Originally Posted by
Dave Noble
There are plenty of words in English that start with "Q" and are not followed by "U" such as qat, qats, qawwal , qawwali, qi
Almost all of these words are due (I think) to one particular transliteration scheme from Arabic, and have alternative spellings that do not violate the usual English rule (qat/kat/khat for instance). Also adding a "u" in these words would change the pronunciation as it often stands for the voiceless labio-velar approximant, which indeed is present in the pronunciation of Qantas.
Whereas "Qantas" does sound like it could be a Latinate noun and one might expect it to follow the Latinate scheme.
Originally Posted by
trooper
I would agree with most of that... but WHY is it "safest" to avoid split infinitives?
The main reason is that it is distracting for some readers. To my eyes (and sometimes ears) the split infinitive sticks out at roughly the same level as an extra apostrophe or a missspelling: I know what is meant but my attention is drawn away from the main point the writer is making.
I realize that I seem to be in a minority in finding split infinitives jarring, but there we are.
