Friday Puzzler -- Partitioning the Alphabet

What happened to V?

Larry Barrett

Does it belong in group 1, or is its absence part of the puzzle?

My bad

Alex Y

There was a "V" in the sentence, and it belongs in group 2.

Tuesday Hint -- Partitioning the Alphabet

Alex Y

This partitioning works only for English speakers.

Re: Tuesday Hint -- Partitioning the Alphabet

Larry Barrett

How about this rule (not really simple, so perhaps not correct)?

Letters, when pronounced, that have an 'a' or 'e' or 'u' sound (except for the actual letters a, e, u) belong in group 2.

Using this rule, j and z belong to group 2, while f and x belong to group 1.

Correct answer

Alex Y

You correctly assigned the four letters to their groups, with a valid rule. Nice job!

There is a simpler rule, that does not require any exceptions, and you are on the right track to finding it, so I will leave that out there to be worked on.

BTW, you mention the letter "U" as an exception, but a "U" would always go in group 2.

The full partitioning and further hints

Alex Y

With Larry's correct assignment of the four letters called out in the original, we have:

Group 1: AEFHILMNORSX

Group 2: BCDGJKPQTUVWYZ

What is the basis for this split?

Hints so far:

1) This partition only makes sense to English speakers. (It doesn't mater whether you call "Z" "zee" or "zed". If there are other differences I am not aware of, this hint may refer to American English only.)

2) Larry was on the right track when he came up with a rule based on the sound of the letter as pronounced. Not exactly the solution, but in the neighborhood.

New hints:

1) There was a hint embedded in my reply to Larry about the missing "V".

2) I have not memorized the groups, but was able to quickly write them down based on the rule, as you would be able to do once you have the rule.

Observation

Larry Barrett

Regarding your hint, you said

There was a "V" in the sentence, and it belongs in group 2.

In the original sentence there were in fact 2 'V's; one in the word 'have' and one in the word 'very'.

However, the words in the sentence seem to have nothing to do with the rule; they had nothing to do with my rule.

Response to Observation and final hint

Alex Y

However, the words in the sentence seem to have nothing to do with the rule.

Correct. The sentence was merely a way to get most but not all letters for the partitioning.

Probable give-away hint below, so don't go there if you don't want it.

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There was a "V" in the sentence, and it belongs in group 2.

Repeat that sentence for every letter of the alphabet, and note for curiosity's sake where in the alphabet the "aha" hits you. (pretend all the letters were in the sentence)

Re: Response to Observation and final hint

Larry Barrett

I got as far as the letter a, and now I understand the hint about the letter v.

That didn't take long!

Alex Y

I was guessing that the aha! would come at about e or f.