• Accord and Acura;
• Bronco and Buick;
• Cadillac, Camaro, Camry, Caprice, Carrera, Chrysler, Comanche, Corolla, Corvette, Cougar, and Cutlass;
• Celica, Civic, and Escort;
• Lincoln and Pontiac;
• Suzuki and Volkswagen.

If not in the vehicle's proper name, then in the model by virtue of the letter x: Aerostar XL, Jaguar XJS, Probe LX, Pulsar NXXE, Ranger XLT, Taurus LX, Thunderbird LX.

n the early sixties, I worked on the development of a voice synthesizer, which required a quick study of speech production. Apart from classifying the sound of a kiss as an "ingressive unvoiced bilabial fricative," I have seldom made practical use of my knowledge of phonetics.

The English Language uses 29 phonemes, the smallest units of speech that distinguish one utterance from another. For whatever you want to say out loud, all you need are 8 primitive vowels and 21 consonants.

Why so many Ks in car names? I wondered.

"Share of market follows share of mind."

• My informal count finds K in more than half of them. Not bad for a phoneme that represents less than a 5% share of the consonant supply.
• On the average, an automobile name owns 3.5 consonants, which means only one vehicle out of six should make the K sound, not one in two.
• The consonant K appears as the initial sound in one out of five names, where it must compete with the vowels as well as other consonants. You should expect to hear K at the beginning of only one name in 29, not one in five.

ook around you. Listen. See and hear all those velar stops? K is exceptionally popular, although in written form K gets concealed in five spellings:

• sKool (ch)
• blaK (ck)
• Kar (c)
• etiKette (qu)
• seKs (x)

• Zylophone (x)
• surpriZe (s)

It may have something to do with how a person forms the sound of K: restricting and releasing air from the back of the throat instead of from some other place in the vocal tract.

aybe K takes less effort than pressing lips together (for Ps and Bs) or mashing tongue against palette (for Ts and Ds) or flexing the diaphragm (for Hs and vowels). My guess is that K simply feels good. If so, one should expect a disproportionate density of K-cars on foreign freeways. I leave the researching of that point to others.

Psychologists have demonstrated that the easiest words to find on a printed page are those with letter x in them (hence perhaps Exxon and Xerox). Don't remember why, but it could have something to do with... never mind.

Meanwhile, I moved to Boise and take the bus.

e should not be astonished to see the commercial benefits of K-names...

• MKDonalds and Burger King
• TaKo Bell and ShaKeys.

• For each Barbra is there a RaKel?
• For each Presley, a HumperdinK?

• For each Pauley is there a BroKaw?
• For each Rather, a KronKite?

• For each Matthew is there a MarK?
• For each John, a LuKe?

• JacKie, MagiK, MicKey

• BucK, ChucK, and DicK;
• FranK, HanK, and IKe;
• JacK, MacK, and MicK;
• NicK, RicK, and VicK;
• DeKe, ZacK, and ZeKe.

magine missing Jeapardy to study the names in the Boise phone book.

• There are 7,000 initial K-phonemes out of 67,000 residential listings (10%), thrice what you should expect by chance.
• Out of 21,360 Boise businesses; 2,400 (11%) have initial K-sounds -- velar stops. Tell your friends.

• Boise has 170 street names out of 2,160 (13%) that start with the K-sound.
• City names demand wider consensus, presumably, and more velar stops: 36 out of 255 (14%) in Idaho (Caldwell, Coeur D'Alene ...), four times K's fair share.

Might be that K-sound in Picayune, don't you think? Still there are plenty of choices -- English-sounding choices -- for a city name.

How many? The answer to that question took another night's work...
 

ne never knows where a solution to a billion-dollar problem will come from.

For my voice synthesizer project back in the early sixties, I needed 29 single-character phonemes that I could peck upon the keyboard of what we used to call a 'typewriter' (q.v. in the Smithsonian someplace) -- "typographic phonemes," I called them. Here is a summary of their derivations, which you may want to skip {SkipLink}.

The list of consonants I concocted starts out with the fifteen easy ones:

• B, D, F, G, J, K, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, V, Z.

There are eight vowels that seem to hold still in the mouth. Back in 1961 I called them "standing vowels."

• Four standing vowels -- A ah, E ee, I ih, U uh -- make it easy to say pot, peat, pit, putt.
• To say pat and pet, I made use of the typographic symbols @ aa, and & eh, leaving O oh and W oo for poach and pooch.

