| C | |
| Letter: | C c |
| Script: | Latin script |
| Type: | Alphabet |
| Typedesc: | ic |
| Language: | Latin language |
| Unicode: | U+0043, U+0063 |
| Alphanumber: | 3 |
| Number: | 100 |
| Fam2: | |
| Fam7: | Γ γ |
C, or c, is the third letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is cee (pronounced), plural cees.[1]
In the Etruscan language, plosive consonants had no contrastive voicing, so the Greek 'Γ' (Gamma) was adopted into the Etruscan alphabet to represent pronounced as //k//. Already in the Western Greek alphabet, Gamma first took a '' form in Early Etruscan, then '' in Classical Etruscan. In Latin, it eventually took the '' form in Classical Latin. In the earliest Latin inscriptions, the letters '' were used to represent the sounds pronounced as //k// and pronounced as //ɡ// (which were not differentiated in writing). Of these, '' was used to represent pronounced as //k// or pronounced as //ɡ// before a rounded vowel, '' before '', and '' elsewhere.[3] During the 3rd century BC, a modified character was introduced for pronounced as //ɡ//, and '' itself was retained for pronounced as //k//. The use of '' (and its variant '') replaced most usages of '' and ''. Hence, in the classical period and after, '' was treated as the equivalent of Greek gamma, and '' as the equivalent of kappa; this shows in the romanization of Greek words, as in 'ΚΑΔΜΟΣ', 'ΚΥΡΟΣ', and 'ΦΩΚΙΣ' came into Latin as '', '' and '', respectively.
Other alphabets have letters homoglyphic to 'c' but not analogous in use and derivation, like the Cyrillic letter Es (С, с) which derives from the lunate sigma.
When the Roman alphabet was introduced into Britain, (c) represented only pronounced as //k//, and this value of the letter has been retained in loanwords to all the insular Celtic languages: in Welsh,[4] Irish, and Gaelic, (c) represents only pronounced as //k//. The Old English Latin-based writing system was learned from the Celts, apparently of Ireland; hence, (c) in Old English also originally represented pronounced as //k//; the Modern English words kin, break, broken, thick, and seek all come from Old English words written with (c): English, Old (ca.450-1100);: cyn, brecan, brocen, þicc, and English, Old (ca.450-1100);: séoc. However, during the course of the Old English period, pronounced as //k// before front vowels (pronounced as //e// and pronounced as //i//) was palatalized, having changed by the tenth century to pronounced as /[tʃ]/, though (c) was still used, as in cir(i)ce, wrecc(e)a. On the continent, meanwhile, a similar phonetic change before the same two vowels had also been going on in almost all modern romance languages (for example, in Italian).
In Vulgar Latin, pronounced as //k// became palatalized to pronounced as /[tʃ]/ in Italy and Dalmatia; in France and the Iberian Peninsula, it became pronounced as /[ts]/. Yet for these new sounds, was still used before the letters (e) and (i). The letter thus represented two distinct values. Subsequently, the Latin phoneme pronounced as //kw// (spelled) de-labialized to pronounced as //k//, meaning that the various Romance languages had pronounced as //k// before front vowels. In addition, Norman used the letter (k) so that the sound pronounced as //k// could be represented by either (k) or (c), the latter of which could represent either pronounced as //k// or pronounced as //ts// depending on whether it preceded a front vowel letter or not. The convention of using both (c) and (k) was applied to the writing of English after the Norman Conquest, causing a considerable re-spelling of the Old English words. Thus, while Old English candel, clif, corn, crop, and cú, remained unchanged, cent, cǣᵹ (cēᵹ), cyng, brece, and sēoce, were now (without any change of sound) spelled Kent, keȝ, kyng, breke, and English, Middle (1100-1500);: seoke; even English, Old (ca.450-1100);: cniht ('knight') was subsequently changed to English, Middle (1100-1500);: kniht, and English, Old (ca.450-1100);: þic ('thick') was changed to English, Middle (1100-1500);: thik or English, Middle (1100-1500);: thikk. The Old English (cw) was also at length displaced by the French (qu) so that the Old English English, Old (ca.450-1100);: cwēn ('queen') and English, Old (ca.450-1100);: cwic ('quick') became Middle English English, Middle (1100-1500);: quen and English, Middle (1100-1500);: quik, respectively.
