Re: CHAT: "Nik"names :) (was Re: Middle Initials)

> Date:         Mon, 19 Feb 2001 08:20:25 -0500
> From: Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...>
> On a related note; why is it that "k" have become the standard
> representation of /k/ in the Germanic and Slav languages that're written in
> the Roman alphabet when the Romance languages mostly use "c", like Latin
> did? Of course, English takes a sort of middle ground in that it happily
> uses both "k" and "c" alot - do this have anything to do with the heavy
> Romance influence on it in medieval times?
At a guess, the Germanic languages 'resurrected' <k> for use before
front vowels, where Latin/proto-Romance would have had <c> = one of
/tS/, /S/, /s/ when German languages started to be written.

Not that Germanic languages don't palatalize /k/ and /g/ before front
vowels --- English did early on, Swedish and Norwegian more recently,
as well as most Danish dialects except the ones that grew into the
standard language. E.g. E chill ~ Sw kyla.

I don't even less about the history of Slavic languages, but the same
could be the case there.

Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)