Q is no longer unattractive

[James Harbeck]

>Doesn'=
>  > t=20
>  > everyone yearn to book passage on the QE2?

It's the QM2 that's the ship to be on now...
http://www.cunard.com/OurShips/default.asp?Ship=QM2 . I'd love to be
on it. But they could call it the King George VI and I'd still want
to be on it, though I admit "Queen" bespeaks an elegant regality
that's different from the commanding masculinity of "King."

An illustration of some crossover associations that may help -- or
hurt? -- Q, as you have mentioned, can be seen at
http://www.harbeck.ca/James/photo/quee.html .

Perhaps the problem with Q is the U issue: it normally travels with a
U, and in those places where there isn't one, there's typically
confusion -- people will insert one, or wonder about the correct
pronunciation. Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut (a territory in
Canada), has been pronounced "I quail you it" by at least one
American I've known (Canadians hear a more correct pronunciation on
the news every so often and so rarely insert the u). Qantas is
misspelled very often, even in news articles. And so on. And U is
unsexy, really, innit?

X is more straightforward (although its use in Pinyin transliterated
Chinese names confuses the hell out of most people, but, then, so
does zh in the same, which, surprisingly, seems most often to be
pronounced [z] by the uninformed, rather than as the first sound in
Zhivago, which, while also incorrect here, would at least seem to be
the more likely error). A crisp sound, like the cocking of a gun or
the sound of a kiss (well, sort of). Difficult word initially, but
otherwise a nice, cracking two-for-one deal. And there's the
suggestion of multiplication.

Z is hard to screw up most of the time in English words, anyway, but,
on the other hand, associates as easily with zero and sleep as with
Zorro.

J is nearly as uncommon as the other three in total use, but it's so
darn common in proper nouns (I'd bet it's in the clear majority of
journal article citations, if not from the journal title than from an
initial in the author's name) that it just can't be sexy.

Ciao,
James Harbeck.

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