Results for X, Y, and Zonking Z

Winner for X was "Excepting exaggerated exuberant expressions, exceptional executives exhibit exemplary exhalation exercises" by Brady.

Y defaulted to "Yoga yetis yodel yearly" by Erin.

And now, finally, we are ready for Z! Submit Z sentences by Wednesday, December 7, using comments on this post.

Origins: ? (1)
Greek: zeda
Frequency: 26th most frequent letter in English (2)
"Z" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "Is found in the Saxon alphabets, set down by Grammarians, but is read in no word originally Teutonick: its sound is uniformly that of an hard S." (3)

Yammering Y

Submit Y sentences by Wednesday, November 23, using comments on this post.

Origins: ? (1)
Greek: upsilon
Frequency: 18th most frequent letter in English (2)
"Y" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "At the beginning of words, is a consonant; at the end, and when it follows a consonant, is a vowel, and has the sound of i. It is used at the end of words, and whenever two i’s would come together; and in words derived from the Greek, to express the u. Y was much used by the Saxons, whence y is found for i in the old English writers." (3)

Exonerating X

SPECIAL RULES:
Since we don't really have words that begin with X, for this round we will except sentence that follow either of the following rules. (Each sentence should follow only one rule; don't mix and match.)

Rule 1: All words begin with "ex" (excellent, exigency, exuberant)
OR
Rule 2: All words end with "x" (fax, six, flax)


Submit X sentences by Wednesday, November 16, using comments on this post.

Origins: ? (1)
Greek: ?
Frequency: 24th most frequent letter in English (2)
"X" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "is a letter, which, though found in Saxon words, begins no word in the English language." (3)

Wholloping W

Submit W sentences by Wednesday, November 9, using comments on this post.

Origins: ? (1)
Greek: none
Frequency: 15th most frequent letter in English (2)
"W" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "Is a letter of which the form is not to be found in the alphabets of the learned languages; though it is not improbable that by our w is expressed the sound of the Roman v, and the Eolick f. Both the form and sound are excluded from the languages derived from the Latin." (3)

Vociforating V (& U results)

Winner for U was "Ultrasonic ukuleles underimpress users" submitted by Erin.

Submit V sentences by Wednesday, October 26, using comments on this post.

Origins: ? (1)
Greek: none
Frequency: 21st most frequent letter in English (2)
"V" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "Has two powers, expressed in modern English by two characters, V consonant and U vowel, which ought to be considered as two letters; but as they were long confounded while the two uses were annexed to one form, the old custom still continues to be followed. V, the consonant, has a sound nearly approaching to those of b and f. With b it is by the Spaniards and Gascons always confounded, and in the Runick alphabet is expressed by the same character with f, distinguished only by a diacritical point. Its sound in English is uniform. It is never mute." (3)

Unveiling U

Clearly, getting behind in other areas of life.

Without further ado, submit U sentences by Tuesday, September 20, using comments on this post.

Origins: ? (1)
Greek: none
Frequency: 13th most frequent letter in English (2)
"U" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "U, the vowel, has two sounds; one clear, expressed at other times by eu, as obtuse; the other close, and approaching to the Italian u, or English oo, as obtund." (3)

Looking for T sentences

Okay, I was a little hasty in putting out calls for U and V sentences because we're still working on T. We've just got 1 T sentence so far, so submit T sentences by commenting here!

Remember, in T all those wonderful words like "the" and "to" and "there" are allowed, so go crazy!

Last call for S

S officially closes tonight, but since I'm late getting out the reminder, you've got until tomorrow (Thursday) night to submit your S sentences. Go to this post and comment: http://alpha-musing.blogspot.com/2011/07/solving-s.html

Also, T is officially open. http://alpha-musing.blogspot.com/2011/07/torturing-t.html

Torturing T

Submit T sentences by Wednesday, August 3, using comments on this post.

