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I know that K has been derived from Greek kappa and C from gamma.

But how did it happen that people started to use K in place of C? From what I know there were already C and G in the Latin alphabet to mark as well the /k/ as the /g/ sound, so why did they add yet another letter?

And how did it happen that in many modern European languages C is used as a /t͡s/ or /s/ sound? I don't think it was used like this in Latin?

Arsen
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    They didn't add another letter. K was already in the alphabet. – Sverre Sep 25 '15 at 21:51
  • Related: http://linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/6767/strange-latin-spelling-karissime – Alex B. Sep 25 '15 at 23:20
  • I like this part of your question though "how did it happen that people started to use K in place of C?" – Alex B. Sep 25 '15 at 23:27
  • Tbh, I wish, C was only used for the hard sound and K didn't exist in Latin entirely. It would have been better – Akshat Goswami May 09 '23 at 03:28
  • You really should provide examples. It make my head hurt to try and find them. – Lambie May 09 '23 at 21:16
  • @Lambie Languages that use “c” for /s/? Most of the ones I can think of. Starting with English like in word “cease”. Another example could be Spanish that uses it for /θ/ in Spain, but in Latin America it's pronunced as /s/ (I wasn't aware of the original pronunciation in Spain when I was wroting this post). French even has a special letter (ç) to mark that a “c” is actually /s/. Most Slavic languages on the other hand - like Polish, Czech or Croatian use the letter “c” for /ts/. – Arsen May 11 '23 at 15:31
  • @Arsen The examples need to go in the question. – Lambie May 11 '23 at 16:14

2 Answers2

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The Old Latin alphabet had 3 letters for the sound [k]: C, K, and Q. K was used before A, Q before V (the shape U appeared later), and C elsewhere. Besides, C was also used for the sound [g]. Later, K was marginalized and used only in a couple of words, e.g. Kalendae, and a new letter, G, derived from C, was introduced for the sound [g].

In the post-classical Latin dialects, the sound [k] before [i] (spelled I and Y) and [e/ɛ] (spelled E, AE, OE) changed into [s], or [ts], or [tʃ] all of which can be found in the modern Romance languages.

Since the European languages which now use the Latin script are or were once Roman Catholic, and the speakers were aware of the strong association of Q with U, and of the fact that C before E, I, and Y is not pronounced [k], and that the only universal letter that means [k] in all the positions was K, it was this K that they chose for the use in their native languages to denote the sound [k].

Yellow Sky
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    I don't think a language can be Roman Catholic, and I don't think there even is an accurate idea hidden behind that wording. Otherwise, this agrees with what I've heard! – brass tacks Sep 25 '15 at 22:46
  • In the British Isles speakers had very little to do with it. Insular writers preferred , and was very rare until the Conquest replaced the English literary class and orthography with Norman ones. is still preferred in writing the insular Celtic languages. – StoneyB on hiatus Sep 26 '15 at 03:44
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    I once heard the claim that Welsh uses ‹C› because once upon a time the printer of a Welsh dictionary didn't have enough ‹K›s in the type case. – Anton Sherwood Dec 01 '19 at 07:25
  • Actually in Swedish, K is provinces as Sh before I e or y and in Norwegian too so not true – Akshat Goswami May 16 '23 at 20:21
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About the second part of your question.

The spelling very often represents pronunciation that was once used (although this is not a rule).

The C in the spelling systems of modern Romance languages stands mostly for voiceless velar stop [k] or a variety of palatal or sibilant-like sounds, including [t͡ʃ], [t͡s] or [s]. The second group usually continues [k] which was later fronted and palatalised, for example because of the proximity of a front vowel.

C letter is used for these sounds simply for historical reasons.

czypsu
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    It's true that's often the case. Not always, though. In French, there are a lot of cases where "c" represents Latin [t] that was fronted and palatalized, like in words ending in "-ance" from Latin "entia." This is also the case for "c" in some words in Spanish. – brass tacks Sep 25 '15 at 23:24