In my system, the motion in diphthongs can take one of two directions: forward and reverse.

• Four forward diphthongs AE and @E, @O and OE give you the ability to say pipe and pate, pout and point.
• The 13 reverse diphthongs usually signal the start of a syllable: EA yawn, E@ yack, E& yes, EO yoke, EU yuck, EW you, WA want, W@ wag, WE we, W& went, WI win, WO woe, WU won. For woo, WEW works.

• BL, BR, DR, FL, FR, GL, GR, KL, KR, PL, PR, SL, SM, SN, SK, SP, ST, TR at the beginning of syllables and...
• BZ, BD, DZ, DX, LM, LN, LZ, LF, L$, LX, LC, LB, LD, LJ, LV, LK, LP, LT, MZ, MB, MD, MP, MT, NZ, NX, NC, CT, ZD, RL, RM, RN, RZ, RF, R$, RX, RC, RB, RD, RG, RJ, RV, RK, RP, RT, GZ, ZD, JD, VZ, VD, PX at the ending of syllables.

e are working on the answer to a question here, in case you forgot...

How many English-sounding choices are there for a city name?

How many English-sounding syllables have a K in them?

Here are the ones with just the I-vowel, with all spelling variations...

ilk irk bilk birk blirk blick blilk blisk bick bisk brirk brick brilk brisk cilk cill cilled cills cilm cilp cilt cir cirb circk cird cirdge cirf cirg cirl cirm cirn cirp cirs cirse cirsh cirt cirtch cirth cirve cimb cimt cise cised cises cived civ chilk chirk chick chisk chrirk chrick chrilk chrin chrins chrisk clilb clilk clilled clills clilm cliln clilp clilsh clilt clilve climb clims climse clirk clilse clise clised cliv cliver clilf clibb click click clid clidge cliff clig clil clilch clildge clilk clilth clim climed climp climt clinch cling clinn clinned clins clinse clint clinth clip clish clisk cliss clit clitch clith cliv cib cibbed cibbs cick cick cicked cicks cid cidge cids cidth cig cigged cigs cilb cilch cildge cilf ciln cilsh cilth cilv cim cims cimse cin cinch cing cinned cins cinse cint cinth cip cipped cips cipth cis cish cished cisk cisk cisp cist cit citch cith cithed ciths cits cigh cighs crilm criln crilve crir crirk criw criw criwl criwldge criwled criwls cribb crick crid cridge crigg crilb crilch crilf crilk crilk crilp crilse crilsh crilt crilth crimb crimmed crimp crims crimse crimt crinch crind cring crinse crint crinth crip crish crisk criss crit critch crith criz crizzed dilk dirk dick disk drirk drick drilk drisk filk firk flirk flick flilk flisk fisk frirk frick frilk frisk girk glirk glick glilk glisk gick gisk grirk grick grilk grisk hilk hirk hick hisk jilk jirk jick jisk kils lilk lirk lick lisk milk mirk mick misk nilk nirk nick nisk ict isk ix pilk pirk plirk plick plilk plisk pick pisk prick prilk prisk rilk rirk rick risk silk sirk scild scildge scilf scilfse scilk scill scills scilsh scilt scilve scir scirk scised sciw scibb scick scick scidd scidge scigg scilb scilch scilk scilm sciln scilp scilth scim scimb scimmed scimp scims scimse scimt scin scinch scind scing scins scinse scint scinth scipp scish scisk sciss scit scitch scith scizz shilk shirk shlick shick shisk shrirk shrick shrilk shrisk slirk slick slilk slisk smirk smick smilk smisk snirk snick snilk snisk sick sisk spirk spick spilk spisk srirk srick srilk srisk stirk stick stilk stisk tilk tirk thilk thirk thick thisk thrirk thrick thrilk thrisk tick tisk trirk trick trilk trisk virk vick visk whilk whirk whick whisk zilk zirk zick and zisk.{HyperNote 4}

A good list to keep handy for naming a car. Or a city...

Ilkayune, Irkayune,... Zickayune, and Ziskayune.

But then, there is just this one minor observation...

TWMARO AND TWMARO AND TWMARO KREPS IN XIS P&TE P@ES FRUM D@E TW D@E TW XA L&ST SILAB&L OV REKORD&D TAEM. AND AL AOR E&ST&RD@ES H@V LAET&D FWLS X&R W@E TW DUSTE D&X. AWT AWT BREF K@ND&L. LAEF IZ BUT A WAKEQ $@DO A PWR PL@E&R YW STRUTS AND FR&TS HIZ AWR UPAN XA ST@EJ AND X&N IZ H&RD NO MOR. IT IZ A T@EL TOLD BAE @N IDEAT FUL OV SAWND AND FEWRE SIGNIFAEEQ NUXEQ.

