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K
K k
Usage
Writing systemLatin script
TypeAlphabetic and Logographic
Language of originLatin language
Sound values
In UnicodeU+004B, U+006B
Alphabetical position11
History
Development
Time period~−700 to present
Descendants • K
 •
 •
Sisters
Other
Associated graphsk(x)
Writing directionLeft-to-right
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

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 /ˈk/), plural kays.[1]

The letter K usually represents the voiceless velar plosive.

History

Egyptian
hieroglyph
D
Proto-Sinaitic
K
Proto-Canaanite
kap
Phoenician
kaph
Western Greek
Kappa
Etruscan
K
Latin
K
d
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.[2] 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 /ˈcʼaːɾat/ in Old Egyptian). The Semites evidently assigned it the sound value /k/ instead, because their word for hand started with that sound.[3]

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 /k/ and /ɡ/ (which were not differentiated in writing). Of these, Q was used before a rounded vowel (e.g. ⟨EQO⟩ 'ego'), K before /a/ (e.g. ⟨KALENDIS⟩ '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".[4]

After Greek words were taken into Latin, the kappa was transliterated as a C. Loanwords from other alphabets with the sound /k/ 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 systems

Pronunciation of ⟨k⟩ by language
Orthography Phonemes Environment
Standard Chinese (Pinyin) //
English /k/, silent
Esperanto /k/
Faroese /k/
/tʃʰ/ Before ⟨e⟩ (except ⟨ei⟩), ⟨i⟩, and ⟨j⟩
German /k/
Ancient Greek romanization /k/
Modern Greek romanization /k/ Except before /e, i/
/c/ Before /e, i/
Icelandic //, //, /k/, /c/, /ʰk/, /x/
Norwegian /k/ Except before ⟨i⟩ or ⟨y⟩
/ç/ Before ⟨i⟩ or ⟨y⟩
Swedish /k/
/ɕ/ Before ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨y⟩, ⟨y⟩, ⟨ä⟩, ⟨ö⟩
Turkish /k/ Except before ⟨â⟩, ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨ö⟩, ⟨û⟩, ⟨ü⟩
/c/ Before ⟨â⟩, ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨ö⟩, ⟨û⟩, ⟨ü⟩

English

The letter usually represents /k/ in English. It is silent when it comes before ⟨n⟩ 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" ⟨c⟩ (outside the digraph ⟨ck⟩) rather than ⟨k⟩ (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).[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 languages

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

The Latinization of Modern Greek also uses this letter for /k/. However, before the front vowels (/e, i/), this is rendered as [c], which can be considered a separate phoneme.

Other systems

The International Phonetic Alphabet uses ⟨k⟩ for the voiceless velar plosive.

Other uses

Ancestors, descendants and siblings

Ligatures and abbreviations

Other representations

Computing

Character information
Preview K k
Unicode name LATIN CAPITAL LETTER K LATIN SMALL LETTER K KELVIN SIGN FULLWIDTH LATIN CAPITAL LETTER K FULLWIDTH LATIN SMALL LETTER K
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 75 U+004B 107 U+006B 8490 U+212A 65323 U+FF2B 65355 U+FF4B
UTF-8 75 4B 107 6B 226 132 170 E2 84 AA 239 188 171 EF BC AB 239 189 139 EF BD 8B
Numeric character reference K K k k K K K K k k
EBCDIC family 210 D2 146 92
ASCII[a] 75 4B 107 6B

Other

Notes

  1. ^ Also for encodings based on ASCII, including the DOS, Windows, ISO-8859 and Macintosh families of encodings.

References

  1. ^ "K" Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1993); "kay," op. cit.
  2. ^ "K". The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1977, online(registration required)[dead link]
  3. ^ Gordon, Cyrus H. (1970). "The Accidental Invention of the Phonemic Alphabet". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 29 (3): 193–197. doi:10.1086/372069. JSTOR 543451. S2CID 161870047.
  4. ^ Sihler, Andrew L. (1995). New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin (illustrated ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 21. ISBN 0-19-508345-8. Archived from the original on 9 November 2016. Retrieved 18 October 2016.
  5. ^ Stephen Phillips (4 June 2009). "International Morse Code". Archived from the original on 12 February 2014. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
  6. ^ "Latin Extended-D" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 March 2019. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  7. ^ Everson, Michael; et al. (20 March 2002). "L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet characters for the UCS" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 February 2018. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
  8. ^ Ruppel, Klaas; Aalto, Tero; Everson, Michael (27 January 2009). "L2/09-028: Proposal to encode additional characters for the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
  9. ^ Everson, Michael; Jacquerye, Denis; Lilley, Chris (26 July 2012). "L2/12-270: Proposal for the addition of ten Latin characters to the UCS" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 March 2019. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
  10. ^ Miller, Kirk; Sands, Bonny (10 July 2020). "L2/20-115R: Unicode request for additional phonetic click letters" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 October 2022. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  11. ^ a b Anderson, Deborah (7 December 2020). "L2/21-021: Reference doc numbers for L2/20-266R "Consolidated code chart of proposed phonetic characters" and IPA etc. code point and name changes" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 January 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  12. ^ Miller, Kirk; Ball, Martin (11 July 2020). "L2/20-116R: Expansion of the extIPA and VoQS" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 October 2020. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  13. ^ Everson, Michael; Baker, Peter; Emiliano, António; Grammel, Florian; Haugen, Odd Einar; Luft, Diana; Pedro, Susana; Schumacher, Gerd; Stötzner, Andreas (30 January 2006). "L2/06-027: Proposal to add Medievalist characters to the UCS" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 September 2018. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
  • Media related to K at Wikimedia Commons
  • The dictionary definition of K at Wiktionary
  • The dictionary definition of k at Wiktionary