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by Kim Siever on February 7th, 2004

Kim Siever

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Are there English words that contain the letter 'q' without a 'u' following it?

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  • by Too Much Time On My Hands on September 14th, 2004

    Too Much Time On My Hands

    My two cents on the debate: If you count words that English has borrowed from other languages, most notably Arabic, then definitely. Arabic has a "k" sound that is like the one in English, and we write "k" when we borrow words with that sound. Arabic also has a sound that is made much further back in your throat (a uvular stop for the linguists among you; the rest will just have to take my word for it because I can't demonstrate over the internet!). To maintain a distinction between the two sounds, English has assigned "q" to Arabic borrowings with this unfamiliar sound. Ever wonder why you see both Qur'an and Koran to refer to the Muslim religious text? The Arabic word begins with that unfamiliar sound. "Koran" was in use before English hit on the k vs. q idea. "Qur'an" arrived after English had seen enough of Arabic to have an official position on the subject. Nowadays, using Koran is not necessarily wrong, but it's just a pretty sure indicator that you don't know any Arabic!

    Now, I happen to count words that have been borrowed and that lots of native English speakers use. So I'd say, YES, there are English words with a "q" but no "u". Some of you don't have the same criteria for what constitutes an English word. So here's my answer for you:

    NO. Old English, the earliest written form of our language, did not use the letter "q" at all. Ever. The word "queen" used to be "cwen". Until the Norman Conquest of 1066, when England borrowed "q" (and a whole lot of other things, too) from French. And in French, "q" always has a "u" after it. So no "native" English word, of the variety that has been around for more than a century, will have a "q" without a "u".

    Comments

    • And the French spell it 'Irak'

      Grandma Roses - my avatar is my real dog

      by Grandma Roses - my avatar is my real dog on October 17th, 2005

    • Grandma Roses - That's L'Irak to be correct.

      Alatea

      by Alatea on October 20th, 2005

    • The Iraquis spell it (in Arabic equivalent) Uruk.
      "We are the fighting Uruk-Hai." Wonder if Tolkein knew Arabic; he knew everything else under the sun.

      Sandman

      by Sandman on October 13th, 2009

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