It's a fascinating letter. For starters, it always must be followed by another letter. It's contingent letter. Parasitic. A letter who's existence is permissible only by the inclusion of another letter. That's fascinating. Sure, there are words with q without u. But a cursory look shows that they are either obsolete spellings or foreign words taken a slight hold in the English language. Negligible at best.
It does have some proper function. There's the disputed Q document. Also, my favorite Star Trek character went by Q.
Q represents an interesting conundrum. Could it exist without U? Can humanity survive? Will we function without a U? We work well with silent letters. We work well with c sounding like k; g sounding like j. I think we could maintain our morality if we took away the U. But I am not a philologist. It's not up to me. Life will go on as it always has: with the U next to the Q.
Some of my favorite Q words in order:
1. Quixotic -- How often to you get and x and q in the same word. Not often. Plus it looks like it means. How often do you get that.
2. Quotidian -- Another word with an odd look about it. Ironic in it's meaning with relation to it's appearance.
3. Quantum -- The double U. It's a sleek looking work. Sounds great too.
4. Quasi -- Looks odd. Lots of vowels. And it sounds like there's a z in there. There's not. But it seems like there should be.
5. Quagmire -- Sounds thick. Heavy to say. Not too tough on the eyes though.
Honorable Mention:
Querulous -- Triple U!!! More vowels than we can count. How can we complain about this word?
