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2023-02-21 22:22 dustin  
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^ was very exscited when he entered the next cave of his abc journey because he had so many questions about the letter "q"! was it related to "o"? why is it such a rare letter in english and most other languages? and why was is almost always followed by "u"? but as soon as he enters the cave, he's thrown out of his thoughts by...  
  
^: a monkey?!?!?!?!?!  
  
monkey: eek... eek...  
  
^: who are you?!?!  
  
monkey: eek... who are you?!  
  
^: hey! i asked first!  
  
monkey: eek... and i, i q-uoted you first! hihihihihi  
  
^: ehm...  
  
monkey: i have one q-uestion!  
  
^: ehm... yes?  
  
monkey: eek... don't you think that the guy who storms into my cave without knocking should at least introduce himself first?  
  
^: oh, uh... well, maybe you're right. sorry. i'm rockford, the treasure seeker, and i want to find out everything about the alphabet!  
  
monkey: q-uite interesting! and now your q-uest has brought you here to me?  
  
^: well... yes, i guess so. and who are you?  
  
monkey: i'm "q"!  
  
^: just "q"?  
  
q: well, i have many names. for example, the phoenicians called me "qoph"! hihihihihihihi  
  
^ ah! is that the left ΔΔΔ shape here in your cave?  
  
q: no, that's my reconstructed egyptian hieroglyph. the phoenician "qoph" is the third shape!  
  
^ ah, looks nice! although i have my difficulties to see a monkey in those!  
  
q: eek eek eek eek eek! don't you see that?!?! the circle is my body and the vertical line is my tail! isn't it obvious?!?!  
  
(q turns its back on ^)  
  
^: hey! sorry, don't be offended! wait... now that i see you from behind, with your tail hanging down, you really look like those shapes!  
  
q (turns back): hihihi you see? but the funny thing is, the historians aren't even sure if i'm really a monkey! i might also be a needle with eye! look!  
  
(q-monkey changes into q-needle)  
  
^: wow, cool!  
  
q: ........  
  
^: ehm... q? do you want to change back now?  
  
q: ...........  
  
^: hello! quuuu-uuuuuu! are you still there?  
  
q: .................  
  
^: great xd now the sweet little monkey changed into a needle which cannot speak or anything and... aah!  
  
(^ gets frightened as q-needle suddenly changes back into q-monkey!)  
  
q: eek eek eek eek eek! i heard it! i heard it! you called me 'sweet little monkey'! eek eek eek eek eek!  
  
^: what the... ehm... yes, but you can also be quite frightening!  
  
q: you said 'q-uite'! i like q-words! eek eek eek!  
  
^: ehm... cool, then can i quickly ask you more questions? i think you're very qualified for a little quiz! don't be quiet but tell me everything! ehm... and btw, an intermission is a quarter of a normal cave, but yours is quite big and almost quadratic!  
  
q: eek eek! i'd love to tell you more about me! your q-words make me q-uiver! but first i have to q-uench my thirst! *glugglugglugglug*  
  
^: so then, let's start from the beginning! tell me all about the four shapes in your cave!  
  
q: oh yes, i will! so the first shape, as you know, is my possible egyptian root! the second one is a possible version of mine in the proto-sinaitic script! the third shape, my phoenician version "qoph", is the earliest definite origin of mine! and the last shape, where my tail has become shorter, is the ancient greek letter "qoppa"! the etruscians and romans moved my tail to the right side to become the "q" shape you're familiar with! eek eek!  
  
^: very interesting! but if i remember correctly, i didn't see you in the modern greek alphabet! so what happened with "qoppa"?  
  
(greek alphabet: <a href="https://boulderdash.krissz.hu/images/caves/OibRhTJYXoxJ.png?type=20230113003958)" target="external">https://boulderdash.krissz.hu/images/caves/OibRhTJYXoxJ.png?type=20230113003958)</a>  
  
q: are you sure?  
  
^: well, yes, the last letter in the seond row is "pi", the predecessor of "p", and the first letter in the last row must be the predecessor of "r". i don't see a "q" there!  
  
q: maybe i'm just not where you expect me to be!  
  
(for puzzle fans: stop reading here, look at the greek alphabet and try to find out what q-monkey means. is there really nothing q-ish in the alphabet? read on for the solution!)  
  
