And, since K is for the most part unambiguous, we usually use it for new borrowings with the sound /k/ today.Įxceptions to the above changes are myriad and complicated, and usually come from borrowings. Also, we still have the Latin practice of spelling /kw/ as QU, and for our huge numbers of words borrowed from Greek we have lots of Ks as well. So, now, in English we often see C pronounced as /s/ before Es and Is, but as /k/ before other vowels. Later, in Romance languages like French descended from Latin, C before front consonants like /e/ or /i/ was palatalized to a 'ch' or even 's' sound, as seen in Italian cento 'hundred', pronounced 'chento', and French cent 'hundred', pronunced /son/, both from Latin centum, pronounced /kentum/. This is where we get words with a /k/ CH from, like 'chorus'.
How to get greek letters in gedit plus#
Then, when borrowing Greek words that began with the letter Chi, which was aspirated (pronounced with a puff of air), the Romans used their symbol for /k/, C, plus the breathiest consonant they had, H, to indicate the aspiration. When the Romans took the alphabet, they eventually eliminated K (except for use in a couple of Greek words borrowed much later), and used C everywhere except before /w/ (our 'QU'). When the Etruscans borrowed the alphabet from the Greeks, however, they borrowed three different signs for the /k/ sound, since they only had voiceless stops.Ĭ (originally from the Greek capital letter 'gamma') was used before front vowels, /e/ and /i/, K was used before /a/, and Q was used before their back vowel. The Romans got the alphabet from the Greeks through the Etruscans.
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