Unlikely Unicode, Episode MMCMVIII

> ŋ U+014B LOWER CASE N WITH ELEPHANTIASIS

English has zoning rules against placing the sound represented by ŋ at the head of the word--that would be using English wrongly, you see. The discussion spawned from NixOS and nginx and whether the two alliterate, or not. Probably it's just that nginx is popular, and is favored by certain perhaps too vocal commentators who also happen to use NixOS. These words alliterate by regular expression, qr/\b(?i)n/, which we might term a visual alliteration, just as one can have visual rhymes, "I love that stove".

(Idiomdrottning has informed me that the "zoning rules" are called phonotactics, which I was unaware of--what use phonographs have for tactics is another question--and that there are Nguyens in America with whom we English, which means the rule is actually a "true, except when it isn't" construct of some degree of dubiosity. Things could be worse, we might be Record Player X and have to play the record titled "I Cannot Be Played on Record Player X". This is doubtless why the phonographs never got very far, or anyways have no need for tactics.)

A leading ŋ could make an appearance in comic-book, perhaps the Penguin was preparing to pontificate when that protector of peace, Batman, punched him in the paunch. Speaking of children's materials, I am informed that /vr/ is likewise verboten at the start of a word--vroom, vroom! But these are not serious examples, and doubtless they will be grown out of in good time. After all, Don Quixote put an end to the sale of chivalric romances, or "Knights in Tights".

The science of this matter has yet to be settled; some hold that the cause is a parasitic worm, though why the worm should favor the right bit of n and not other parts nor other letters is as yet unclear. Still, that school of thought does have its adherents. We must hear from both sides, of course; "jub jub" was the response provided by the National Council of Ewoks. Given that vectors seem responsible for transmission, I would urge the continued use of bitmap fonts to reduce this scourge upon our language.

tags #unicode