What is the purpose of the letter "c" in the English language?

Question

The sound it makes can be replaced by the letters "k" or "s".
So why does the letter "c" exist?
Isn't it just repetitive?

Answer 1

We inherited it from Latin, along with all the other letters except J,U and W.

J didn't exist until the middle ages. Before that they used the letter I to make the "J": sound. Then in the middle ages somebody got the idea to curve the bottom any time it was used as a hard consonant.

U is tricky because the Latin letter V is actually a U and any time it is encountered it is pronounced like a U or W . The Latin word "silva" (forest) is pronounced "silwa", and "virtus" (manliness, from which we get the word "virtue") was pronounced "weer-toos." So in Latin, "Gaius Julius Caesar" is written "GAIVS IVLIVS CAESAR."

Later, V started to be used as a hard consonant the way we use it now. To indicate that it was to be pronounced as a vowel they started curving the bottom of it, creating our U. When they wanted the W sound as opposed to the U sound, they simply doubled the letter V. As late as the seventeenth century, some of the printing from Shakespeare's time still does that instead of using W (All's VVell That Ends VVell).

Sorry for getting sidetracked. Back to the question asked here, in Latin the letter C never made what we think of as the "ss" sound. C was always a hard consonant, although there is debate over whether it was pronounced like our letter C as in the word "call" or as our 'ch' like "cheese." Depending on which is correct, he name "Caesar" would have been pronounced something like either "Keh-zar" or "Cheh-zar", but never "sea-zer" like we say it now.

As for the letter K, it almost never appears in native Latin words. Mostly it was used for translations of Greek words which may have had a sound that was different enough from the hard C that they felt like it needed a seperate letter. Same goes for X, Y and Z. They were used mostly in loan words from other languages and almost never appear in Latin words. One exception that springs to mind is the word "rex" (king).

Answer 2

Might as well get rid of it. Or use it like the Slavs do: in many Slavic languages, the letter c is either a "ts" sound or a "ch" sound. In romanized Manchu, the letter c is a "ch" sound. Miss Teacher: why use ph when we have f? Because originally only ph occurs from Greek and Phonician. Later, Romans changed this sound into an F sound. Romans also based the letter F on the Ancient Greek letter digamma, which doesn't have the "f" sound back then. Romans made a mess out of the Greek language and called these messed up letters and sounds "unique" letters, which, by the way, if you look up the etymology, isn't unique at all.

Answer 3

You might not believe this, but your question is the tip of the iceberg for phonetic reform zealots. Many different "reforms" have been proposed, and there is a raging debate in some tiny corners of the academy.

Actually, Benjamin Franklin first wrote an alphabetic proposal in 1768, while living in London. “Franklin Fonetic” consisted of 26 letters, but the conventional letterforms c, j, q, w, x, and y were all thrown out.

He thought, as do you, that they were reduntant.

Join the bandwagon!

Answer 4

It is a carryover from Old English I believe. It could have been easily done away with but it just never faded from language. This is my way of answering. Hope it helps.

Answer 5

there's no letter K in latin, so the C was the only way to make the hard "K" sound

Answer 6

I think the letter "C" should make the "th" sound. Cis would make it a letter worc having.

Answer 7

The letter "c" is there so that when you order hot chocolate, you don't end up with cough syrup ("KHOKOLOT!"), or a pair of sneakers ("Shosolate?").

Answer 8

maybe to change the meaning of a similiar word that uses a k or an s? good question

Answer 9

for the "ch" sound... like in "changes"

Can't get that with a hard "k" or a soft "s"... it's a medium-type letter.

Sound it out, kh is not the same as ch.

Answer 10

Life became much easier for me when I stopped expecting people to make sense.