"C" comes from the same letter as "G". TheSemites named itgimel. The sign is possibly adapted from anEgyptian hieroglyph for astaff sling, which may have been the meaning of the namegimel. Another possibility is that it depicted a camel, the Semitic name for which wasgamal.Barry B. Powell, a specialist in the history of writing, states "It is hard to imagine how gimel = "camel" can be derived from the picture of a camel (it may show his hump, or his head and neck!)".[2]
In theEtruscan language,plosive consonants had no contrastivevoicing, so theGreek 'Γ' (Gamma) was adopted into theEtruscan alphabet to represent/k/. Already in theWestern Greek alphabet, Gamma first took a '' form in Early Etruscan, then '' in Classical Etruscan. InLatin, it eventually took the 'c' form inClassical Latin. In the earliest Latin inscriptions, the letters 'c k q' were used to represent the sounds/k/ and/ɡ/ (which were not differentiated in writing). Of these, 'q' was used to represent/k/ or/ɡ/ before a rounded vowel, 'k' before 'a', and 'c' elsewhere.[3] During the 3rd century BC, a modified character was introduced for/ɡ/, and 'c' itself was retained for/k/. The use of 'c' (and its variant 'g') replaced most usages of 'k' and 'q'. Hence, in the classical period and after, 'g' was treated as the equivalent of Greek gamma, and 'c' as the equivalent of kappa; this shows in the romanization of Greek words, as in 'ΚΑΔΜΟΣ', 'ΚΥΡΟΣ', and 'ΦΩΚΙΣ' came into Latin as 'cadmvs', 'cyrvs' and 'phocis', respectively.[4]
Other alphabets have lettershomoglyphic to 'c' but not analogous in use and derivation, like theCyrillic letterEs (С, с) which derives from the lunatesigma.
Later use
When the Roman alphabet was introduced into Britain,⟨c⟩ represented only/k/, and this value of the letter has been retained in loanwords to all theinsular Celtic languages: inWelsh,[5]Irish, andGaelic,⟨c⟩ represents only/k/. TheOld English Latin-based writing system was learned from the Celts, apparently of Ireland; hence,⟨c⟩ in Old English also originally represented/k/; the Modern English wordskin,break,broken,thick, andseek all come from Old English words written with⟨c⟩:cyn, brecan, brocen, þicc, andséoc. However, during the course of the Old English period,/k/ before front vowels (/e/ and/i/) waspalatalized, having changed by the tenth century to[tʃ], though⟨c⟩ was still used, as incir(i)ce, wrecc(e)a. On the continent, meanwhile, a similar phonetic change before the same two vowels had also been going on in almost all modern Romance languages (for example, inItalian).[clarification needed]
In Vulgar Latin,/k/ became palatalized to[tʃ] in Italy and Dalmatia; in France and theIberian Peninsula, it became[ts]. Yet for these new sounds,⟨c⟩ was still used before the letters⟨e⟩ and⟨i⟩. The letter thus represented two distinct values. Subsequently, the Latin phoneme/kw/ (spelled⟨qv⟩) de-labialized to/k/, meaning that the various Romance languages had/k/ before front vowels. In addition,Norman used the letter⟨k⟩ so that the sound/k/ could be represented by either⟨k⟩ or⟨c⟩, the latter of which could represent either/k/ or/ts/ depending on whether it preceded a front vowel letter or not. The convention of using both⟨c⟩ and⟨k⟩ was applied to the writing of English after theNorman Conquest, causing a considerable re-spelling of the Old English words. Thus, while Old Englishcandel, clif, corn, crop, andcú, remained unchanged,cent, cǣᵹ (cēᵹ), cyng, brece, andsēoce, were now (without any change of sound) spelledKent, keȝ, kyng, breke, andseoke; evencniht ('knight') was subsequently changed tokniht, andþic ('thick') was changed tothik orthikk. The Old English⟨cw⟩ was also at length displaced by the French⟨qu⟩ so that the Old Englishcwēn ('queen') andcwic ('quick') becameMiddle Englishquen andquik, respectively.
Thus, to show etymology, English spelling hasadvise,devise (instead of*advize,*devize), whileadvice,device,dice,ice,mice,twice, etc., do not reflect etymology; example has extended this tohence,pence,defence, etc., where there is no etymological reason for using⟨c⟩. Former generations also wrotesence forsense. Hence, today, theRomance languages andEnglish have a common feature inherited fromVulgar Latin spelling conventions where⟨c⟩ takes on either a"hard" or "soft" value depending on the following letter.
