Why We Need to Quit Using Q

[FissionStockMaster]

I've been thinking a lot about this for quite a while. I saw a program a while back and it was talking about how Benjamin Franklin tried to create a phonetic alphabet; needless to say it didn't catch on. I thought about the idea of alphabet reform though and I found one thing that I stuck out; the letter Q.

Alphabetic reform is not a new concept, obviously. The English alphabet has changed quite a bit: whether out of necessity, convenience or just a change in usage. Perhaps the most drastic change was the adoption of the Latin alphabet in place of the Runic alphabet. The letter Wynn was replaced with the letter W. The letters Eth and Thorn were replaced with the letter Y, and then the letter Y's use was changed in favor of the digraph TH to make the same sound.

So comes the letter Q. The letter Q has to be the most useless letter in our alphabet. The letter Q is always paired with the letter U if it is to make the commonly used KW sound. I understand that there are exceptions to this rule too. Q can stand on its own in some words, but those exceptions are not immune. In every case that I have come across, the letter Q can be substituted for some other letter. Words such as "Burqa" can be spelled "Burka" or "Burca." "Queen" and "Quick" can be spelled "Kween" and "Kwick." "Acquit" can be spelled "Ackwit." There appears to not be any case were Q is an absolute necessity.

Making such a change to our alphabet would surely help those who are learning the English language as well. The adoption of KW in place of QU would make more phonetic sense. One would easily be able to dissect the sounds to properly pronounce the words without as much effort being put in. It might take time for those of us who are already used to the presence of Q to adopt to this, but that is not a challenge that cannot be overcome. There truly seems to be no point to keeping this useless letter around except that it has always been there. If we were to stop using this letter in our writing, I firmly believe that in fifty to a hundred years time people would only look back and wonder why it was that we kept such a silly letter around for so long.

[jp612612]

This might be the best My Take I've ever read on here! And gets no love... But yes, I agree, Q is not only completely useless and replaceable by other letters, but it's pretty much only used to make words look cool because it's so rarely used. Additionally, it ruins Scrabble and Words with Friends matches by introducing a huge imbalance into the game. While I don't think it will ever happen, I see no reason for it to go on.