1069: Alphabet - Revision history

FaviFake: Per the discussion at the community portal, Blondie and Miss Lenhart are being merged, just like Cutie and Megan

2026-05-09T15:14:10Z

Per the discussion at the community portal, Blondie and Miss Lenhart are being merged, just like Cutie and Megan

Avrayter: /* Explanation */

2025-11-06T13:21:50Z

‎Explanation

104.23.162.96: /* Explanation */

2025-04-30T05:03:38Z

‎Explanation

172.69.214.239: /* Transcript */

2025-04-21T15:49:05Z

‎Transcript

172.71.214.198: /* Explanation */

2023-07-01T13:18:22Z

‎Explanation

172.71.250.144: /* Explanation */ added reference to 2794: Alphabet Notes

2023-06-27T14:31:25Z

‎Explanation: added reference to 2794: Alphabet Notes

Whoop whoop pull up: /* Explanation */

2022-08-18T23:53:00Z

‎Explanation

Theusaf: Reverted edits by Donald Trump (talk) to last revision by CRLF

2022-05-26T20:02:04Z

Reverted edits by Donald Trump (talk) to last revision by CRLF

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Donald Trump: Reverted edit by anti-crap user

2022-05-26T18:52:11Z

Reverted edit by anti-crap user

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CRLF: Reverted vandalism with User:CRLF/OneClickUndo.js

2022-05-26T18:05:17Z

Reverted vandalism with User:CRLF/OneClickUndo.js

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@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 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", taking advantage of the letters being pronounced identically to the pronouns "you" and "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 [[Miss Lenhart]] at the bar, [[Cueball]] jumps at his hypothetical chance to rearrange the alphabet and fix the {{w|English orthography}}.
 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 rather infamous for being rather complicated, due to the tendency to adopt words from other languages - each with their own incompatible orthographies - wholesale and keeping both the spelling and the pronunciation, hence the English "system" might better be described as a Frankenstein mix of multiple different orthographies. Unsurprisingly, {{w|English-language spelling reform}} has been a common topic of discussion over the years.
@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 ==Transcript==
-:[Cueball stands behind Blondie who has turned her head towards him while sitting at a bar stool at a bar desk. She holds on to a wine glass standing on the desk. Two regular glasses are standing on the desk in front of her.]
+:[Cueball stands behind Miss Lenhart who has turned her head towards him while sitting at a bar stool at a bar desk. She holds on to a wine glass standing on the desk. Two regular glasses are standing on the desk in front of her.]
 :Cueball: Baby, if I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd forget about you in a ''heartbeat''.
 :Cueball: I'm not gonna waste my one chance to help fix the mess that is English orthography.
@@ Line 29: / Line 29: @@
 [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
-[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]]
+[[Category:Comics featuring Miss Lenhart]]
 [[Category:Language]]

@@ Line 15: / Line 15: @@
 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.
-In the title text Cueball muses on the limits of his newfound grant. 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 <nowiki><c></nowiki> which doesn't have a unique sound on its own (in English), most often representing a {{w|Voiceless velar stop|'k'-sound}} or an {{w|Voiceless alveolar sibilant|'s'-sound}}. Combined with an <nowiki><h></nowiki> it usually makes the {{w|Voiceless palato-alveolar affricate|'ch'-sound}} as in ''chair'', although sometimes it might simply make 'k', such as in ''character''. In more than a few cases they even make a {{w|Voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant|'sh'-sound}} like in ''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 <nowiki><c> with <k> or <s> and keep <c> only followed by <h></nowiki>, or perhaps even making <nowiki><c></nowiki> on its own pronounced as the 'ch' as in ''chair''.
+In the title text Cueball muses on the limits of his newfound grant. 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 <nowiki><c></nowiki> which doesn't have a unique sound on its own (in English), most often representing a {{w|Voiceless velar stop|'k'-sound}} or an {{w|Voiceless alveolar sibilant|'s'-sound}}. Combined with an <nowiki><h></nowiki> it usually makes the {{w|Voiceless palato-alveolar affricate|'ch'-sound}} as in ''chair'', although sometimes it might simply make 'k', such as in ''character''. In more than a few cases they even make a {{w|Voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant|'sh'-sound}} like in ''champagne'' (note: the sh sound by ch comes from French). [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 <nowiki><c> with <k> or <s> and keep <c> only followed by <h></nowiki>, or perhaps even making <nowiki><c></nowiki> on its own pronounced as the 'ch' as in ''chair''.
 He finishes off by stating that they can make out any other time, because fixing the alphabet now would bring him immortality.