The sound pronounced as /[tʃ]/, to which Old English palatalized pronounced as //k// had advanced, also occurred in French, chiefly from Latin pronounced as //k// before (a). In French, it was represented by the digraph (ch), as in champ (from Latin Latin: camp-um), and this spelling was introduced into English: the Hatton Gospels, written, have in Matt. i-iii, child, chyld, riche, and mychel, for the cild, rice, and mycel of the Old English version whence they were copied. In these cases, the Old English (c) gave way to (k), (qu) and (ch); on the other hand, (c) in its new value of pronounced as //ts// appeared largely in French words like processiun, emperice, and grace and was also substituted for (ts) in a few Old English words, as English, Old (ca.450-1100);: miltse, bletsien, in early Middle English milce, blecien. By the end of the thirteenth century, both in France and England, this sound pronounced as //ts// was de-affricated to pronounced as //s//; and from that time, (c) has represented pronounced as //s// before front vowels either for etymological reasons, as in lance, cent, or to avoid the ambiguity due to the "etymological" use of (s) for pronounced as //z//, as in ace, mice, once, pence, defence.
Thus, to show etymology, English spelling has advise, devise (instead of *advize, *devize), while advice, device, dice, ice, mice, twice, etc., do not reflect etymology; example has extended this to hence, pence, defence, etc., where there is no etymological reason for using (c). Former generations also wrote sence for sense. Hence, today, the Romance languages and English have a common feature inherited from Vulgar Latin spelling conventions where (c) takes on either a "hard" or "soft" value depending on the following letter.
See also: Hard and soft C.
| Albanian | pronounced as /link/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Cypriot Arabic | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Azeri | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Berber | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Bukawa | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Catalan | pronounced as /link/ | Except before e, i | |
| pronounced as /link/ | Before e, i | ||
| (Pinyin) | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Crimean Tatar | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Czech | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Danish | pronounced as /link/ | Except before e, i, y, æ, ø | |
| pronounced as /link/ | Before e, i, y, æ, ø | ||
| Dutch | pronounced as /link/ | Except before e, i, y | |
| pronounced as /link/ | Before e, i, y | ||
| pronounced as /link/ | Before e, i in loanwords from Italian | ||
| English | pronounced as /link/ | Except before e, i, y | |
| pronounced as /link/ | Before e, i, y | ||
| pronounced as /link/ | Before ea, ia, ie, io, iu | ||
| Esperanto | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Fijian | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Filipino | pronounced as /link/ | Except before e, i | |
| pronounced as /link/ | Before e, i | ||
| French | pronounced as /link/ | Except before e, i, y | |
| pronounced as /link/ | Before e, i, y | ||
| Fula | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Gagauz | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Galician | pronounced as /link/ | Except before e, i | |
| pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ | Before e, i | ||
| German | pronounced as /link/ | Except before ä, e, i, ö, ü, y in loanwords and names | |
| pronounced as /link/ | Before ä, e, i, ö, ü, y in loanwords and names | ||
| Hausa | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Hungarian | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Indonesian | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Irish | pronounced as /link/ | Except before e, i; or after i | |
| pronounced as /link/ | Before e, i; or after i | ||
| Italian | pronounced as /link/ | Except before e, i | |
| pronounced as /link/ | Before e, i | ||
| Khmer (ALA-LC) | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Kurmanji (Hawar) | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Latin | pronounced as /link/ (and pronounced as /link/ in early Latin) | ||
| Latvian | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Malay | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Manding | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Norwegian | pronounced as /link/ | Except before e, i, y, æ, ø in loanwords and names | |
| pronounced as /link/ | Before e, i, y, æ, ø in loanwords and names | ||
| Polish | pronounced as /link/ | Except before i | |
| pronounced as /link/ | Before i | ||
| Portuguese | pronounced as /link/ | Except before e, i, y | |
| pronounced as /link/ | Before e, i, y | ||
| Romanian | pronounced as /link/ | Except before e, i | |
| pronounced as /link/ | Before e, i | ||
| Romansh | pronounced as /link/ | Except before e, i | |
| pronounced as /link/ | Before e, i | ||
| Scottish Gaelic | pronounced as /link/ | Except before e, i; or after i | |
| pronounced as /link/ | Before e, i; or after i | ||
| Serbo-Croatian | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Slovak | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Slovene | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Somali | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Spanish | pronounced as /link/ | Except before e, i, y | |
| pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ | Before e, i, y | ||
| Swedish | pronounced as /link/ | Except before e, i, y, ä, ö | |
| pronounced as /link/ | Before e, i, y, ä, ö | ||
| Tatar | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Turkish | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Valencian | pronounced as /link/ | Except before e, i | |
| pronounced as /link/ | Before e, i | ||
| Vietnamese | pronounced as /link/ | Except word-finally | |
| pronounced as /link/ | Word-finally | ||
| Welsh | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Xhosa | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Yabem | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Yup'ik | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Zulu | pronounced as /link/ |
In English orthography, (c) generally represents the "soft" value of before the letters (e) (including the Latin-derived digraphs (ae) and (oe), or the corresponding ligatures (æ) and (œ)), (i), and (y), and a "hard" value of before any other letters or at the end of a word. However, there are a number of exceptions in English: "soccer" and "Celt" are words that have where would be expected. The "soft" (c) may represent the sound in the digraph (ci) when this precedes a vowel, as in the words 'delicious' and 'appreciate', and also in the word "ocean" and its derivatives.
