Eli5 : Why is q always followed by u in a word?
In: 1555
Since the top comment disappeared, I’ll add a bit.
Q is typically, though not always, followed by U for a couple of reasons. The first is due to the strong French (Norman) influence on English starting after the Norman invasion of 1066, basically turning English into how we know it today. One small change is that all spellings of the ‘kw’ sound were changed to ‘qu’ to match French. For example, old English *cwen* became queen, *cwic* became quick, etc.
The second reason is because of direct borrowings from French and Latin, both of which always use ‘qu’ for the ‘kw’ sound. For example, equal from Latin *aequus*, and equip from French *équiper*.
We can also see direct borrowings from non-Indo-European languages, as many Scrabble players have pointed out in this thread. Qi, qadi, faqir, etc. do not have a U that follows the Q, because in this case the Q represents a sound that doesn’t exist in English, so we use an uncommon letter to represent it. Then we approximate the sound with ‘k’ or ‘ch’.
Latest Answers