@@ Line 15: / Line 15: @@
 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.
-In the title text Cueball muses on the limits of his newfound grant. 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 <nowiki><c></nowiki> which doesn't have a unique sound on its own, most often representing a {{w|Voiceless velar stop|'k'-sound}} or an {{w|Voiceless alveolar sibilant|'s'-sound}}. Combined with an <nowiki><h></nowiki> it usually makes the {{w|Voiceless palato-alveolar affricate|'ch'-sound}} as in ''chair'', although sometimes it might simply make 'k', such as in ''character''. In more than a few cases they even make a {{w|Voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant|'sh'-sound}} like in ''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 <nowiki><c> with <k> or <s> and keep <c> only followed by <h></nowiki>, or perhaps even making <nowiki><c></nowiki> on its own pronounced as the 'ch' as in ''chair''.
+In the title text Cueball muses on the limits of his newfound grant. 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 <nowiki><c></nowiki> which doesn't have a unique sound on its own (in English), most often representing a {{w|Voiceless velar stop|'k'-sound}} or an {{w|Voiceless alveolar sibilant|'s'-sound}}. Combined with an <nowiki><h></nowiki> it usually makes the {{w|Voiceless palato-alveolar affricate|'ch'-sound}} as in ''chair'', although sometimes it might simply make 'k', such as in ''character''. In more than a few cases they even make a {{w|Voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant|'sh'-sound}} like in ''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 <nowiki><c> with <k> or <s> and keep <c> only followed by <h></nowiki>, or perhaps even making <nowiki><c></nowiki> on its own pronounced as the 'ch' as in ''chair''.
 He finishes off by stating that they can make out any other time, because fixing the alphabet now would bring him immortality.

@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
 :[Cueball stands behind Blondie who has turned her head towards him while sitting at a bar stool at a bar desk. She holds on to a wine glass standing on the desk. Two regular glasses are standing on the desk in front of her.]
 :Cueball: Baby, if I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd forget about you in a ''heartbeat''.
-:Cueball: I'm not gonna waste my one chance to help the mess that is English orthography.
+:Cueball: I'm not gonna waste my one chance to help fix the mess that is English orthography.
 {{comic discussion}}

@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 ==Explanation==
-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".
+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", taking advantage of the letters being pronounced identically to the pronouns "you" and "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}}.
-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.
+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 rather infamous for being rather complicated, due to the tendency to adopt words from other languages - each with their own incompatible orthographies - wholesale and keeping both the spelling and the pronunciation, hence the English "system" might better be described as a Frankenstein mix of multiple different orthographies. 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.
-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')''.
+In the title text Cueball muses on the limits of his newfound grant. 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 <nowiki><c></nowiki> which doesn't have a unique sound on its own, most often representing a {{w|Voiceless velar stop|'k'-sound}} or an {{w|Voiceless alveolar sibilant|'s'-sound}}. Combined with an <nowiki><h></nowiki> it usually makes the {{w|Voiceless palato-alveolar affricate|'ch'-sound}} as in ''chair'', although sometimes it might simply make 'k', such as in ''character''. In more than a few cases they even make a {{w|Voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant|'sh'-sound}} like in ''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 <nowiki><c> with <k> or <s> and keep <c> only followed by <h></nowiki>, or perhaps even making <nowiki><c></nowiki> on its own pronounced as the 'ch' as in ''chair''.
 He finishes off by stating that they can make out any other time, because fixing the alphabet now would bring him immortality.

@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 He finishes off by stating that they can make out any other time, because fixing the alphabet now would bring him immortality.
-Orthography was again the subject in [[1562: I in Team]]. A non-standard version of this pickup joke was previously referenced in [[279: Pickup Lines]].
+Orthography was again the subject in [[1562: I in Team]]. A non-standard version of this pickup joke was previously referenced in [[279: Pickup Lines]] and later in [[2794: Alphabet Notes]].
 ==Transcript==