Re: The Letter "K"
| From: | Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, March 1, 2004, 23:16 |
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On Sat, 28 Feb 2004 15:51:37 -0800, Akhilesh Pillalamarri
<valardil@...> wrote:
> It makes no sense the letter K is in the latin alphabet, if the original
> "C" in latin coveyed that sound. All the places i've searched said that "k"
> was used in greek words, but the romans didnt borrow "pi" to represent greek
> words tat could otherwise be spelled with "p." I suspect tat the "k" might
> have been pronounced [x]. Does anyone know the purpose of k?
Originally, <K> was in Old Latin the only way to represent /k/.
Gradually, over time <C> (which at that time represented /g/) came
to replace <K> in almost all its uses. Even later, but still during
the Republic, <G> was invented based on <C> to represent /g/.
=========================================================================
Thomas Wier "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637
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