Re: C (was: Acadon (was: Lingwa de Planeta))

Philip Newton wrote:
> On 8/9/07, Ollock Ackeop <ollock@...> wrote:
>> loans from Greek to English where [...] the letter used can be |c| or |k|
>> (not sure why the difference exists, though).
>
> My guess would be that those with |c| are usually via Latin, those
> with |k| directly "from" Greek (usually: formed elsewhere on the basis
> of Greek morphemes).
Really? If I understand you right, you're saying:

   GREEK -> LATIN -> ENGLISH  use  c
   WESTERN NEOLOGISMS         use  k
   GREEK -> ENGLISH           use  k

But I thought most Greek words with <k> actually were direct borrowings
from Greek (e.g. "koine" --- which if it came via Latin would've been
"c(o)ene" I suppose; though perhaps something different would've
happened to the final vowel), and most words formed on the basis of
Greek morphemes used <c> (e.g. "anencephalous") --- exceptions being the
kilo- prefix which represets /X/ and not /k/, and a certain number of
words with the kin- morpheme (e.g. "kinaesthesia", "telekinesis" but
contrast "cinema"). Hence:

   GREEK -> LATIN -> ENGLISH  use  c
   WESTERN NEOLOGISMS         use  c
   GREEK -> ENGLISH           use  k

Most words that come are formed elsewhere on the basis of Greek
morphemes come from the same tradition as words fromed elsewhere on the
basis of Latin morphemes anyway (and are often mixed, e.g.
"television"), so trying to distinguish the first two categories seems
to be a fruitless exercise.

--
Tristan.