The alphabet in English is often divided into A to K and L to Z. Yet M is the 13th letter and so halfway through. Surely A to M and N to Z is more natural? A to K / L to Z is not only phonebooks – regardless of if they are residential (white pages) or business (yellow). Even random things like this proverbs page does A to K http://www.learn-english-today.com/Proverbs/prover… Is it just because W, X, Y, Z don’t add enough? What about non-Anglo surnames in phonebooks surely add a heap of Xs and Zs? Is it just a quirky historical relic? (Like phonebooks are fast becoming!). Asking here because Google seems to have no clue. Ideas anyone?
Thanks for answers! I agree with what you guys have said – it’s the best I could come up with as well – except that with English phonebooks – even when there are migrant populations of people with a high density of names beginning with X and Z – making the second half of the phonebook more ‘populous’ you still get and A to K and L to Z split. I think you’re answer is right – and even when the A-K/L-Z split doesn’t work, it’s still used as almost a trivial cultural thing. We’re used to it.
3 Answers
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Its because some letters (T, B, P) ahve a lot more entries than others (X, Y, Z), so it balences out the sections.
This means that their is about an equal amoutn in each section
Sophie
♥x♥
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Half The Alphabet
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coz the no. of words in A to K/L = no. of words K/L to Z
after all how many words are there which start with say x,y,z.
EDIT: exactly. ur quite right.
