Two Initials Again

Remember when I wondered why people who are known by two initials rather than a first name, like O.J. Simpson, so frequently have a "J" as one of those two letters? (If the answer is "no", then you can click on the link to get your very own memory of that blog post.)

Well, now some real linguists are turning their attention to a more general version of that question (and I do love generalization). What makes some pairs of letters sound good in place of a name and other pairs sound bad? Their explanation is too technical for me to follow, and they don't bring up "J" in particular (even though MJ is their example of a good nickname, and JD and DJ are the examples from Semantic Compositions). But go take a look.

(HT Neal)