141: Why Q Needs U (with Danny Bate and Caitlin M. Green)

Each letter in our Latin alphabet tells a story. But what about spaces? Or writing direction? Should we get rid of some letters, or could we even do with more? Here to answer all these questions is Dr Danny Bate, author of Why Q Needs U: A History of Our Letters and How We Use Them. Timestamps 00:00 Start 00:44 Intros: Special letters 05:46 News: Spanish okay at World Cup? 09:30 News: Forgetting is helpful in language acquisition 21:18 News: Bluey in Yolŋu 25:41 Related or Not theme by Jo 27:21 Related or Not: prodigy, prodigal, and prodigious 34:19 Related or Not: vice, device, divide 43:09 Related or Not: gauntlet and gaunt 49:48 Interview with Danny Bate, author of Why Q Needs U 50:16 About Danny's podcast: A Language I Love Is… 52:24 The Alphabet: greatest innovation since sexual reproduction 56:08 The case against boustrophedon 58:51 Letters flipped over time 01:02:40 Why are some letters more common than others? 01:06:14 Why does H get used in so many digraphs? 01:10:52 Thoughts on spelling reform 01:18:07 Why are L and R so squirrelly? 01:28:53 The evolution of spaces in written language 01:31:46 What letters can we get rid of? 01:35:15 Actually, no, we need a new letter 01:36:53 Communicating linguistic ideas to the public 01:44:02 Word of the Week: monoculture 01:53:43 Word of the Week: algae-TBQ agenda 02:00:15 Word of the Week: hobbylos 02:03:14 Word of the Week: tokenmaxxing 02:06:27 Word of the Week: Claudeonomics 02:11:21 The Reads 02:18:18 Outtakes: Back on our Bluey nonsense + On being a Dan