From Booksmart Studios, this is Lexicon Valley, a podcast about language.
I'm John McWhorter.
This time, I want to answer a question that I get a lot.
This is one of those things people ask you at parties,
or that people ask you when they are children learning how to read,
such as when they are my children.
This is obviously staged, but it reflects something that my youngest one, Vanessa, now seven,
did actually come in and ask me about six months ago, and she deserves an answer.
Why does C, K, soft C, soft G?
And, like, why does C and K have the same sound?
Just, like, why aren't there 25 letters instead of 26 when two letters have the same sound?
Because of cucumber, and it starts with C instead of a Q. Okay.
Yeah, what is that?
What is with C and K and K?
Why is the alphabet such a mess?
in that regard?
Why can't it just make sense the way other writing systems seem to more than ours?
Well, it's a matter of a little bit of this and a little bit of that,
one damn thing after another, and next thing you know,
you're stuck with a situation which,