^: wait... what about the fourth-last letter? it looks a lot like the third shape, the phoenician "qoph"!  
  
q: hihihihihi yes indeed!  
  
^: but isn't this letter called "phi"? and why is it in a different alphabetical position?  
  
q: yes, this is indeed "phi", my dear little brother! well, when the ancient greeks adopted me from the phoenicians, i was indeed positioned directly after the "pi" where i'm still today in the modern latin alphabet! but then, the greeks q-uickly deleted me from the alphabet...  
  
^: oh, why was that?  
  
q: well, it was the result of a q-uibble between me and "kappa" about the phonetics. we both made the same [k] sound (as in "king") and "kappa" became the letter for that sound, so the greeks didn't need me anymore.  
  
^: oh. that wasn't nice from the greeks!  
  
q: well, i was still there as their numberal symbol for "90". and later, when the greek language developped further, they needed a new letter for a new sound, the aspirated [p-h]. that's when they remembered me, created my brother "phi" and placed him at the end of their alphabet as it was at that time. the last three letters "chi", "psi" and "omega" came only later! yes, and nowadays my borther "phi" sounds like [f], so the greeks didn't need the letter "f" anymore and also deleted it. and "phi" is still there in many modern english "ph"words which come from greek! "physics", "philosophy", "phoenicians", "photo"...  
  
^: wait... you mean that all these words are written with your brother "phi" in greek?  
  
q: exactly!  
  
^: wow, cool!  
  
(q shows ^ a crown and puts it on its head.)  
  
^: oh, what's that?  
  
q: now i'm a q-ueen! eek eek! more q-uestions please!  
  
^: well, you mentined that you were quibbling with "k" about the [k] sound. is this the reason why you're such a rare letter today? because "k" won the argument and took almost all the [k] sounds while there was little left for you?  
  
q: well, not q-uite, this is only half the truth. really, in the etruscian and early roman scripts, we shared the [k] sound almost 50/50 before "c" came and dominated both of us!  
  
^: oh, what has "c" to do with that? oh wait, i remember from the "c for stick" cave that three letters (c, k and q) for the same sounds!  
  
q: yes, indeed. shall i explain it from the beginning?  
  
^: i was just about to ask you to!  
  
q: my pleasure! in the phoenician language, the "c" predecessor "gimel", the "k" predecessor "kaph" and my predecessor "qoph" all made similar but different sounds. "gimel" was spoken [g] as in "game", "kaph" was spoken [k] as in "king", and i was spoken quite similar to [k], but the sound was produced deeper behind, in the throat!  
  
^: so you actually had a seperate sound for your own?  
  
q: yes! my old phoenician [q] sound doesn't exist in many latin-based languages today, but in other languages it's still q-uite common!  
  
for comparison, here are the wikipedia articles with audio samples on the three sounds. [g] and [k] are of course very familiar in most languages:  
[g] sound: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_velar_plosive" target="external">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_velar_plosive</a>  
[k] sound: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_velar_plosive" target="external">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_velar_plosive</a>  
[q] sound in phoenician: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_uvular_plosive" target="external">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_uvular_plosive</a>  
  
^: wow, i didn't know that!  
  
q: cool, isn't it? the ancient greeks, however, did not use my [q] sound in their language, so they were struggling to make use of me.  
  
^: but at first, they called you "qoppa" and did use you, right?  
  
q: right! they had a really cool idea. say "king"!  
  
^: er... what?  
  
q: say "king"!  
  
^: ehm... king?  
  
q: now say "queen"!  
  
^: ehm... ehm... queen?  
  
^: now say both words again and tell me where in the mouth you create the starting [k] sound in both words!  
  
^: king... queen... king... queen... hey! the [k] sounds are created at different spots in the mouth! the "king"-[k] is created more in the front, the "queen"-[k] is made closer to the throat!  
  
q: yes, indeed!  
  
(remark: if english isn't your mother tongue, you might not note the difference. i had to listen to native speakers to note it! but it also works in other languages - the [k] sound is created more in the front of the mouth when followed by [e] or [i], and more backwards if followed by [o] or [u]!)  
  
^: but why is this?  
  
q: it's because "e" and "i" are front vowels, which means they're spoken more in the front of your mouth, while "o" and "u" are back vowels spoken deeper behind in the mouth. so the [k] sound adapts to the following vowel!  
  
