Angus Hyland has contributed an entry to Grafik magazine's first A-Z of Typography. Read his musings on the letter Q after the jump. Q is for ? By Angus Hyland So here’s one… Q: How many typographers does it take to change a light bulb? A: A lot - They have to form an orderly Q. A silly joke but Q is a silly letter. A folly, odd,queer if you like, in the original sense of the word. As a functioning letter Q is utterly redundant. The job can be done perfectly well by the letter K, and for the most part, generally is. When comparing the same sound in English spelling, C is the most popular, K finishes a distant second and Q is miles behind. Aside from Z, Q is the least used letter in the English alphabet. Q was not adopted into the English language until after 1066, with the French language invasion of the Norman Conquest. Previously Old English had got by without it. Ben Jonson wrote, "The Anglo Saxons knew not this halting Q with her waiting woman u after." Perhaps the enduring enigma of the Q has something to do with its rather fanciful shape, by developing the boring O with a flourish at the end of it. Set in Baskerville it looks lofty, feminine and regal, like the Queen with u, her lady-in-waiting.
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