

Omackeral wrote: »

Gadsby is a 1939 novel by Ernest Vincent Wright written as a lipogram, which does not include words that contain the letter "e". The plot revolves around the dying fictional city of Branton Hills, which is revitalised as a result of the efforts of protagonist John Gadsby and a youth group he organizes. It's also carried the subtitle The 50,000 Word Novel Without the Letter "E".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadsby_(novel)

Just as I thought, easily dispensable

eamonnq

Omackeral wrote: »

Gadsby is a 1939 novel by Ernest Vincent Wright written as a lipogram, which does not include words that contain the letter "e". The plot revolves around the dying fictional city of Branton Hills, which is revitalised as a result of the efforts of protagonist John Gadsby and a youth group he organizes. It's also carried the subtitle Th 50,000 Word Novl Without th Lttr " ".

RayM

eamonnq wrote: »

It should be "A book without that non-consonant which sits twixt d and f"

Glenster

I've always hated the letter w.

Can we get rid of that.

Glenster

Glenster wrote: »

I've always hated the letter w.

Can we get rid of that.

Yeah it's a farce, it's clearly a double v rather than a double u.

Winterlong

S.
For the sake of those with a lisp.

RayM

Omackeral wrote: »

Yeah it's a farce, it's clearly a double v rather than a double u.

Dreamt up by some total anker, no doubt.

Winterlong

RayM wrote: »

Dreamt up by some total anker, no doubt.

The germans have the right idea. W is pronounced V.
Which begs the question. Why do the germans have a v?

Maximus Alexander

Winterlong wrote: »

The germans have the right idea. W is pronounced V.
Which begs the question. Why do the germans have a v?

They don't; they call it SingleU.

maudgonner

Winterlong wrote: »

The germans have the right idea. W is pronounced V.
Which begs the question. Why do the germans have a v?

Well a lot of the time they pronounce v as an f. (e.g. Volkswagen)...

..which begs the question: why do the Germans have an f?

Maximus Alexander

maudgonner wrote: »

Well a lot of the time they pronounce v as an f. (e.g. Volkswagen)...

..which begs the question: why do the Germans have an f?

Well a lot of the time they pronounce f as a ph.
(e.g. Fräulein)...

...which begs the question...

Winterlong

maudgonner wrote: »

Well a lot of the time they pronounce v as an f. (e.g. Volkswagen)...

..which begs the question: why do the Germans have an f?

Vuck knows.

topper75

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

Aye - I think those boys are down to 18 now...

abcdefghilmnoprstu... and we're done.

Sometimes v is retained for van and other quare foreign words from foreign parts out foreign but bh or mh will do in its place.

old_aussie

gammygils wrote: »

Q
Where I spend too much time!

Is that on the near Q or the far Q

suicide_circus

Y

Just end things with an i

And for the J sound like at the start if "you" just use a J.

goose2005

maudgonner wrote: »

Well a lot of the time they pronounce v as an f. (e.g. Volkswagen)...

..which begs the question: why do the Germans have an f?

Some dialects the 'pf' is pronounced 'pp' (e.g. Apfel in the south, Appel in the north = "apple")

tmabr

zed,s dead baby - zeds dead

last in first out

actually any letter will do,purely for me to be able to put down them kids alphabet mats in a 5 x 5 formation without having one left over grrrr

Capt'n Midnight

Irish doesn't have J,K,Q,V,W,X,Y or Z
Yes the animal garden should be spelt Sú

Observe the W sound in bhfuil

an bhfuil cead agam dul dti an leithreas = You will be forever in my heart.

mansize

maudgonner wrote: »

K. It's just a hard C.

Either we should use K in all cases where we use a hard C, or else get rid of it altogether.


(We could, of course, adopt the Irish language alphabet and get rid of J, K, Q, V, W, X, Y and Z )

+1 and H!

KingBrian2

Don't need X.

clairewithani

clairewithani wrote: »

C just use s or k instead or j for ch

+1, except I'd use "q" for "ch", and then just use "kw" for our current "q".

As you kan see from this sentense, the desision to qoose "c" as the letter to qukk out of the kurrent alphabet would have kwite little qange and minimal impakt on our kurrent lexikographikal and phonetik konventions.

And now, here's Qeeq and Qong with their "Koke" sene, a (Krusty) komedy klassik:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxTRCkLQxXc

OldGoat

OldGoat wrote: »

Don't downsize, upscale instead. Add new ones or at least incorporate some of the better known Greek letters. µ has always been a personal favourite.

I'd be looking to ad a couple of letters or restoring some old English letters like þ for all the th words.
How would you þinkþat would go down wiþ people, it would make writing þese þings easier.
just þink about þis. :P

Capt'n Midnight

Who needs words, when you can use letters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc3M1nppd3c