InEnglish orthography,⟨c⟩ generally represents the "soft" value of/s/ before the letters⟨e⟩ (including the Latin-derived digraphs⟨ae⟩ and⟨oe⟩, or the corresponding ligatures⟨æ⟩ and⟨œ⟩),⟨i⟩, and⟨y⟩, and a "hard" value of/k/ before any other letters or at the end of a word. However, there are a number of exceptions in English: "soccer", "celt" and "sceptic" are words that have/k/ where/s/ would be expected. The "soft"⟨c⟩ may represent the/ʃ/ sound in the digraph⟨ci⟩ when this precedes a vowel, as in the words 'delicious' and 'appreciate', and also in the word "ocean" and its derivatives.
The digraph⟨ch⟩ most commonly represents/tʃ/, but can also represent/k/ (mainly in words ofGreek origin) or/ʃ/ (mainly in words ofFrench origin). For some dialects of English, it may also represent/x/ in words likeloch, while other speakers pronounce the final sound as/k/. The trigraph⟨tch⟩ always represents/tʃ/. The digraph⟨ck⟩ is often used to represent the sound/k/ after short vowels, like in "wicket".
In the Romance languagesFrench,Spanish,Italian,Romanian, andPortuguese,⟨c⟩ generally has a "hard" value of/k/ and a "soft" value whose pronunciation varies by language. In French, Portuguese, Catalan, and Spanish from Latin America and some places in Spain, the soft⟨c⟩ value is/s/ as it is in English. In the Spanish spoken in most of Spain, the soft⟨c⟩ is avoiceless dental fricative/θ/. InItalian andRomanian, the soft⟨c⟩ is[t͡ʃ].
Germanic languages usually use⟨c⟩ for Romance loans or digraphs, such as⟨ch⟩ and⟨ck⟩, but the rules vary across languages. Of all the Germanic languages, only English uses the initial⟨c⟩ in native Germanic words likecome. Other than English,Dutch uses⟨c⟩ the most, for most Romance loans and the digraph⟨ch⟩. German uses⟨c⟩ in the digraphs⟨ch⟩ and⟨ck⟩, and the trigraph⟨sch⟩, but by itself only in unassimilated loanwords and proper names.Danish keeps soft⟨c⟩ in Romance words but changes hard⟨c⟩ to⟨k⟩. Swedish has the same rules for soft and hard⟨c⟩ as Danish, and also uses⟨c⟩ in the digraph⟨ck⟩ and the very common wordoch, "and".Norwegian,Afrikaans, andIcelandic are the most restrictive, replacing all cases of⟨c⟩ with⟨k⟩ or⟨s⟩, and reserving⟨c⟩ for unassimilated loanwords and names.
The letter⟨c⟩ is also used as a transliteration of Cyrillic⟨ц⟩ in the Latin forms ofSerbian,Macedonian, and sometimesUkrainian, along with the digraph⟨ts⟩.
There are several common digraphs with⟨c⟩, the most common being⟨ch⟩, which in some languages (such asGerman) is far more common than⟨c⟩ alone.⟨ch⟩ takes various values in other languages.
As in English,⟨ck⟩, with the value/k/, is often used after short vowels in otherGermanic languages such as German andSwedish (other Germanic languages, such as Dutch andNorwegian, use⟨kk⟩ instead). The digraph⟨cz⟩ is found in Polish and⟨cs⟩ in Hungarian, representing/t͡ʂ/ and/t͡ʃ/ respectively. The digraph⟨sc⟩ represents/ʃ/ in Old English, Italian, and a few languages related to Italian (where this only happens beforefront vowels, while otherwise it represents/sk/). The trigraph⟨sch⟩ represents/ʃ/ in German.
⟨𝼝⟩ : Small letter ⟨c⟩ with retroflex hook – Para-IPA version of theIPA retroflex tʂ.[7]
⟨ꟲ⟩ : Modifier letter capital ⟨c⟩ – Used to mark tone for theChatino orthography in Oaxaca, Mexico; used as a generic transcription for a falling tone; also used in para-IPA notation.[8]
The Latin letters⟨C⟩ and⟨c⟩ haveUnicode encodingsU+0043CLATIN CAPITAL LETTER C andU+0063cLATIN SMALL LETTER C. These are the samecode points as those used inASCII andISO 8859. There are alsoprecomposed character encodings for⟨C⟩ and⟨c⟩ with diacritics, for most of those listedabove; the remainder are produced usingcombining diacritics.
^"C"Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989);Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1993); "cee",op. cit.
