I’ve noticed that the letter X is employed in such a redundant manner these days. We already have K and S for that sound, so who really needs X?
Should I include X in my fonts or should I leave that one out?
I think, I think so.
Typophile
The letter X: do we really need it?
this joke is wearing thin
Like I said in this other post, about 15 years ago, I created for myself a phonetic alphabet in which all unnecessary or redundant characters were either omitted or re-assigned new sounds. I used the x to precede long vowels and did away with the silent e and all other letter formulas we use in the English language to indicate long vowel sounds. And I created a brand new letter to indicate the long bowel sound.
The alphabet was first called Planetease, and then I changed it to Earthish. I even matched it up to Twinkle Twinkle (that’s Sparkling Stella for the music snobs), like the real alphabet song. I showed it to my mom and she could actually read it without instruction. I thought I was a genius for a little while and it was a neat way to journal but then I quit using it.
It doesn’t just have a phonetic role:
Brand X
x-height
X-ray
XXX
XL
x-y-z coordinates
X chromosome
SFX
Malcolm X
X ___________
X marks the spot
MMIX
OS X
Planet X
xox
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