Are you a victim of "alphabetism?"

[mynah]

Part I

I thought I'd coined a new term, but when I googled it, it actually came up in this article, where it is used in much the same way as I meant it: That is, (usually unintended) discrimination on the grounds of the alphabetical position of one's surname.

As a kid I had the second last surname in my form. The school often gave one on one counseling where a teacher would discuss a student's choice of subjects, future vocational choices, results of aptitude tests, etc. with him or her. At least, so I heard, because the term inevitably ended before my turn came, and as there were always just two or three students at the end of the alphabet left, they'd forget about us the next term.

When a friend and I applied for a Varsity bursary, she got one and I didn't, although my marks were slightly better. As academic results was the only criterion, and a very large number students applied for a fair number of bursaries, I suspect they simply ran out of bursaries before they got to the end of the alphabet.

This morning I became a victim of alphabetism once again. Every now and then the system of computerised payment that is supposed to pay me electronically for my work malfunctions and drops the excess names at the end. Alas, as I've kept the same surname throughout life, that means I don't get paid...

[Moontanman]

Originally Posted by mynah

Part I

I thought I'd coined a new term, but when I googled it, it actually came up in this article, where it is used in much the same way as I meant it: That is, (usually unintended) discrimination on the grounds of the alphabetical position of one's surname.

As a kid I had the second last surname in my form. The school often gave one on one counseling where a teacher would discuss a student's choice of subjects, future vocational choices, results of aptitude tests, etc. with him or her. At least, so I heard, because the term inevitably ended before my turn came, and as there were always just two or three students at the end of the alphabet left, they'd forget about us the next term.

When a friend and I applied for a Varsity bursary, she got one and I didn't, although my marks were slightly better. As academic results was the only criterion, and a very large number students applied for a fair number of bursaries, I suspect they simply ran out of bursaries before they got to the end of the alphabet.

This morning I became a victim of alphabetism once again. Every now and then the system of computerised payment that is supposed to pay me electronically for my work malfunctions and drops the excess names at the end. Alas, as I've kept the same surname throughout life, that means I don't get paid...

When i was in school I often had teachers that would arrange the students in reverse alphabetical order just for the reason the kids at the end of the alphabet got the short end of the stick quite often.

[mynah]

They only did that with us once - and that was an oral exam, without warning...

Part II

(Had to be continued to prevent my not getting my next paycheck either, for reasons unrelated to alphabetism. )

Alphabetism may well rob many a person of the acclaim they deserve. Recently, for instance, a landmark paper on bird phylogeny was published, and the authors given as "Hackett et al", the "et al" being none fewer than seventeen other participants. The group had three leaders, including Hackett herself, who were acknowledged in the paper as equal participants. However, as few who cite the study are likely to go into such details, the other two are getting much less exposure, for the sole reason that their names are lower down in the alphabet.

I suspect that alphabetism may also affect people whose surnames start with very common or very rare letters. I've seen people with surnames starting with rare initials (among English speakers, at least) such as I, Q, U, X and Z left out of "Who's who" lists because compilers probably simply skipped those letters. On the other hand, the name of a Scottish Mac or Dutch Van may get lost in the crowd.