Why is it that "q" cant exist without "u"?

Question

i always wondered...

Answer 1

It can in other languages. My friend from Africa - his last name is Mqaqawi. The q's sound like k's.
Sounds like mm-kah-kah-wee.
I can't really think of a stand alone q in English.

Answer 2

The letter 'q' is unique in English in that it is always only followed by a 'u'. ( except in a few words of foreign extraction(e.g. Iraqi-which are spelled using letters closest to their own letter sounds)

Together the 'qu' say /kw/. [quiet]

If you want to remove the "u" from words spelled "qu" and pronounced "kw," you'll need to find a way to indicate a different pronunciation in words that are now spelled "q" and pronounced "k."

Try pronouncing queue without the 'u' it would come out as Kew.

Word with u such as quasi and quin (kw sound) would come out as kasi and kin (k sound).

To fully understand the work of vowels , which is a lot to be appreciated, you have to understand the history and origins of the language.

Answer 3

A great many Engish words are taken from the Germanics. There were no words like Kwack or Kwiet in German the words that had the KW sound at the start all started with QU and so it carried over into English.

Examples;

German English

Qualifikation.......qualification
Qualitat..............quality
Quartett..............quartet
Queue.................queue
Quiz....................quiz

Actually it would simplify English if all the words were spelled with a KW a the start but that is not likely after all this time.

Hope that helps

Answer 4

Q, 17th letter of the alphabet, corresponding to the koppa of western Greek alphabets. U must follow the letter in English (e.g., queen, question), and the combination properly represents a sound much like the true voiceless labiovelar stop (also represented by the combination kw).


**Usage

**In most modern western languages written in latin script, such as in Romance and Germanic languages, Q appears almost exclusively in the digraph QU, though see: Q without U. In English this digraph most often denotes the cluster /kw/, except in borrowings from French where it represents /k/ as in plaque. In Italian qu represents [kw] (where [w] is an allophone of /u/); in German, /kv/; and in French, Portuguese language, Occitan, Spanish, and Catalan, /k/. (In Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Occitan and French, qu replaces c for /k/ before front vowels i and e, since in those contexts c is a fricative and letter 'k' is seldom used outside loan words.) In the Aymara, Azeri, Uzbek, Quechua, and Tatar languages, Q is a voiceless uvular plosive. [q] is also used in IPA for the voiceless uvular plosive, as well as in most transliteration schemes of Semitic languages for the "emphatic" qōp sound.

Answer 5

its english, a u always follows a q

Answer 6

It can! Qator. Is my only example. That is weird knowledge that I picked up somewhere!

Answer 7

Because I'm so wonderful and so are U

Answer 8

That rule no longer applies. There are words that have been created in recent years that break the rule. I can't think of any right now.

Answer 9

"Q" can't exist without "U"?

OH, you mean like in question, quaker, quest and the like?

Hmmmmmmm

What about Iraq, Suzie Q. Q & A?

Answer 10

Something has to stay together forever to give us unlucky in love people hope.