You will find no product names in MaKBeth's lament, only ordinary English-sounding words. But someone named ShaKespeare (or BaKon?) chose each one. Plenty of volition involved in that -- and for its time, not a little commercial motivation.

Why do you suppose there are only four Ks out of 280 phonemes? -- fewer than half the number you would expect by chance alone.

umans learn to speak first, then read. Five years earlier, some say. Later, as school children, we scanned printed words in an effort to identify them by their sounds. Often we faced words transliterated from a polyglot of languages, forcing us to struggle against our natural heuristic impulses -- to generalize from each particular spelling that comes along. We found ourselves confounded by more exceptions than you can shake a diphthong at.  It's a wonder that we didn't all drop out -- or that 'rules' of any kind ever receive our respect. If any sentence deserves an exclamation point it might be the previous one. And the next two:

Think of the expense. Fussy old non-phonetic spelling must cost extra billions to teach.

H@E, C&K XIS AWT.

• Let the printed words impart knowledge right away, describe images, expound upon ideas.
• Getting 100% on every speeling test builds self-esteem too.

Then I took a drive on a California Freeway and started noticing car names...

{1} Sophisticated Businesspersons will have read any number of books in the management library giving the history of companies that attribute a measure of their success -- or failure -- to the choice of commercial names. {Return}

{2} Sophisticated Phoneticians will recognize that the speech-sounds provided here are incomplete. I can live with that.

My limited number of phonemes will not support an accurate pronunciation of words like 'pussyfoot' (PUSEFUT, PUSEFWT, PWSEFUT, PWSEFWT). I can live with that, too.

If my professional life were devoted to the field of English pronunciation -- pronunciation as relevant to teaching children to read -- and I had passed up such an opportunity, I don't think I could live with that.{Return}

{3} Sophisticated Technologists will see right through what's been done here:

The formulation of a set of cyber-friendly tools for systematically -- some might say mindlessly -- automating the generation of English-sounding syllables.

{4} Sophisticated Readers will notice that I used hoky approximations of the English spellings for each of these syllables. That was to facilitate readability for unsophisticated readers, who are not fluent in the single-character phonetic symbols presented here. {Return}

{5} Sophisticated Scientists will recognize this picayune exercise as merely the first step in the Scientific Method:

1. Formulate an Hypothesis
2. Design the Critical Experiment
3. Take the Data
4. Analyze the Results

{6} Sophisticated Educators will doubtless have much progress to report on the effectiveness of 'Phonics' (as in "Hooked On") for teaching our children to read. Their comments are especially welcome.{Return}

As expected, when The Velar Stops Here was first published in 1996, a number of people expressed contrary views -- none with more technical precision than my friend Norm Bryga, who is famous among those who know him for his -- well, his technical precision.

You make your observations while stuck on freeways, I make my observations elsewhere. I have noticed a pattern in names of mattresses...

• Seally
• Serta
• Simmons
• Slumberland
• Somma
• Spring Air
• Strearns & Foster
• Stress-O-Pedic.

Thanks for wiping out another night's sleep for an old guy in Idaho. -- PN

Other views were not so contrary, here are comments offered in 2001 by my other friend Rich Alexander, who has a keen eye for business relevancies.

Explosive Sound

Another thought, and a curious thought I've not heard from anyone else: When communicating in all the basic codes (Morse code radio, Morse code flashing light, semaphore...) the letter K has the universal meaning of "invitation to transmit." K in code is similar to the proword "Over" in voice radio. A semaphore operator holds his flags (or hands) showing K, to indicate that he is ready to receive. K might have an archetypical meaning -- with subliminal marketing value -- as the letter that indicates an interest by the manufacturer in communicating with the customer.

Then too, my dictionary gives the origin of the expression OK as the popularized slogan of the O.K. Club, the Democratic Party's political club of 1840; for Old Kinderhook, the nickname of President Martin Van Buren, who was born at Kinderhook, New York; but previously attested in the 1830s as a modish slang abbreviation of favorable but uncertain meaning, possibly connected with another abbreviation, D.K. for "don't know," which just happens to be my response to the question, Why has "okay" been appropriated by languages all over the world?

-- PN