The digraph (ch) most commonly represents, but can also represent (mainly in words of Greek origin) or (mainly in words of French origin). For some dialects of English, it may also represent in words like loch, while other speakers pronounce the final sound as . The trigraph (tch) always represents . The digraph (ck) is often used to represent the sound after short vowels, like "wicket".
C is the twelfth most frequently used letter in the English language (after E, T, A, O, I, N, S, H, R, D, and L), with a frequency of about 2.8% in words.
In the Romance languages French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, and Portuguese, (c) generally has a "hard" value of pronounced as //k// and a "soft" value whose pronunciation varies by language. In French, Portuguese, Catalan, and Spanish from Latin America and some places in Spain, the soft (c) value is pronounced as //s// as it is in English. In the Spanish spoken in most of Spain, the soft (c) is a voiceless dental fricative pronounced as //θ//. In Italian and Romanian, the soft (c) is pronounced as /[t͡ʃ]/.
Germanic languages usually use (c) for Romance loans or digraphs, such as (ch) and (ck), but the rules vary across languages. Of all the Germanic languages, only English uses the initial (c) in native Germanic words like come. Other than English, Dutch uses (c) the most, for most Romance loans and the digraph (ch). German uses (c) in the digraphs (ch) and (ck), and the trigraph (sch), but by itself only in unassimilated loanwords and proper names. Danish keeps soft (c) in Romance words but changes hard (c) to (k). Swedish has the same rules for soft and hard (c) as Danish, and also uses (c) in the digraph (ck) and the very common word och, "and". Norwegian, Afrikaans, and Icelandic are the most restrictive, replacing all cases of (c) with (k) or (s), and reserving (c) for unassimilated loanwords and names.
All Balto-Slavic languages that use the Latin alphabet, as well as Albanian, Hungarian, Pashto, several Sami languages, Esperanto, Ido, Interlingua, and Americanist phonetic notation (and those aboriginal languages of North America whose practical orthography derives from it), use (c) to represent pronounced as //t͡s//, the voiceless alveolar or voiceless dental sibilant affricate. In Hanyu Pinyin, the standard romanization of Mandarin Chinese, the letter represents an aspirated version of this sound, pronounced as //t͡sh//.
Among non-European languages that have adopted the Latin alphabet, (c) represents a variety of sounds. Yup'ik, Indonesian, Malay, and a number of African languages such as Hausa, Fula, and Manding share the soft Italian value of pronounced as //t͡ʃ//. In Azeri, Crimean Tatar, Kurmanji Kurdish, and Turkish, (c) stands for the voiced counterpart of this sound, the voiced postalveolar affricate pronounced as //d͡ʒ//. In Yabem and similar languages, such as Bukawa, (c) stands for a glottal stop pronounced as //ʔ//. Xhosa and Zulu use this letter to represent the click pronounced as //ǀ//. In some other African languages, such as Berber languages, (c) is used for pronounced as //ʃ//. In Fijian, (c) stands for a voiced dental fricative pronounced as //ð//, while in Somali it has the value of pronounced as //ʕ//.
The letter (c) is also used as a transliteration of Cyrillic (ц) in the Latin forms of Serbian, Macedonian, and sometimes Ukrainian, along with the digraph (ts).
As a phonetic symbol, lowercase (IPA|c) is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and X-SAMPA symbol for the voiceless palatal plosive, and capital (C) is the X-SAMPA symbol for the voiceless palatal fricative.
There are several common digraphs with (c), the most common being (ch), which in some languages (such as German) is far more common than (c) alone. (ch) takes various values in other languages.
As in English, (ck), with the value pronounced as //k//, is often used after short vowels in other Germanic languages such as German and Swedish (other Germanic languages, such as Dutch and Norwegian, use (kk) instead). The digraph (cz) is found in Polish and (cs) in Hungarian, representing pronounced as //t͡ʂ// and pronounced as //t͡ʃ// respectively. The digraph (sc) represents pronounced as //ʃ// in Old English, Italian, and a few languages related to Italian (where this only happens before front vowels, while otherwise it represents pronounced as //sk//). The trigraph (sch) represents pronounced as //ʃ// in German.
See main article: article and C (disambiguation).
Add to C with diacritics:
C
Variant forms of the letter have unique code points for specialist use: the alphanumeric symbols set in mathematics and science, voiceless palatal sounds in linguistics, and halfwidth and fullwidth forms for legacy CJK font compatibility. The Cyrillic homoglyph of the Latin (C) has a separate encoding: .