Origins: ? (1)
Greek: Tau
Frequency: 2nd most frequent letter in English (2)
"T" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "A consonant, which, at the beginning and end of words, has always the same sound nearly approaching to the d; but before an i, when followed by a vowel, has the sound of an obscure s: as, nation, salvation, except when s precedes t: as, Christian, question." (3)

Solving S

Submit S sentences by Wednesday, July 27, using comments on this post.

Origins: teeth? (1)
Greek: Sigma
Frequency: 7th most frequent letter in English (2)
"S" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "Has in English the same hissing sound as in other languages, and unhappily prevails in so many of our words that it produces in the ear of a foreigner a continued sibilation." (3)

Remember R

Submit your R sentences by Wednesday by commenting on here: http://alpha-musing.blogspot.com/2011/07/routing-r.html.

Routing R

Submit R sentences by Wednesday, July 20, using comments on this post.

Origins: Head (1)
Greek: Rho
Frequency: 9th most frequent letter in English (2)
"R" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "Is called the canine letter, because it is uttered with some resemblance to the growl or snarl of a cur: it has one constant sound in English, such as it has in other languages; as red, rose, more, muriatick: in words derived from the Greek, it is followed by an h, rhapsody: r is never mute, unless the second r may be accounted mute, where two rr are used; as myrrh." (3)

Q sentence

Remember to post a Q sentence by the end of today!

To submit your sentence, use the comments on this post: http://alpha-musing.blogspot.com/2011/07/quilting-q.html

Quilting Q

Submit Q sentences by Wednesday, July 13, using comments on this post.

Origins: cord of wool (1)
Greek: qoppa
Frequency: 25th most frequent letter in English (2)
"P" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "Is a consonant borrowed from the Latin or French, for which, though q is commonly placed in the Saxon alphabet, the Saxons generally used cƿ, cw; as cƿellan or cwellan, to quell: qu is, in English, pronounced as by the Italians and Spaniards cw; as quail, quench, except quoit, which is spoken, according to the manner of the French, coit: the name of this letter is cue, from queue, French, tail; its form being that of an O with a tail." (3)

Submit your P sentence

Quick reminder to submit your P sentences by Saturday!

Go here and comment with your sentence: http://alpha-musing.blogspot.com/2011/06/playing-p.html

Playing P

Submit P sentences by Saturday, June 25, using comments on this post.

Origins: ?
Greek: pi (sound); rho (looks)
Frequency: 19th most frequent letter in English (2)
"P" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "Is a labial consonant, formed by a slight compression of the anterior part of the lips; as, pull, pelt. It is confounded by the Germans and Welsh with b: it has an uniform sound: it is sometimes mute before t; as, accompt, receipt; but the mute p is in modern orthography commonly omitted." (3)

Ordering O

Submit O sentences by Saturday, June 11, using comments on this post.

Origins: eye (1)
Greek: omega
Frequency: 4th most frequent letter in English (2)
"O" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): " Has in English a long sound; as, drone, groan, slone, alone, cloke, broke, coal, droll; or short, got, knot, shot, prong, long. It is usually denoted long by a servile a subjoined; as, moan, or by e at the end of the syllable; as, bone." (3)

Noodling N

Submit N sentences by Saturday, June 4, using comments on this post.

Origins: snake (1)
Greek: nu
Frequency: 6th most frequent letter in English (2)
"N" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "A semivowel, has in English an invariable sound; as, no, name, net; it is sometimes after m almost lost; as, condemn, contemn." (3)

Musing M

Submit M sentences by Saturday, May 28, using comments on this post.

Origins: water (1)
Greek: mu
Frequency: 14th most frequent letter in English (2)
"M" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "Has, in English, one unvaried sound, by compression of the lips; as, mine, tame, camp: it is never mute." (3)

Linguisticating L

Submit L sentences by Saturday, May 21, using comments on this post.

Origins: cattle prod (1)
Greek: lambda
Frequency: 11th most frequent letter in English (2)
"L" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "A liquid consonant, which preserves always the same sound in English." (3)