^: and what about "a"? aaaaaaaaaaa... aaaaaaaaaaaa... hmm, i think it's spoken somewhere in the middle between "e"/"i" and "o"/"u".  
  
q: yep!  
  
^: so what was the cool idea from the ancient greeks to make use of you?  
  
q: they used the letter "kappa" only before vowels "a", "e" and "i", and used me, "qoppa", only before vowels "o" and "u". this way, i was always spoken relatively deeply behind in the mouth, which came close to my phoenician [q] sound!  
  
^: aaaaaaah, t h a t 's how it came that you're almost always followed by a "u" today?!?!  
  
q: exactly! you're clever! :d  
  
^: thanks! please continue!  
  
q: my pleasure! as i already said, the greeks later deleted me, but when the greek alphabet was handed over to the etruscians, i was still there. but there was another problem.  
  
^: yes?  
  
q: the etruscians did not use the [g] sound in their language.  
  
^: but what... oooh, i get it. they had no seperate use for the "c" letter anymore so they used it also for the [k] sound which you already had to share with the "k" letter.  
  
q: exactly. three letters for just one sound! a bit much, isn't it?  
  
^: yes, indeed.  
  
q: and then came the romans. they adopted the etruscian alphabet but the romans did use the [g] sound in their language again.  
  
^: ah good, so the "c" letter had its own sound again?  
  
q: no, unfortunately not.  
  
^: would have been too simple :d  
  
q: yes, wouldn't it? eek eek... at first, they did not distinguish the sounds [g] and [k] at all in writing, and they still used me before vowels "o" and "u", but "c" and "k" had to share the other vowels. "c" was written before "e" and "i", and "k" was written only before "a".  
  
(remark: for example, the latin word "ego", meaning "me", was formerly actually written "eqo"!)  
  
^: that sounds... quite a bit chaotic. didn't they have problems in spelling if [g] and [k] was written with the same letters?  
  
q: oh yes, they did. that's why they q-uickly came up with another solution. they created the new letter "g" only for the [g] sound...  
  
^: yes, i heard that.  
  
q: ...and used "c" almost solely for the [k] sound.  
  
^: and what happened to you and "k"?  
  
q: well, "k" was only kept for a few special historical words, and i... i got lucky because the romans had another cool idea for me!  
  
^: i'm listening!  
  
q: say "queen" again, and tell me how you speak the "u"!  
  
^: queen... queen... hmmmm... i don't really speak the "u" as a vowel! it rather sounds like a [w] as in "water"!  
  
q: exactly! it was exactly the same thing in latin language. if a word started with a [k] sound, followed by a "u" and then by another vowel, then the "u" was spoken more like a "w"! the romans thought that this was something special, so they decided to use me only for those words. "qu" should always mean that i was spoken like [k] and the "u" was spoken like [w]! and that was and still is my final destination! i'm the "u is spoken like w" transformer!  
  
^: wow!  
  
q: today, "u" and i are big friends. "u" is always flying around here!  
  
^: flying around? so what form does "u" have?  
  
q: ooooooops i almost told you! no no, no more spoilers! you'll have to move on to the "u" cave to find out!  
  
^: hehe ok, i'm curious! thanks for telling me your story in so big detail!  
  
q: my pleasure! thanks for listening! eek eek! now  dustin  can type everything with his qwertz keyboard and post it as a biiiig comment!  
  
^: qwertz keyboard?  
  
q: yes, it's usually a qwerty keyboard because these are the first letters on standard keyboards! but as  dustin  is from germany, the letters "y" and "z" are swapped on his keyboard, so he has a qwertz keyboard! it's one of the very few words where i'm not followed by a "u"! others are qatar and iraq! eek eek!  
  
the two were talking on for an hour or so, and ^ promised to visit the q-monkey again sometime. now he knew why "q" was so much behind in the q-ueue of letters regarding the freq-uency q-uota in words, and he found that "q" was the most interesting of all letters so far! :d  
  
for puzzle fans:  
the next letter "r" once again represents a part of the human body, bigger than an eye or a mouth this time. can you guess which one? note that the letter formerly looked pretty much like a "p", the extra diagonal line was added only later to distinguish both letters!  
  
cave difficulty: 4/10

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2023-02-23 21:02 dustin  
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no puzzlers this time? solution for the "r" history tomorrow! :d