Q 01/05

Which letter of the English alphabet is named for the way it was first written?

A) M

B) W

C) Y

D) Q

Answer · why

B) W

W: Old English scribes first wrote the sound as 'uu', a doubled u, and the name double-u stuck long after the pair had fused into a single letter.

Q 02/05

The terms 'upper case' and 'lower case' come from the trays used by which tradesmen to store their letters?

A) Sign painters

B) Printers

C) Postmasters

D) Stonemasons

Answer · why

B) Printers

Printers: compositors kept their metal type in two shallow trays, or cases, with the capitals in the upper one on the sloped work-table and the small ...

Q 03/05

The Greek letter names alpha and beta derive from Phoenician words for what?

A) Sun and moon

B) Water and fire

C) Ox and house

D) King and city

Answer · why

C) Ox and house

Ox and house: aleph is thought to have begun as a little drawing of an ox's head and bet as the plan of a house, and each sign took the first sound of...

Q 04/05

Which country dropped its Arabic-based script for a new Latin alphabet in 1928?

A) Iran

B) Turkey

C) Egypt

D) Indonesia

Answer · why

B) Turkey

Turkey: the switch was one of Ataturk's reforms and took effect in November 1928, ending centuries of writing Turkish in the Perso-Arabic script.

Q 05/05

What is an abjad, like the Phoenician or Arabic script?

A) An alphabet read from top to bottom

B) A syllable-based script

C) A picture-based script

D) An alphabet that writes only consonants

Answer · why

D) An alphabet that writes only consonants

An alphabet that writes only consonants: readers supply the vowels from context, much as an English speaker can still make out 'bldg' or 'txt msg'.