C
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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 Template:IPAc-en), plural cees.[1]
History
| Egyptian | Phoenician gaml |
Western Greek Gamma |
Etruscan C |
Old Latin C (G) |
Latin C |
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"C" comes from the same letter as "G". The Semites named it gimel. The sign is possibly adapted from an Egyptian hieroglyph for a staff sling, which may have been the meaning of the name gimel. Another possibility is that it depicted a camel, the Semitic name for which was gamal. Barry B. Powell, a specialist in the history of writing, states "It is hard to imagine how gimel = "camel" can be derived from the picture of a camel (it may show his hump, or his head and neck!)".[2]
In the Etruscan language, plosive consonants had no contrastive voicing, so the Greek 'Γ' (Gamma) was adopted into the Etruscan alphabet to represent Template:IPA. Already in the Western Greek alphabet, Gamma first took a '
' form in Early Etruscan, then '
' in Classical Etruscan. In Latin, it eventually took the 'Template:Smallcaps' form in Classical Latin. In the earliest Latin inscriptions, the letters 'Template:Smallcaps' were used to represent the sounds Template:IPA and Template:IPA (which were not differentiated in writing). Of these, 'Template:Smallcaps' was used to represent Template:IPA or Template:IPA before a rounded vowel, 'Template:Smallcaps' before 'Template:Smallcaps', and 'Template:Smallcaps' elsewhere.[3] During the 3rd century BC, a modified character was introduced for Template:IPA, and 'Template:Smallcaps' itself was retained for Template:IPA. The use of 'Template:Smallcaps' (and its variant 'Template:Smallcaps') replaced most usages of 'Template:Smallcaps' and 'Template:Smallcaps'. Hence, in the classical period and after, 'Template:Smallcaps' was treated as the equivalent of Greek gamma, and 'Template:Smallcaps' as the equivalent of kappa; this shows in the romanization of Greek words, as in 'ΚΑΔΜΟΣ', 'ΚΥΡΟΣ', and 'ΦΩΚΙΣ' came into Latin as 'Template:Smallcaps', 'Template:Smallcaps' and 'Template:Smallcaps', 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.
Later use
When the Roman alphabet was introduced into Britain, Template:Angbr represented only Template:IPA, and this value of the letter has been retained in loanwords to all the insular Celtic languages: in Welsh,[4] Irish, and Gaelic, Template:Angbr represents only Template:IPA. The Old English Latin-based writing system was learned from the Celts, apparently of Ireland; hence, Template:Angbr in Old English also originally represented Template:IPA; the Modern English words kin, break, broken, thick, and seek all come from Old English words written with Template:Angbr: Template:Lang, and Template:Lang. However, during the course of the Old English period, Template:IPA before front vowels (Template:IPA and Template:IPA) was palatalized, having changed by the tenth century to Template:IPA, though Template:Angbr 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, Template:IPA became palatalized to Template:IPA in Italy and Dalmatia; in France and the Iberian Peninsula, it became Template:IPA. Yet for these new sounds, Template:Angbr was still used before the letters Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr. The letter thus represented two distinct values. Subsequently, the Latin phoneme Template:IPA (spelled Template:Angbr) de-labialized to Template:IPA, meaning that the various Romance languages had Template:IPA before front vowels. In addition, Norman used the letter Template:Angbr so that the sound Template:IPA could be represented by either Template:Angbr or Template:Angbr, the latter of which could represent either Template:IPA or Template:IPA depending on whether it preceded a front vowel letter or not. The convention of using both Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr 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 Template:Lang; even Template:Lang ('knight') was subsequently changed to Template:Lang, and Template:Lang ('thick') was changed to Template:Lang or Template:Lang. The Old English Template:Angbr was also at length displaced by the French Template:Angbr so that the Old English Template:Lang ('queen') and Template:Lang ('quick') became Middle English Template:Lang and Template:Lang, respectively.
The sound Template:IPA, to which Old English palatalized Template:IPA had advanced, also occurred in French, chiefly from Latin Template:IPA before Template:Angbr. In French, it was represented by the digraph Template:Angbr, as in champ (from Latin Template:Lang), and this spelling was introduced into English: the Hatton Gospels, written Template:Circa, 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 Template:Angbr gave way to Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr; on the other hand, Template:Angbr in its new value of Template:IPA appeared largely in French words like processiun, emperice, and Template:Lang and was also substituted for Template:Angbr in a few Old English words, as Template:Lang, in early Middle English milce, blecien. By the end of the thirteenth century, both in France and England, this sound Template:IPA was de-affricated to Template:IPA; and from that time, Template:Angbr has represented Template:IPA before front vowels either for etymological reasons, as in lance, cent, or to avoid the ambiguity due to the "etymological" use of Template:Angbr for Template:IPA, 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 Template:Angbr. 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 Template:Angbr takes on either a "hard" or "soft" value depending on the following letter.
Use in writing systems
English
In English orthography, Template:Angbr generally represents the "soft" value of Template:IPAc-en before the letters Template:Angbr (including the Latin-derived digraphs Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr, or the corresponding ligatures Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr), Template:Angbr, and Template:Angbr, and a "hard" value of Template:IPAc-en before any other letters or at the end of a word. However, there are a number of exceptions in English: "soccer", "celt" and "sceptic" are words that have Template:IPAc-en where Template:IPAc-en would be expected. The "soft" Template:Angbr may represent the Template:IPAc-en sound in the digraph Template:Angbr when this precedes a vowel, as in the words 'delicious' and 'appreciate', and also in the word "ocean" and its derivatives.
