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K

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Template:About Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Pp-semi-vandalism Template:Pp-move Template:Infobox grapheme Template:Latin letter info

K, or k, is the eleventh 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 kay (pronounced Template:IPAc-en), plural kays.<ref>"K" Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1993); "kay," op. cit.</ref>

The letter K usually represents the voiceless velar plosive.

HistoryEdit

Egyptian
hieroglyph D 		Proto-Sinaitic
K 		Proto-Canaanite
kap 		Phoenician
kaph 		Western Greek
Kappa 		Etruscan
K 		Latin
K
<hiero>d</hiero> File:Proto-semiticK-01.svg File:Protokaf.svg File:PhoenicianK-01.svg File:Greek Kappa normal.svg File:EtruscanK-01.svg Latin K

The letter K comes from the Greek letter Κ (kappa), which was taken from the Semitic kaph, the symbol for an open hand.<ref name="OED">"K". The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1977, onlineTemplate:Registration requiredTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> This, in turn, was likely adapted by Semitic tribes who had lived in Egypt from the hieroglyph for "hand" representing /ḏ/ in the Egyptian word for hand, ⟨ḏ-r-t⟩ (likely pronounced {{#invoke:IPA|main}} in Old Egyptian). The Semites evidently assigned it the sound value {{#invoke:IPA|main}} instead, because their word for hand started with that sound.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

K was brought into the Latin alphabet with the name ka /kaː/ to differentiate it from C, named ce (pronounced /keː/) and Q, named qu and pronounced /kuː/. In the earliest Latin inscriptions, the letters C, K and Q were all used to represent the sounds {{#invoke:IPA|main}} and {{#invoke:IPA|main}} (which were not differentiated in writing). Of these, Q was used before a rounded vowel (e.g. Template:Angbr 'ego'), K before /a/ (e.g. Template:Angbr 'calendis'), and C elsewhere. Later, the use of C and its variant G replaced most usages of K and Q. K survived only in a few fossilized forms, such as Kalendae, "the calends".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

After Greek words were taken into Latin, the kappa was transliterated as a C. Loanwords from other alphabets with the sound {{#invoke:IPA|main}} were also transliterated with C. Hence, the Romance languages generally use C, in imitating Classical Latin's practice, and have K only in later loanwords from other language groups. The Celtic languages also tended to use C instead of K, and this influence carried over into Old English.

Use in writing systemsEdit

Pronunciation of Template:Angbr by language
Orthography Phonemes Environment
Template:Nwr (Pinyin) Template:IPAslink
English Template:IPAslink, silent
Esperanto Template:IPAslink
Faroese Template:IPAslink
Template:IPAslink Before Template:Angbr (except Template:Angbr), Template:Angbr, and Template:Angbr
German Template:IPAslink
Ancient Greek romanization Template:IPAslink
Modern Greek romanization Template:IPAslink main}}
Template:IPAslink main}}
Icelandic Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink
Norwegian Template:IPAslink Except before Template:Angbr or Template:Angbr
Template:IPAslink Before Template:Angbr or Template:Angbr
Swedish Template:IPAslink
Template:IPAslink Before Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr
Turkish Template:IPAslink Except before Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr
Template:IPAslink Before Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr

EnglishEdit

The letter usually represents Template:IPAslink in English. It is silent when it comes before Template:Angbr at the start of a stem, e.g.:

  • At the start of a word (knight, knife, knot, know, and knee)
  • After a prefix (unknowable)
  • In compounds (penknife)

English is now the only Germanic language to productively use "hard" Template:Angbr (outside the digraph Template:Angbr) rather than Template:Angbr (although Dutch uses it in loan words of Latin origin, and the pronunciation of these words follows the same hard/soft distinction as in English).Template:Citation needed

Like J, X, Q, and Z, the letter K is not used very frequently in English. It is the fifth least frequently used letter in the English language, with a frequency in words of about 0.8%.

Other languagesEdit

In most languages where it is employed, this letter represents the sound Template:IPAslink (with or without aspiration) or some similar sound.

The Latinization of Modern Greek also uses this letter for Template:IPAslink. However, before the front vowels ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}), this is rendered as Template:IPAblink, which can be considered a separate phoneme.

Other systemsEdit

The International Phonetic Alphabet uses Template:Angbr IPA for the voiceless velar plosive.

Other usesEdit

Template:Main article

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Related charactersEdit

Ancestors, descendants and siblingsEdit

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  • Ʞ ʞ: Turned capital and small k were used in transcriptions of the Dakota language in publications of the American Board of Ethnology in the late 19th century.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Turned small k was also used for a velar click in the International Phonetic Alphabet but its use was withdrawn in 1970.

  • 𝼐: Small capital turned k is used as a click letter<ref name="L220115">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • 𝼃: Small letter reversed k is used as a Voice Quality Symbol (VoQS)<ref name="L220116">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Ligatures and abbreviationsEdit

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Other representationsEdit

Computing Edit

Template:Charmap

OtherEdit

Template:Letter other reps

NotesEdit

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ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

Template:Latin alphabet

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