The digraph Template:Angbr most commonly represents Template:IPAc-en, but can also represent Template:IPAc-en (mainly in words of Greek origin) or Template:IPAc-en (mainly in words of French origin). For some dialects of English, it may also represent Template:IPAc-en in words like loch, while other speakers pronounce the final sound as Template:IPAc-en. The trigraph Template:Angbr always represents Template:IPAc-en. The digraph Template:Angbr is often used to represent the sound Template:IPAc-en after short vowels, like in "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.
Other languages
In the Romance languages French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, and Portuguese, Template:Angbr generally has a "hard" value of Template:IPA 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 Template:Angbr value is Template:IPA as it is in English. In the Spanish spoken in most of Spain, the soft Template:Angbr is a voiceless dental fricative Template:IPA. In Italian and Romanian, the soft Template:Angbr is Template:IPA.
Germanic languages usually use Template:Angbr for Romance loans or digraphs, such as Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr, but the rules vary across languages. Of all the Germanic languages, only English uses the initial Template:Angbr in native Germanic words like come. Other than English, Dutch uses Template:Angbr the most, for most Romance loans and the digraph Template:Angbr. German uses Template:Angbr in the digraphs Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr, and the trigraph Template:Angbr, but by itself only in unassimilated loanwords and proper names. Danish keeps soft Template:Angbr in Romance words but changes hard Template:Angbr to Template:Angbr. Swedish has the same rules for soft and hard Template:Angbr as Danish, and also uses Template:Angbr in the digraph Template:Angbr and the very common word och, "and". Norwegian, Afrikaans, and Icelandic are the most restrictive, replacing all cases of Template:Angbr with Template:Angbr or Template:Angbr, and reserving Template:Angbr 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 Template:Angbr to represent Template:IPA, 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, Template:IPA.
Among non-European languages that have adopted the Latin alphabet, Template:Angbr 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 Template:IPA. In Azeri, Crimean Tatar, Kurmanji Kurdish, and Turkish, Template:Angbr stands for the voiced counterpart of this sound, the voiced postalveolar affricate Template:IPA. In Yabem and similar languages, such as Bukawa, Template:Angbr stands for a glottal stop Template:IPA. Xhosa and Zulu use this letter to represent the click Template:IPA. In some other African languages, such as Berber languages, Template:Angbr is used for Template:IPA. In Fijian, Template:Angbr stands for a voiced dental fricative Template:IPA, while in Somali it has the value of Template:IPA.
The letter Template:Angbr is also used as a transliteration of Cyrillic Template:Angbr in the Latin forms of Serbian, Macedonian, and sometimes Ukrainian, along with the digraph Template:Angbr.
Other systems
As a phonetic symbol, lowercase Template:Angbr IPA is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and X-SAMPA symbol for the voiceless palatal plosive, and capital Template:Angbr is the X-SAMPA symbol for the voiceless palatal fricative.
Digraphs
There are several common digraphs with Template:Angbr, the most common being Template:Angbr, which in some languages (such as German) is far more common than Template:Angbr alone. Template:Angbr takes various values in other languages.
As in English, Template:Angbr, with the value Template:IPA, is often used after short vowels in other Germanic languages such as German and Swedish (other Germanic languages, such as Dutch and Norwegian, use Template:Angbr instead). The digraph Template:Angbr is found in Polish and Template:Angbr in Hungarian, representing Template:IPA and Template:IPA respectively. The digraph Template:Angbr represents Template:IPA in Old English, Italian, and a few languages related to Italian (where this only happens before front vowels, while otherwise it represents Template:IPA). The trigraph Template:Angbr represents Template:IPA in German.
Other uses
- In the hexadecimal (base 16) numbering system, C is a number that corresponds to the number 12 in decimal (base 10) counting.
- In the Roman numeral system, C represents 100.
- Unit prefix c, meaning one hundredth.
Related characters
Ancestors, descendants and siblings
- 𐤂 : Semitic letter Gimel, from which the following symbols originally derive:
- Template:Lang : Greek letter Gamma, from which C derives
- Phonetic alphabet symbols related to C:
- Template:IPA link : Small c with curl
- ʗ : Stretched c
- 𝼏 : Stretched c with curl – Used by Douglas Beach for a nasal click in his phonetic description of Khoekhoe.[5]
- 𝼝 : Small letter c with retroflex hook – Para-IPA version of the IPA retroflex tʂ.[6]
- ꟲ : Modifier letter capital c – Used to mark tone for the Chatino orthography in Oaxaca, Mexico; used as a generic transcription for a falling tone; also used in para-IPA notation.[7]
- ᶜ : Modifier letter small c[8]
- ᶝ : Modifier letter small c with curl[8]
- ᴄ : Small capital c is used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet.[9]
- Ꞔ ꞔ : C with palatal hook, used for writing Mandarin Chinese using the early draft version of pinyin romanization during the mid-1950s.[10]
Add to C with diacritics:
Derived ligatures, abbreviations, signs and symbols
- © : copyright symbol
- °C : degree Celsius
- ¢ : cent
- ₡ : colón (currency)
- ₢ : Brazilian cruzeiro (currency)
- ₵ : Ghana cedi (currency)
- ₠ : European Currency Unit CE
- : blackboard bold C, denoting the complex numbers
- ℭ : blackletter C
- Ꜿ ꜿ : Medieval abbreviation for Latin syllables con- and com-, and Portuguese -us and -os.[12]
Other representations
Computing
The Latin letters Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr have Unicode encodings Template:Unichar and Template:Unichar. These are the same code points as those used in ASCII and ISO 8859. There are also precomposed character encodings for Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr with diacritics, for most of those listed above; the remainder are produced using combining diacritics.
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 Template:Angbr has a separate encoding: Template:Unichar.
Other
See also
References
External links
Template:EB9 Poster Template:Wikisource1911Enc
- ↑ "C" Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1993); "cee", op. cit.
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